By Maca
United Kingdom 
Please, please, someone help me! I know there has been questions asked about cats defecating in gardens before, but I am now at the end of my tether, and constantly near to tears. We put down a new lawn last year, have had problems with toadstools, hopefully that is near to ending, but a cat or cats are constantly using it as a toilet, faeces nearly daily. We have bought a cat scarer, not effective yet, I have been spraying with a lawn restorer, not helping, does anyone know if the gel stuff that can be bought will kill the lawn?
14 Jun, 2010
Answers
Hi Bamboo, no the lawn is not patchy, I have been cleaning the effected areas with a very diluted version of detergent before spraying the lawn reviver down to the roots. There are parts where it has now gone to brown patches where I have not realised that urine has probably been. Whatever it is it has been scratching the grass, we do not leave the grass above 6". I am getting to the stage where I will have to stay up all night to identify the intruder. Saying that, it has happened around 9.00am-10.00am once. Also it has happened in the rear garden where we know that a couple of cats have been climbing over the fence. I don't have anything personal against cats, but feel that the owners should be held responsible in some way. I have not heard of any reports of foxes in our area. Thanks for your response.
14 Jun, 2010
I don't know where you live, but we have gazillions of foxes all round the country, so I'd be surprised if you didn't have any. If you think the brown patches are from urine, that's much more likely to be a fox rather than a cat. Any cat deterrents such as pepperdust, mothballs, etc., have to be renewed within a couple of days, but I have a friend who has a sprinkler system wired up to a passive infra red movement detector, so that when any animal ventures into his garden, the sprinkler comes on automatically - this method has proved the most successful I've come across for keeping cats away. Not sure how effective for foxes though, they're quite used to getting rained on.
14 Jun, 2010
Well I suppose its an all night job, if I can stand the boredom of staring out of a window at night. I won't be able to admire my bedding plants that thankfully are blooming.
14 Jun, 2010
Previous question
Need some more info, Maca - the only time I've known cats to regularly use a lawn as a toilet is under two circumstances; one, when the lawn is thin and/or patchy, with loose, friable soil suitable for scratching; two, when the lawn has been allowed to get too long (6 inches or more), when tomcats will come and do their business in it. Does either of those apply to your lawn?
Another thing is, any faeces should be cleared as soon as possible, and the area flushed or cleaned to try to remove all traces.
Other thing that springs to mind is, foxes will use a lawn, even when its mown close and isn't thin or patchy, they just do it on the top, so are you sure it's cats?
14 Jun, 2010