The prize for the utterly useless goes to ...

[french frank]

But that problem would be removed with my solution.

How do you 'ban cats'?

[Bryn]

How do you 'ban cats'?

Orange peel, scattered around the garden's borders.

[ardcarp]

Pith off??

[french frank]

Orange peel, scattered around the garden's borders.

I did try that once but got fed up with seeing orange peel everywhere. I've also tried Scoot and lion dung. And pigeon spikes

I have now rigged up a net round the perimeter fence. That is 99% effective. But is a bit of an eyesore (but less so than the pigeon spikes). They can apparently manage to push their way in, but the difficulty they encounter when trying to get out again appears to be a deterrent . Especially if I see one and run after it so that they get into a panic.

[Mal]

I tried orange peel, scoot, coffee grains, tea bags, thorny cuttings, chilli powder ... nothing worked. So I gave up gardening, just let the grass grow... that worked!

[french frank]

I tried orange peel, scoot, coffee grains, tea bags, thorny cuttings, chilli powder ... nothing worked. So I gave up gardening, just let the grass grow... that worked!

I also tried old tea-bags soaked in Dettol. That didn't work either (I wondered whether they might mistake little saucers of Dettol solution for milk … but I'm an animal lover: I don't want to harm them). My back yard has no grass, just a border going all round. When the nuisance was at its worst they just used the flagstone to leave their mess on - urban ferals.

[MrGongGong]

How do you 'ban cats'?

[teamsaint]

Have just been told that all seven voted to go to war in Iraq...and have consistently voted for military involvement since then.

You sound surprised , Greenie..........

And some of their views on the withdrawal from Europe are, well , inconsistent.
Chuka, this means you.

[Serial_Apologist]

It doesn't matter to people if they aren't plagued by close neighbours' (numerous) cats, all looking for toilets outside their own gardens

Cats are naturally hygiene-conscious: it's natural for them to bury their waste product. The problem in urban areas - for this if there were no other reason - is the tarmacing or concreting of entire front gardens for off street parking purposes, and then over-compensating by leaving no space for the purpose between plants in the reduced sized flower beds. I've witnessed cats doing their business, then turning around and ineffectively scuffling the artificial surfaces with their hind paws, poor things!

[Serial_Apologist]

Pith off??

No, it's just unappealing.

[Edgy 2]

What about children playing under bushes, and in the long grass, or me taking a short cut! At least you can see it on the pavement...

Some country and local parks (Greater Manchester) encourage dog walkers to flick it with a stick into the undergrowth or long grass.
I don’t personally,I always bag it and even end up bringing it home if there’s no bin available while I’m out.
I suppose kids playing in bushes or long grass are likely to step in other kinds of sh## too,foxes etc.

[oddoneout]

Cats are naturally hygiene-conscious: it's natural for them to bury their waste product. The problem in urban areas - for this if there were no other reason - is the tarmacing or concreting of entire front gardens for off street parking purposes, and then over-compensating by leaving no space for the purpose between plants in the reduced sized flower beds. I've witnessed cats doing their business, then turning around and ineffectively scuffling the artificial surfaces with their hind paws, poor things!

At both my previous house and this one I had to cope with several cats dumping on the lawn, even though bare earth was available, so they hadn't got the 'hygiene' message. I got sick and tired of having the lawn cluttered with flowerpots covering up the noxious mess - impossible to remove every trace so patches had to be left sometimes for weeks for nature to remove the last scraps - and the resultant challenge to grass cutting. And as for the darlings that used to hunt out the holly sprigs or wire mesh put in to protect plants and then dump on top of them...
For now natural wastage and house moves have removed the offenders and I have been enjoying a welcome(and frankly well deserved) respite, but am all too aware there is no certainty of that happy situation continuing.

[Serial_Apologist]

Some country and local parks (Greater Manchester) encourage dog walkers to flick it with a stick into the undergrowth or long grass.
I don’t personally,I always bag it and even end up bringing it home if there’s no bin available while I’m out.
I suppose kids playing in bushes or long grass are likely to step in other kinds of sh## too,foxes etc.

Most of the parks with which I am acquainted have special bins for dog poo. I walk around them in as wide an arc as possible: imagine the poor person whose job it is to empty that thing!

[Serial_Apologist]

At both my previous house and this one I had to cope with several cats dumping on the lawn, even though bare earth was available, so they hadn't got the 'hygiene' message. I got sick and tired of having the lawn cluttered with flowerpots covering up the noxious mess - impossible to remove every trace so patches had to be left sometimes for weeks for nature to remove the last scraps - and the resultant challenge to grass cutting. And as for the darlings that used to hunt out the holly sprigs or wire mesh put in to protect plants and then dump on top of them...
For now natural wastage and house moves have removed the offenders and I have been enjoying a welcome(and frankly well deserved) respite, but am all too aware there is no certainty of that happy situation continuing.

Recently the local foxes around here have taken to pooing outside people's front entrances, at precisely the places where people are most likely to step. Needless to say one always treads in it then brings the horrible stench indoors, smearing it on carpets! I have a theory that Nature is finally getting its own back on us lot and punishing us for creating the ecological crisis that now threatens, for example, the very insects that have kindly acted as free disposal agents for millennia - backed up by your evidence that cats have now begun to forsake long ingrained hygienic habits.

[gurnemanz]

As well as polluting our garden a local cat likes to jump on the bonnet of our car scratching it and leaving dirty paw prints. I suppose it is finding a nice warm place to sit if the car has been recently driven. I realise that nothing will stop cat owners letting their pets roam free. I suppose they don't care about the annoyance caused.