Patio Furniture
Patio Furniture
How can I keep feral cats from peeing on my patio furniture?
The neighborhood is rife with cats & all of them want to mark my patio as their own. Some of my furniture out there isn’t the stuff you can just hose down either. Any suggestions that don’t include anti-freeze or a pellet gun? Thanks.
Hi there…
Common odours that are effective deterrents for cats are:
Citronella works best for cats as well as citrus scents such as orange or lemon (primarily towards cats), cayenne pepper, coffee grounds, pipe tobacco, lavender oil, lemon grass oil, citronella oil, peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and mustard oil.
“Havahart’s Cat Repellent” uses capsaicin pepper and oil of mustard as its active ingredients. It repels by both taste and odor, has a lemon scent.
Every animal responds differently to each of these. Some will not be phased by them and others will be quite revolting.
For training purposes they are applied on items that are to encourage avoidance behaviours and not for use with a squirt bottle as they could harm the eyes or respiratory system. Test each substance and observe to see which works as a deterrent so that accidental injestion does not occur as some could then be fatal.
Coleus plants can be effective, but every cat responds differently so it is uncertain without experimenting.
Many people believe mothballs work, however they are considered toxic and should NOT be used. Here’s more information on this:
http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/ope/enotes/showarticle.cfm?id=89
MOTHBALLS are toxic to cats which contains the ingredient Naphthalene. Mothballs are approximately twice as toxic as paradichlorobenzene, and cats are especially sensitive to naphthalene. Signs of ingestion of naphthalene mothballs include emesis, weakness, lethargy, brown-colored mucous membranes and collapses. Paradichlorobenzene mothballs may cause GI upset, ataxia, disorientation, and depression. Elevations in liver serum biochemical values may occur within 72 hours of indigestion.
