I used to work at a preschool. We had a sand box for the kids to play in. If we forgot to put the cover on the local cats used it...yuk...someone told me that cats do not like citrus. I used to grind up all the orange peels and we would scatter them in the sand. Lemons really work better as they are more tart. Might give it a try. You have to keep putting it out every so often or it loses it's scent. Maybe a lemon scented furniture polish sprayed out there would work too. Good luck..my brother's neighbor has several cats..and they come over to his yard...he used the lemon peels and it did help deter them..
Originally Posted by Tropical
I first want to say that I am not complaining and that I wish no harm to the cats. I know many of you have cats as pets and you love them. I would like to know how I can humanely deter cats that wander my neighborhood from using our landscaping as their litter box. They also use our sidewalks and back porch for that purpose. Another concern is that they kill birds that make their nests in our trees. I know that is natural for cats. I have spoken to our neighbors and they tell me they either don't let their pets outside or that you can not put cats on a leash. Someone is obviously letting their pets outside especially at night when they sit outside our windows and cry. I don't understand the leash theory because if you can put dogs on a leash it seems you could do the same for cats. Wouldn't this be safer for the cats? There is a a pet leash law in our county. We have a six foot privacy fence that the cats just climb and jump over into our yard.
Any help at all would be appreciated, I really DO NOT want to call animal control because these cats are someones' pets. All of the methods I have found on Google seem harmful. I hope I have not upset anyone with this question. I simply thought that cat lovers would know the best way to treat them. Thank you. :)