Cats can be super useful in gardens as they keep certain pests like rats, rabbits and moles away.
However, some households see cats as a pest – particularly those who spend so much time attending to their plants, flowers and lawns.
Cats have a tendency to start digging in flower beds, use plants as soft napping spots – or even use them as their very own toilet.
Keeping them out of the garden and protecting your plants can be very tricky, but one gardening enthusiast thinks she may have found how to do just that – and that’s through smells.
Cats have noses very different from humans, so any smell that may feel ordinary to us could feel unbearable and nasty to a cat.
Taking to the Gardening Hints and Tips Facebook page, Sheenaugh McMahon noted that all you need are tea bags and eucalyptus oil.
Tea bags and eucalyptus oil have strong smells that can repel cats. They’re a good way to secure your garden from cats and other pests.
She said: “I had a problem with cats using my gravel front garden as a little tray.
“I was told to use used tea bags soaked in eucalyptus oil. I tried it and it works a treat so anyone with this problem too, try it and cats will stop pooing in your garden. Apparently, they hate the smell.”
This hack’s effectiveness depends on how you use it to repel cats. Different tea types will have varied results, but as they have a strong smell, all of them will keep cats away.
Tea bags are very cheap to pick up in supermarkets and Eucalyptus oil isn’t too pricy either. A pack of 40 tea bags retail for only 40p in Asda and eucalyptus oil costs £1.11 at Amazon.
Gardening expert David Domoney also agrees with this tip saying that it has been “very effective” for him to deter cats. However, instead of soaking the tea bag in eucalyptus oil, he recommends using a muscle heat spray.
He said: “One of the things that has worked effectively for me in the past is to save tea bags and spray them with a muscle heat spray, like Deep Heat.
“The tea leaves absorb the strong odour. Place them around the spot in the garden where the cats damage the plants.”
QVC’s gardening expert Richard Jackson agreed, but also suggested adding a sprinkling of soil on top to disguise them. According to the experts, this method should work for at least two weeks, even if it rains.
If you want to keep them out of the garden altogether, David recommends taking note of where the cat is coming into their garden. Because they are creatures of habit, they tend to enter and leave through the same spot.
So if you have a specific hole in a fence or hedge which they use, the expert recommends blocking it so they can’t get through.
