My garden smells of fox piss and is covered in cat shit. Sad truths. I don't own a cat, but one or more local ones have decided that a bit of clear and very dry ground underneath a conifer makes an excellent litter tray. Bastards. I cleared this area of the lower branches last year as a place to sit in the shade, but of course it reeks and so now I don't sit there. It is just so disgusting. Nothing will grow there as the soil is sucked dry by the conifer, so the usual scented plants are a non-started. I could cover the area with potted plants but that defeats the object of having cleared it. I just don't know how to deter them. It seems that once they have discovered the area and made it their own they will keep coming back.
I don't own a fox either, but my garden is the main thoroughfare for a family of them that live under an old shed at the bottom of the garden that backs onto ours. In the winter time when the grass is long you can see the 'paths' that they create by taking the same route diaginally across my garden time and again. Unfortunately this path is not the only thing they leave behind. The problem is not so much the bin raids (used nappies from a neighbour a favourite...), though that does happen from time to time, it is the marking of their territory. Well, my territory. And as if the acrid smell of fox piss everywhere is not enough they seem to delight in crapping on things that I use. Here is their latest gift.
The accuracy and delicacy of the placement would be quite something were it not so grim. The sprinkler is something I pick up and move around the garden so it must have my scent on it, and somehow this acts as a trigger to the foxes to try and instead make it their own. They literally shit on my belongings. Or in the outbuildings if I am stupid enough to leave a door open. This isn't very nice, but actually I don't think it's as bad as the piss. I can clear crap up and dispose of it, but urine is a different proposition and can't be got rid of. And they spray urine everywhere - a unique and persistent aroma, and one that it is next to impossible to get off your hands once you have touched it.
I like foxes as it happens. Not cats, they have no place here, but foxes yes. Foxes are cool, and if they would just trot through my garden without doing anything that would be absolutely fine. But they don't, they leave it a stinking mess that I then find unpleasant to spend time in. Maybe this is their plan, to deter other animals including me. Pretty rude given it is my garden and not theirs, but I get it. I have one question though.
Why doesn't it deter the sodding cats?
A number of those ultra sonic animal deterrents dotted about the Wantage sewage farm should work.
ReplyDeleteI installed two yesterday Ric. Fingers crossed.
DeleteThey do work. I have a part time/semi retirement job as a gardener and insisted in one case that unless ultra sonic deterrents were installed, I'd never come back. Such is the level of ire that manifests when cat shit finds a way under a full face visor when using a high powered strimmer. 🙄Yes! Right in the gob! 😳
ReplyDeleteAs a guy who works with readily available chemicals, try Deepio. I use it on walls (and burnt pans) in the kitchen at work, but I seem to recall reading that a liberal spraying of treasured garden objects should make them less appealing to the likes of foxes and their kin. We order ours in bulk from Brakes, but I suspect you can buy it from select hardware stores etc if you shop around. But even if it doesn't deter the foxes, your sprinkler will look lovely and shiny again :)
ReplyDeleteI will look it up. I have to say though that these ultrasound things seem to be working at the moment. Then again we have been using the garden a lot more recently and perhaps our presence reduces theirs.
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