The Best Inexpensive DIY CAT REPELLENT
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Tired of being frustrated with cats messing around your garden or home? Make a friendly but efficient natural cat repellent in just a few minutes! This cat deterrent is made with a handful of few simple, affordable ingredients and won’t hurt the environment!
Homemade Cat Repellent
Even if you’re a big cat lover as myself, sometimes your beloved pets can be a huge pain, especially when messing around the garden, ruining all the plants and your hard work and spreading “unfriendly” odors. Deter cats safely with a natural cat repellent that is safe and harmless for your cat, your family, home or the environment!
Or maybe you need to keep your cat away from dangerous areas? It’s in their nature to explore but…curiosity killed the cat, they say! Stop them from using your garden as their own personal litter box with this simple, non toxic homemade cat repellent. With this easy and natural cat repellent, you can safely set boundaries even the most stubborn cat will eventually learn to respect!
For the outdoors, try planting flowers and plants that smell awful to them, like lavender, rue, geranium, penny-royal or lemon thyme. They will hate it and leave the garden alone, and you will have a nice smell all around the area. Double win!
Other outdoor cat repellent solutions:
- Adding string or metal wire along the top of your fence. It’s an awful surface to walk on, so they will learn to avoid going there. Double it with an essential oil they hate and you’re done;
- Tie a disposable aluminium pan somewhere in your garden. The noise it makes while the wind blows will make them feel very uncomfortable;
- If you feel like investing a little in your garden, a motion-activated sprinkler will activate itself when any little furry intruder passes by, and they will hate the water spray. This is also a good, harm free way to keep raccoons, skunks, rats or other wildlife away from your yard.
- Some people swear by using repellent sprays made of peppers (like cayenne pepper or hot paprika), garlic and vinegar.
- I recently started to experiment with another option: used coffee grounds spread in the mulch in the garden. It seems it work as long as the coffee grounds are fresh.
As for indoors, with my DIY cat repellent you will love knowing all of your curtains and soft furniture are safe from claws or teeth, especially if you are a lodger and not the owner of your house. Cats need something to scratch on constantly because their claws keep growing (such as our nails do) and will use everything they think appropriate. Doesn’t matter YOU don’t find it a good idea.
In fact, everything you don’t think of as a good idea for a cat’s toy or scratching post, it will be the best in their mind. So in addition to using this repellent to train their bad behavior, it’s better to show them around and tell them the do’s and don’t’s (even though it doesn’t always work because cats do whatever they please! After all, they’re the owners of the house, right?).
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To attract them to use a real cat’s scratching post or toy, you can always use a catnip spray or dry catnip. They will be attracted to the smell and may begin to use what they are allowed to, leaving your couch alone.
What smell will repel cats?
In addition to citrus, other scents most cats hate are lavender, rosemary or thyme, so you can try switching them until you find the one that works best for your cat. One of my cats, for example, can stay in a rosemary or geranium bush for hours and cannot be bothered by the smell. Most cats would, though. I found him munching on geranium leaves, so I think he’s broken…
All cats are different and will react to this natural cat deterrent spray differently. That’s why I wanted to try a mild approach for my DIY cat repellent and I used only natural ingredients that I know cats normally hate, like citrus peel. In addition, I used a citrus scented dish soap and lemon juice to make the scent more powerful in my natural cat repellent.
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So far my cats and the neighborhood cats seem to be pretty responsive to this simple but natural cat repellent (or they’re just done exploring lol). But I’ll be continuing to use my DIY cat repellent for until I’m 100% certain they’ve learned that those areas are off limits. In spite of the common beliefs, cats can in fact be trained. That is if they let you train them lol
If you’re using this natural cat repellent indoors, make sure you don’t use it directly on furniture as lemon juice may cause discoloration. Test on an inconspicuous area first to ensure that the ingredients won’t damage the material.
If you fear the oils and substances in this cat repellent may ruin your furniture or you just don’t like the smell, try putting some sandpaper or aluminium foil on restricted indoor areas. Cats don’t like feeling these surfaces on their paws and will soon learn to avoid these areas. Sticky bands also work well, but they will also gather a lot of dust, so they have to be replaced often.
Natural Cat Repellent
Ingredients:
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups orange peel, white pith removed
- juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 2 squirts lemon scented dish soap
You could also add some lemongrass essential oil or lime essential oil.
You will also need:
Directions:
- Add water to a medium pan and bring to a boil.
- Squeeze the orange juice. You might as well enjoy a healthy glass of refreshing orange juice while the water is boiling!
- Using a sharp knife, remove as much of the white pith as possible.
- Chop orange peel in small pieces.
- Throw the chopped peel in a medium pot and pour the boiling water over.
- Keep the pot on a low heat and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.
- Cool the mixture and strain through a sieve.
- Pour orange “soup” in a spray bottle.
- Add lemon juice.
- Add dish soap.
- Shake well until all ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
- Apply to home and garden but not directly on cats! Test on an inconspicuous area first to ensure that the ingredients won’t damage the material.
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DIY natural cat repellent
Materials
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups orange peel white pith removed
- juice from 1/2 a lemon
- 2 squirts lemon scented dish soap
Instructions
- Bring water to a boil.
- Squeeze the orange juice and remove as much of the white pith as possible. Chop orange peel in small pieces.
- Pour boiling water over peels. Simmer for 15 minutes. Cool the mixture and strain through a sieve.
- Pour orange "soup" in a spray bottle. Add lemon juice and dish soap.
- Shake well until all ingredients are mixed thoroughly.
- Apply to home and garden but not directly on cats!Test on an inconspicuous area first to ensure that the ingredients won’t damage the material.
ABOUT PETRO
Hi, I’m Petro, author and founder of Easy Peasy Creative Ideas. Sewist, crafter, avid DIY-er, foodie, photographer, homemaker and mommy to one. I’m an expert at coming up with quick, clever sewing tips, recycling crafts and simple, easy recipes! You can find my ideas featured in reputable publications such as Country Living, Good House Keeping, Yahoo News, WikiHow, Shutterfly, Parade, Brit & Co and more. Thanks for stopping by and hope you’ll stay for a while, get to know me better and come back another time. Stick around for real fun projects! Read more…