Home › Forums › Champions’ chat › Will hogs mind sonic cat repellent? › Reply To: Will hogs mind sonic cat repellent?
Hi TMoz
I would be reluctant to use a cat scarer with hogs around, although my only experience was with a rat scarer. I left it out during the day and normally removed it before the hogs arrived. One evening one turned up a bit early whilst the rat deterrant was still out. I saw the hog visibly flinch when it went past. Not very scientific evidence but good enough for me to not want to use any of that type of thing. But theoretically you could use them in daylight hours.
You could try the scent repellants i.e. mint etc, but that might deter the hogs too. I keep meaning to try the lion dung pellets I’ve seen in catalogues, but haven’t yet. I would be wary of putting down prickly stuff with hogs around, especially if they have to walk through it as well – it could injure their feet.
If you want to stop the cats using the garden as a toilet, not leaving bare soil works fairly well, i.e. lots of plants. But there will always be the occasional cat who will poo anywhere – one recenly pooed on one of my long patches of grass. I used to put loads of fairly short sticks all over the flower borders (long enough that it made it difficult for the cats to squat down – the hogs would be able to get between but the cats didn’t seem to like it.
But if you are worried about cats bothering the hogs, then hogs generally don’t seem bothered by them. You can keep them away from food by using feed boxes that cats can’t get into. My current method is a sheet of perspex type material (used to serve as double glazing, so window sized) balanced on flower pots which are along either side and a hog box blocking the back (but it could be against a wall). The entrance area has shallow but fairly wide plant saucers with water in them. The hogs don’t mind at all walking through the water, but cats not so keen – especially as they have to creep on their bellies to reach the food, so would get their fur wet). This method has the advantage that hogs which don’t like going in boxes don’t seem to mind this set up. There are other ideas of keeping cats away from food on the forum.
Good luck and happy hog watching.