Cat Scent Cleanup

There's something called Bitter Apple that repels both dogs and cats. Go to a large pet store (do you have Petsmart or Petco in Sacto?) and see if they have it, or another product that's meant to be sprayed on shrubbery and generally outside. That may deter them... and it's probably easier than washing the entire outside of your home with a mild detergent and warm water!

Hey kwazie,

I am familiar with your area and understand that scent marking can be a real problem. Not wanting to discount what Wy has told you, I would not suggest using Bitter Apple as a scent deterrent for cats at all. Bitter Apple was designed more as a chew deterrent...to keep pets from chewing on and thus destroying plants, furniture, themselves even and is actually not effective at all as a scent deterrent. Sorry Wy!

IF you know for a fact where the night cats prowl and get into their fights and such you can use a product very simply called Coyote Urine and that is exactly what it is. I know Sac has a good many feed stores and also a good many garden stores where you can pick this up. It doesn't take much as the urine scent is pretty strong. There are also packages of scent applicators that you can purchase (they basically look like toothpicks with cotton balls on the end) The urine can be applied to these and then they can be set in different places around your outdoors where you know the cats frequent.

Coyote urine will in an odd way "supersede" any cat territory. It fools the cats into believing that a coyote has marked this territory as its own and the cats will NOT want to cross into that territory at all.

The coyote "marking" that you will be doing will need to be repeated a few times so the scent remains fresh in that area for awhile until the cats get the idea not to even go there. It's a good time of year to do this as there is not much chance of rain in Sac during the summer...at least I hope your rains have finally stopped! It was still raining in mid May when I was last there and that was very odd!

The drawback....as I mentioned, the coyote urine is pretty strong and with the heat in Sac in the summertime, it could be over-applied and smell really bad for awhile. Use it sparingly, but repeat often!

Good luck and I hope that helps!

Thanks, Lady J. I'm glad someone knew a better way! And there's no need to apologise; I've learned something today.