cat problem

I have the same I find nothing really works except the hose pipe when I see one digging.

Get a dog?

a harmless but painfull bb gun

There is no dead cert way of preventing cats from being a nuisance in your garden. There are various things you can do which may be worth trying, depending on budget, how much time you want to spend on measures etc.

The RSPB advocate a deterrent called CATWatch ( It is spelt exactly like that). It costs £50 ish and can be bought from their website. It is motion activated and emits a shriek that many cats don't like but humans can't hear it. If you garden is over a certain size/ has sharp angles/ secluded corners you might need more than one. From what I gather it helps to a worthwhile extent for many people but can take a few weeks to work. Also a few cats seem to be immune to it, so if there is one particular cat that is causing problems and it isn't bothered by the noise then it will not be any help! There are no guarantees unfortunately.

There is another device called the scarecrow which is motion activated and I think is attached to your hose. It can't be used when it is freezing outside. I think this edition is supposed to work best, there are other jet scarers that are a lot cheaper but the reviews tend to be quite bad for them.

If you google the RSPB website you should find the Catwatch, and similarly of you put Scarecrow cat deterrent into google you should find suppliers.

There are other less expensive suggestions on the RSPB website for anti cat measures ( all legal).

Zoopoo, or crushed mothballs will do the trick.