Letting your own animals scamper on your grass is one thing but if you live in an area where other people's pets consider your lawn their own personal way station, the result can be a ruined lawn and a bad temper. We'd love to think that a well placed sign asking pet owners to keep their animals off your lawn would do the trick but that is not always the case. For those times, you might want to try some of these natural solutions...
- Cayenne Pepper: Sprinkle it generously all over your lawn or flowerbeds. Reapply weekly.
- White Vinegar: Spray it around the perimeter of your lawn as a chemical fence. You can also mix it with the cayenne pepper to create a spray with a double whammy.
- Horse Manure: It's not only good for improving your lawn but for keeping dogs away. Sprinkle generously over your lawn. Reapply as needed.
- Mothballs: Crush them and sprinkle them over your lawn.
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I am literally putting my computer down, walking to the pantry, getting out the cayenne and heading out front....
Be very careful how you apply the cayenne pepper. You must dilute the pepper in a soapy water and spray it on leaves or grass very lightly. If you put powder on plant leaves and an animal rubs their face against the leaf, the full strength powdered form can and will cause extreme pain! If you've ever gotten hot sauce in your eyes, or rubbed your eye after cutting a jalapeño or chili pepper then you will sympathize. If it is your pet, you will be hurting your loved one and will probably end up with expensive vet bills. So please, be very careful if you're putting cayenne in the garden, dilute it in water and spray lightly to deter but not injure animals.
my friend has an invisible fence around his yard....his dog can't get out of the perimeter of where he sets it up and into his garden without being shocked. it works.
not sure about the horse manure - there is almostnothing so attractive to my dog than horse s**t. both of my dogs love surreptitiously snacking on the piles whenever we encounter them on our hikes, before being dragged away by their completely disgusted human. i once caught the little one on his back, rolling in it ecstatically, making happy little grunting noises....
good for the grass, though, absolutely.
I will have to agree with spoonful that horse and other types of doody are like caviar to my boys. Rupert likes to snack on it and Chester loves to roll in it. Sigh...gross but true.
C'mon. I can't believe nobody mentioned this one... ~:o)
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Dogs LOVE horse poop. You'll end up with a pack of dogs living on your lawn if you try that. And no need to harm doggies--they don't understand lawns don't belong to them, so please don't put cayenne pepper or anything else irritating for them to get into. This post isn't the nicest I've seen on this website :(
Mothballs contain chemical pesticides, which makes them not particularly natural. They have been shown in some studies to be carcinogenic and can be toxic if ingested. I would not recommend leaving them where animals can get to them.
Yeah, same deal with my roommate's dog. He loved horse manure. And my sister's now deceased dog loved any kind of feces. Ugh.
I use Vinegar to kill the grass/weeds growing the the cracks on my drive. I wouldn't spray it on my lawn.
Cayenne will work if your animal NEVER goes into the treated area. I would never risk my animals being exposed. If a dog has been pesty about using your space the Cayenne will be so unpleasant they won't want to come back.
My dogs LOVE manure to delightedly roll and wiggle on their backs or rub their chests eau de perfume yum! Also manure which has not been allowed to compost adequately will burn, read kill, your lawn.
Moth balls are highly toxic if eaten. Before dogs I used them in my garden to keep the bunnies from eating my hosta. I could smell them for a good distance, never did asked the neighbors their thinking on the stink.
Blood meal was suggested to deter animals from the flower beds but must be applied anytime it rains. If I remember correctly blood meal is a natural form of nitrogen.
The problem is the owners not the pets. Please don't put out cayenne pepper to hurt the critters. They don't understand the concept of property rights.
I actually feel pretty guilty when you guys pointed out that I might hurt an animal by sprinkiling cayenne. I don't have an animal so I just didn't think of it that way. I don't think I put out too much and I haven't seen a dump on my grass since I did it
Animals scratching their eyes out because of the burn from the pepper is a very CRUEL way to handle the problem. Please people, think about what you are doing instead of just mindlessly following suggestions from people online. You will be hurting animals, rabbits, cats, dogs, raccoons etc. Think and research other solutions, motion activated sprinklers, non-toxic therapy's.