Stopping cats using my drive as a toilet

[Mortartube]

Hi,

I have a concrete drive and pathway and the local cat population use it as a communal loo. This has been a fairly long standing problem that I have been unable to stop.  Can anyone advise a way to stop this? I've tried a number of methods that are only partly succesful for a short period of time.I am looking for any ideas that deters the cats but doesn't harm them in any way.

[tetherend]

Similar to a recent question.  Cats don't like orange or lemon peel and if you leave bits of peel around the driveway this should deter them.  Pet shops sell something called "Cats Keep Off" (or something close to that).

[jean88]

does this method also work with dogs? a local dog has been using my lawn as a communal loo for a while now.

thanks

[clarabel82]

At my old work they sold that Keep Cats Off, someone brought it back complaining that rather than deterring the cats in her garden, they were postively rolling round on it, so purchase with caution!

[smudge]

Unfortunately, some time back, we had a very inconsiderate dog owner who allowed their mutt to sit & crap just inside ours & other neighbour's drives.

Fortunately, we managed to find a product called 'Get Off' from Pets at Home, which is a cat/dog repellent. It  comes in a spray or crystal form & it works too! 

Good luck!

[Ralph]

I like the mothball solution in andy hughes' answer. I'd heard that pepper works well since cats usually sniff the area before they do their business. So if there's pepper (which might wash away easily) or mothballs (which might not) where they usually go, then they might be more reluctant go after a pungent sniff!

[robber1]

Cats normally dig a hole to do this in, much to the annoyance of garden lovers. I just cant imagine a "local cat population" doing what is not in their nature. May I suggest that what you are seeing is hedgehog "dooings". They look the same as cats "dooings" ! I get it on our patio too.

[Miss Zippy]

You can buy sonic repellents; they emit a sound only audible to cats and which is unpleasant to them,  every 30 seconds or so.They're complete harmless to cats of course.  Not sure of the precise name but my neighbour bought one from B&Q for �30 and is impressed with it.

[Philtaz]

Failing that, get yourself a Super Soaker water pistol and sit and wait for the little b*ggers!  Fun and humane.

[Ducati]

Interesting solutions - unfortunately, I have one of those 'cat ladies' that lives reasonably near me which means I have a lot of cat sh1t all over my garden, and, frankly, am getting very p155ed off with it.

 

Now, as somebody who considers cats to be as close to vermin without actually being vermin, I have toyed with the idea of killing the little b45tards with poison, but my wife has always talked me around (I was very close to it one day when i saw my 18 month old daughter pick up a freshly laid cat turd - and i know it was a cat because i saw it do it, but couldn't get my turd shoveller quick enough).

 

So perhaps I'll try a more humane approach (although if I do ever get close to one mid dump, and I know this will meet with tuts of disaproval, I will kick the little b45tard as far as I possibly can - and to this day I can still get a rugby ball through the uprights from nearly halfway!).

[5029]

Mortar this wont help you much as you are asking about your driveway, but one way to stop animals doing it in your garden/flowerbed is to put crunched up egg shells in the garden - it annoys their feet but doesnt do them any damage and they are unlikely to return

[Mortartube]

Thanks everybody. Lots of ideas to try, from mothballs to rugby kicks.................... I think I'll start with the mothballs.

[TEAK36]

Im with Ducati on this, bloody vermin.Perhapds an air rifle with telescopic sights might do the trick (only kidding).

Seriously, I have heard that the orange/lemon peel answer works very well.

[Wackerplate]

One apparently effective solution that I saw on a garden programme a number of years ago was to purchase some lion dung (yes it is possible) and spread that about. It isn't permanent as the smell wears off but it can help reduce the problem in the long term. It works because cats are territoral and at some level the house cat smells the lion dung and get scared of the possibility of a lion in the area - as indeed I would.  

[EuanC]

Hide the toilet roll !!

[Otrere]

Ducati - If I came and cr4pped on your drive would you shoot me too?

[Salli]

We had a similar problem - at it's height we were clearing upto 15 piles a day from the drive/lawn.

Having tried just about everything (citrus spray, orange peel, pepper sprays, Scent-Off, Scat-a-cat granules, and even half filled lemonade bottles) we invested in a battery powered sonic device - �29.99 from a garden centre, which has an infra-red trigger. We saw an immediate difference and are now down to clearing at most one pile every couple of months, usually after the batteries have run down or we've left the grass to grow long. Cats still venture up the drive but now break out into a full speed run, much to our amusement.

[petesgrayz]

Every morning I wake to find a German Shepherd crapping on my lawn.  Yesterday the dirty ****** had a dog with him.  Seriously though, try one of those sprays, I think they are called 12 bores.  Good luck. 

[Compostella]

since you added the last sentence; sorry I can't help you