Neighborhood cats shit right in the middle of my lawn. It stinks and the robot lawn mover makes it even worse.

I do NOT like cats, and this is not helping.

What works to keep them from shitting on my lawn?

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    1 year ago

    motion activated sprinkler

    predator pee scent in your lawn

    hot pepper flakes around your lawn

    put trap boxes out with bait inside, catch the cat

    • Tosti@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      Especially the last point. Bring it to a shelter 2 counties over.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        1 year ago

        depending on your jurisdiction, but especially in rural and farm areas you may be permitted to cull feral animals on your property.

        In ecologically sensitive areas, (basically Islands, the Americas, Australia) cats are a invasive species, and put local small animal species in extreme danger. There may be a government program to assist in your effort. i.e. Australia’s Cat Free Kangroo Island initiative https://conservationbytes.com/2021/05/20/killing-feral-cats-quickly-and-efficiently/

          • Khotetsu@lib.lgbt
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            1 year ago

            And I want to cull people like you. A shame we don’t always get what we want.

            Cats should be kept indoors for a variety of reasons, including that they’re one of the largest threats to native species in the world and that they live longer indoors anyways due to the lack of picking up parasites and are at no risk of being preyed upon by larger predators. But to say you want to murder animals en masse just because they don’t understand property laws and do their business outside like… some sort of animal would is absurd, bordering on psychopathic. Might as well sit on your porch with a shotgun on your lap in case somebody’s dog decides to pee on your bushes.

          • jet@hackertalks.com
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            1 year ago

            Check your local laws regarding your ability to cull nuisance animals on your property. If these animals are being fed by your neighbors that may cause relationship drama that is worse then a cat shitting in your lawn.

            When I lived in the country side, we never had feral cat problems, if your cat ran outside, it would disappear ( probably eaten by cayotes ) in a few days.

          • purahna@lemmygrad.ml
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            1 year ago

            kinda deranged that you want to put a family through the loss of having their pet executed because you are minorly inconvenienced but I guess you’ll probably reap what you sow

            • jet@hackertalks.com
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              1 year ago

              To be fair, if the cat lives outside, its nobody’s pet. It’s a roving bird murdering machine.

            • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Kinda deranged that people kill many billions of animals annually by letting their cats roam outside. They made their bed.

          • socsa@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            In most places which have these laws, any cat which is allowed to roam free is considered feral unless it has a collar or something.

        • constantokra@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          It’s pretty amazing to me how angry people get about dogs pooping in their yards and owners not picking it up when anyone with a cat who ever lets it out makes zero effort to keep that cat from pooping in other people’s yards and most people don’t seem to mind.

          The older the cat, the less they bury their excrement. Sometimes it’s just enough to obscure it so you step in it. Sometimes it’s notburried at all. It’s so much more offensive to me than dog poop that I have to assume there’s some sort of genetic marker that some of you lack that makes me smell it as one of the most foul smells i’ve ever experienced. I’ve lived next to someone with 20 some cats and barely any yard and they made it completely impossible to enjoy my yard at all, and unlike dogs putting up a fence does nothing.

  • chepox@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Place a box with sand near the area you want to protect. Move it further away a feet or so by day. In 10 days that cat will be shitting wherever you guided it to. Leave the box and or the sand. Done.

    Low cost. Low effort. No animal cruelty. No dealing with neighbor. Effective.

  • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    A motion activated or retomely deployable sprinkler system would work wonders. No need for drenching the critter, just interrupt or annoy the cat. After a few forced baths, the cat would associate shitting on your lawn with getting wet and just move to safer grounds.

  • iquanyin@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    @PlutoniumAcid i’m 64, i’ve lived in over a hundred different places, including rural and suburbs with lawns. literally never ever had this problem. not even when i owned cat! so it seems you’re cursed. you need to find the witch or wizard you offended and make amends.

    i’m really amazed this would even happen, as cat prefer to bury their waste so they like places they can dig miles more than lawns. i wonder: did your u maybe see one cat, once, poop and now you think all poop is cat poop? because dogs are a lot more likely to be doing this regularly than cats.

    • Turkey_Titty_city@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      yeah, cats bury their shit. they don’t shit on grass and leave it exposed.

      only time cats shit in the open is to prove a point. OP probably pissed off this cat

    • downpunxx@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I wouldn’t trust anyone whose lived in a hundred different places about anything at all

      • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Can you explain this a bit? I am having a hard time understanding how living in different places would make someone less informed. I would assume the opposite by default, but I’m interested in your thought process.

        • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I’m guessing that their thought process is something akin to, if they have had to hop THAT much, their judgement can’t be good since if it were, they would have settled before reaching the high number of 100. I don’t agree, but that’s my guess

  • soloner@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Look up ultrasonic animal repeller. I’ve never used one, but it may work for you. It makes a high pitch noise that should stop cats and other animals from wandering into your yard.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Are you sure it’s cats?

    Have you seen the cats pooping or just sniffing the poop?

    Depends where you are, but foxes would be a more likely bet. Fox poop stinks too - really foul stuff. Cat poop generally is quite inocuos once it drys out, although a lawn mowing bot slicing it up would make sense for making it worse.

    I have never heard of cats pooping in the middle of a lawn before. Normally they like private and safe spaces to poop as they’re vulnerable when pooping, and normally they’re fastidious about burying it where possible.

    iF it really is cats, then maybe get a gravel section next to your lawn that they might prefer to go in? A litter box essentially.

  • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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    1 year ago

    Partially jokey answer: An automatic sprinkler and a motion detector

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElcviGYMb3U

    Serious answer: I don’t think there’s much… I used to have a problem with cats pissing on my bicycle (which used to be parked outside) and the only thing that would keep them away was a bike alarm - at the expense of mine and my neighbors’ sleep. Covering the bike made no difference, they just pissed on the cover instead. The fix ended up being just parking my bike inside.

    If you let the garden get a little bit overgrown, do they still come and drop their shit there?

  • clover@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    Put in a sand pit somewhere you are ok with them shitting. Training domesticated cats is an undertaking that in my limited experience comes down to giving them an option they’d prefer over their current behavior. Trying to dissuade a feral cat from shitting where they please humanely seems like a loosing battle.

    • PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I am OK with them shitting not on my property. If I’d wanted cat shit, I’d get a cat. I don’t, so I don’t. These aren’t feral cats.

      • Richie030@unilem.org
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        1 year ago

        The irony being that cats don’t shit in their own gardens, best way to stop getting cat shit in your garden is to get a cat.

    • FiveMacs@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s best to just trap them and relocate them far far away. Or bring them to whatever shelter will sell these cats to more families that will then have more outdoor cats.

  • meanmon13@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    You need to make your lawn less appealing than your neighbors. They might not care as much or even notice the cats shitting in their yard. A plastic owl works with birds… maybe a lawn ornament of a predator would do

  • jim@lazysoci.al
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    1 year ago

    I have a section of dirt next to my driveway. All the other suggestions here worked for a few days max, but the solution ended up being laying chickenwire fencing on the ground. Cats won’t do that on ground they can’t dig.