Mothballs

A friend saves plastic forks from wherever they use them, and puts them upside down in her planters. It works and doesn't show when the plants get larger.

Mothballs are poisonous. Keep using the Repel. It needs to be applied daily until the cats learn to stay away. You can also try double sided sticky tape.

From the ASPCA Poison Control Center:

"Mothballs
Did You KnowÂMothballs can be potentially toxic to dogs, cats and other animals, particularly those containing an ingredient known as naphthalene. Some mothball formulations may alternatively contain an insecticide known as dichlorobenzene, which is somewhat less toxic than naphthalene. However, it can still cause stomach upset and potentially even neurologic effects, if large enough amounts are consumed. In 2005, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center managed close to four dozen cases involving animals exposed to mothball products."

Here is a link that might be useful: Mothballs: ASPCA Poison Control Center

Forgot to add that you can also try lining your beds with tin foil.

I have tried rose bush trimmings and that worked. Just cut pieces about 6" long and stick them upright in that area. If you don't have them the forks sound like they would work too.
Good luck,
P2

If I'm not mistaken, Repel is a bitter-tasting spray, so unless something is eating your plants (bunny, deer, squirrel) that wouldn't help.

Best to make it hard for them to dig. Chicken wire covered with a little mulch, rocks, etc. Cats don't like a citrus smell, so some orange peel wouldn't hurt.

I had that problem with large barrel pots. I just saved all the shrub and tree twig and small branch clippings and sprinkle them around. They can't dig through the sticks because they poke them.

I use six to ten inch strips of barbed wire in my flower gardens, laid on the ground in front and underneath the plants.
The animals only try once to get into my beds then they go elsewhere.

Lori

Oh, how I feel your pain. We had kittens one year. They tromped all my flowers down, all the day lillies, they were terrible! I tried so many ways to get them to go elsewhere. The best thing I found was chicken wire on the ground. They can't dig on that stuff and you can LIGHTLY cover it with mulch. To much mulch and they will relieve themselves anyway. Cats appearantly hate mothballs, so I can't imagine them even tasting something they detested. You could make a green mesh bag and put mothballs in it to keep them contained if you had dogs or kids around.

All I have found that works is a squirt bottle of water. When I catch them in it, I grab the bottle and squirt the cats.

Please don't use barbed wire. The cat doesn't know it is doing anything wrong and will tear its pad badly on barbed wire. Use chicken wire or something simliar.

You can also use a sprinkler set on a motion detector.

I had cats going in my kids' sandbox . Then I
cut up some oranges and grapefruits and stuck them in the sandbox. It worked for me- Cats absolutely hate the smell of citrus,this may work for you. I've heard of using mothballs, but I wouldn't use them around kids or pets. Good luck!

Could you use a cayenne mixture? or a cayenne/pepper mixture? In a spray on the ground? Just a thought

Question:

Why should dogs be required to be on a leash when outside their own fenced yArd ...

... but not cats?

Yes, dogs can bite. But you can't put a muzzle on a dog, then let him/her run at large. Gotta be on a leash ... with a hooman bean on 'tother end.

But it seems to me that another major problem is associated with the other end (no, of the dog ... not the leash, silly!) and is quite similar/about the same ... except for the matter of quantity, related to a large dog.

Farmer Dad used to say that he could handle someone shi!!ing on him, but that what got him riled up ...

... was when they rubbed it in!

(Farmers are used to handling that four-letter-word).

ole joyful

P.S. What would happen if you suggested to the owner that you were considering returning her cats' production, as you didn't feel it very considerate of you to hold on to your neighbour's property.

Maybe in one of those controversial plastic grocery bags ... hung on the handle of her front door. Or ... (second time, if the problem persists) ring the bell, and offer it to her in person, maybe??

Second suggestion, for later ... wonder how she'd like to have it smeared on front door/picture window/car windshield (directly in driver's field of vision, of course)?

o j ... occasional disturber of the barnyard by-product (a four-letter-word)