Not a big fan of cats? While cats can be amazing pets, it is understandable if not everyone is a fan of them. Even if you are a cat person, seeing a cat outside your yard wreaking havoc isn’t the most pleasing sight, to say the least. Cats have a tendency to roam around and they aren’t on their best behavior when they visit these places without being invited. If you are annoyed by cats, you can call animal control on these pets as they will spay and neuter them to combat the stray cat overpopulation problem.
But if you don’t want to call animal control on these felines and you want to keep them away, you won’t have to empty your pockets. There are common household items that you can use to keep these unwanted guests away. They are cost-effective and easy to implement. You don’t have to harm them or chase them away with a stick to keep them off your yard. We will discuss very easy and practical ways on how to keep cats away in this guide that you can start to implement right away.
Why Are They A Problem?
Before getting into the ways on how to keep cats away from your property, let’s take a look at why exactly are they a problem. Cats love to mark their territory by spreading their scent and spraying. If they visit your garden, they are most likely to urinate in your garden. This will attract them to keep coming back and it will also encourage another stray to check your place. They can dig and mess up your flower beds if you don’t take the right precautions. Of course, there is no better bird watcher than cats. If you are doing your gardening right, you will attract a lot of small insects and birds.
Roaming cats kill about 140 million songbirds every year. And, the cats in your surroundings always has an eye on them and are always ready to attack them. These are carnivores. Their feces contain parasites that are generally absent in plant manure. Since most of us plan to eat the food we grow, this is a great cause of concern as it may have negative consequences on our health. For all these reasons, you definitely want to keep those cats away even if you like their company. So, let’s look at the most practical methods that you can use to your advantage if you want to know how to keep cats away.
Before we get into the home remedies to keep cats away, it is important that you determine the point of entry of the cats. If you think there is one particular spot or area that they are coming from then you need to do remedies in that area. If you think there are multiple areas where they could be coming from, then you can scatter these ingredients at the places to maximize your chances of the home remedies working most effectively. Also keep in mind that if there are cats that have already visited your place, they are likely to have sprayed in the area.
So before applying the remedies, you need to get the smell of urine away. White vinegar is extremely effective to get rid of the scent of cat piss. White vinegar and water need to be mixed in the ratio 2:1 and spray this mixture on the affected areas. Once we take care of the small, we can start applying the home remedies. This will make sure those cats never return to the forbidden place.
Citrus
Cats hate the smell of citrus. They are likely to avoid places that have the smell of citrus. So, put the lemons and oranges you eat to use and place the peels of these fruits at the point of entry. If you think there are multiple areas they could come from, then scatter the peels and spread them in areas that are most disturbed by them. This is likely to keep those cats away. But remember to check back frequently when you are using this method.
The time or a good rain can take away the odor of these fruits and your place will be open to cats again. So, you will need to replace these deterrents when you see their smell fading. This is one of the methods of how to keep cats away from certain areas.
Use Their Power of Smelling Against Them
Cats are very powerful at smelling things and we can use that power against them. Just like citrus, there are many other things that they can’t stand the smell of, and by placing them where we don’t want the cats to be, we can keep them away. Coffee grounds and red pepper flakes also are great home remedies deterrents. There also certain scented oils that cats hate. They especially hate lavender and peppermint. You can mix these oils with water in a ration of 1:3 and keep the mixture in a spray bottle.
Then, spray this mixture to the places where the cats tend to visit the most. Again, you will need to reapply this time to time because the smell will fade away with time. They also hate the smell of mint and strong mint related odors. So, you can use menthol and wintergreen to keep them away from your property. They hate these mints for good reason because ingesting them can cause them to vomit or even lead to diarrhea.
So, there you have it. Those were the simple and cost-effective methods you can start using to keep those unwanted felines at bay. Now you know how to keep cats away. So, now you know that there are many things you can do to keep these cats away without causing them any harm. The methods shared with you were humane and low-cost. Most of the ingredients mentioned should already be available in your home. Now that you have read this post, it is recommended that you use any of these methods to cat-proof your property without causing any harm to them.
Related:
