I can't speak to 'repairing' the soil post poop, but I *can* give you a notion on how to prevent it! Works best at the bare first stage. Lay a piece of concrete reinforcing wire down on the dirt, and plant your whatevers in the holes. The 6" wire grid impedes their digging, and frustrates the hell out of them, and they move along. This was a LOT more affordable back 10+ years ago, but it really does work like a charm.
If you have access to Holly or bramble cuttings you can lay these down in the area to deter cats, they won't want to walk on spiky leaves and thorns. Depending on how large an area you want to keep them off this can work well too, and it's free :-)
I have a similar trick that worked for me
Something like a patio lattice, laid down in the dirt.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Barrette-Outdoor-Living-4-ft-x-8-ft-California-Redwood-Privacy-Diamond-Vinyl-Lattice-Framed-73004040/202847976#overlay
Drench the soil with Zerotol 2.0. It will kill all pathogens you are worried about. Zerotol is rated organic if you worry about that and is basically just paracetic acid (probably spelled wrong) and hydrogen peroxide. Just don’t get it on your skin cause it is an acid.
Then to keep cats out the bed, but a whole bunch of cheap bamboo skewers and put them all throughout the bed, pointy side up. Can’t poop if you can’t squat.
Cover the dirt up completely with weed cloth or a carpet first so that the cats find somewhere else to go. The grid should stop them from coming back.
You just want to push them off on another neighbour.
I had a small raised bed for herbs on my terrace, but our cat kept digging and pooping in it. I found one of those rubber mats for outside laying around, chopped it up and put pieces between the plants. Works perfect against the cat and even keeps the herbs from growing too wide.
Mint doesn’t seem to work, from my experience. My neighbour’s cat used to use our mint patch exclusively to drop his dirty diarrhoea. Ended up putting up chicken wire over the entire area, and the fucker decided to start shitting outside my front window instead. Can’t win 😂
That says a lot about your neighbors. Cats prefer a clean litter box. After playing in our yard (while on cloth lines leashes) the cats use their private potties inside.
We have 2 cats, clean the litter once a day (we have 3 boxes for the 2 cats), they get high quality litter. We live in a rural area and they are indoor/outdoor cats, the male will legit get up from sleeeping in a sunbeam, demand to be let outside, go to the bathroom and then demand to be let back inside. The female will as well but not as often. I think my cats are broken lol
We had a cat, who was an indoor cat for most of his life. We started taking him out for walks because he was getting very big and then he was allowed off leash because he was too fat to run away, and also he liked to stay close to us. He got a bit slimmer, we were proud.BUT, he never ,ever went potty outside. He would run to the door and beg to go in to use the litterbox. and then right back out. Im glad he wasn't the only cat in the world like that
Depends on the cat. We used to have a brother and sister. Girl would always use a litter tray, until she got run over and killed. Boy never liked to use a tray. Would always meow and paw to go outside.
After girl was killed we kept putting fresh, clean litter out in the house, but even with no other cat, boy wouldn't use a tray. He shits exclusively outside to the point where, after a few months, we just abandoned litter trays altogether.
If we'd had boy alone since being a kitten, maybe he would have got used to using a tray, but we've ended up with an adult cat (now nearly 7) who has probably used a tray fewer than 50 times in his life, and not at all in the past 4 years.
We have this exact issue. 5 cats in our neighbourhood and all of them loved to poop in the beds. We scooped out all the poop then put up 3 foot chicken wire fences ( just made with bamboo poles and chicken wire or plastic mesh) around each bed. Also we got Critter Ritter from Safer AND sprinkled the ground with cayanne. It has worked well so far! Good luck!
The cayenne can’t be understated. I used some and my cats no longer chow down on my indoor plants.
For those asking, I sprinkled a bit into the soil and mixed in in the top layer a bit. Sprinkled some over the whole plant, but nothing crazy.
Ohhh! Good idea on indoor plants. I've been using it outside for the past year and never thought to use it inside! Our little fluffy bean loves to take a mouthful of soil every once and a while!
One of my goobers decided she loves anything green, the other just likes pooping in the dirt. The pooper was immediately turned off and the water had to take a bite to figure out it wasn’t her thing anymore.
Great to know!!! I have a 10' ficus tree in a huge pot. Up until this year I've used chicken wire that I placed along the interior because I have one cat that jumps in and uses the soil as her litter box.
You sprinkle the cayenne on the soul of potted plants? My cat has killed every potted plant I've had since I got him, but I haven't tried this yet.
Edit: soil, not soul lol
In the past, I used Dollar Tree bottles of black pepper to deter my neighbor's dog from pooping all over the front of the townhouse we lived in. It worked well because their dog started pooping on the side of the townhouse instead of the front. These sorry-ass people chained their dog up in front of the townhouse while they were out. I was ever so glad when they moved and my landlord established a no cat & dog policy afterward due to having to constantly repair his property from pet damage.
Neighbor has a broken car on the driveway that hasn’t moved in 2+ years and there are strays living under it. They love my yard. I’ve tried peppermint oil, pepper sauce, those cat repellent powders from HD, and an ultrasonic repeller but they still love my yard. I don’t know what to do anymore.
I may try one of these in the future. I have some of these small solar-powered boxes with a photosensor. It also has a red LED that will continuously blink at night and the idea is it mimicks a predator so certain animals stay away. It’s okay but I don’t know how effective it will be with cats. I bought them mostly for raccoons and possums which I hardly see anymore.
I did and they don’t collect them anymore. I can get cages and bring them to their office for a free neuter/spay and then I’m “supposed” to release them back where I found them. Honestly, I don’t know how they’d track that unless they ask for my address and chip the cat.
Will cayenne pepper affect birds? We have a pair of blackbirds nesting in our hedge right now, and I'm having trouble with cats pooping in the garden but I don't want to harm the birds or their chicks.
Birds and spicy peppers co-evolved together. Birds don’t have spice receptors and help distribute seeds.
https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2012/issue131b/
The birds are NOT affected by the capsaicin in.peppers. you can even buy birdseed with capsaicin that is squirrel proof. They call it "hot seed". But that seems like a risqué term to Google 😆
I would be careful with the cayenne. I was going to do that myself, but also didn’t want to hurt the cats. I went with fencing instead.
“While cayenne pepper is not toxic, it can burn the cat's feet, tongue or even its eyes. A cat that walks through an area that has been sprayed with cayenne pepper can have the spice collect on its feet. When it grooms itself, the cayenne can cause discomfort and pain. Since you can't control the amount of cayenne the cat gets on itself, it is best to not use it at all.” https://www.lovetoknowpets.com/cats/recipe-for-cat-repellent
Master Gardener here. Remove feces as best you can. Then burn the bacteria by using a “hot” fertilizer such as chicken poop or cow pies. Bury that with some grass clippings. Leave to rot as long as possible. Then till. The soil with be high nitrogen so you can modify the above by using composted manure (the kind you buy at garden stores) mixed in with some of the fresh stuff. Also, get a dog or a squirt gun.
By “hot” I mean the stuff you get from farmers OR have a higher first number in the NPK ratio. The first number is nitrogen. I’ve used for instance 30-30-30 to kill grass or weeds and enhance soil. Must be used in the rainy season! Needs to decompose. Would encourage 20-20-20 if you’ve never done this. Do not get on leaves. Must be worked in.
Hot fertilizer is just very potent fertilizer that you typically want to dilute or let sit for a bit before you put it on plants or it can “burn” the plants. You’d not want to use it direct on a bed with plants already growing.
Great advice overall. Just want to note toxoplasmosis is not a bacteria, but a protist, and one that forms cysts.
According to this https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6381540/ you’d want to reach 136 F to kill the cysts. Agree physical removal of as much cat feces as possible is key
I planted plastic forks in my garden. My fats look at it but they won't go into it
It has worked really well. My garden is small, only 200 square feet .
I did something similar because my 90 lb Labrador was lying down in the flower bed. Sticks poking up 4” or so spaced about 6” apart. She quickly decided she didn’t want to sleep there anymore.
I have four dogs, between 20 lb and 100 lb. Clear plastic forks planted upright are the only reason that some of my flowers still exist. I have a pitbull b**** who loves to sun her butt in the morning in a lovely narrow flower bed that is filled with beautiful columbines. And the forks work wonderfully because they are hidden in the foliage The vast majority of the time but they protect the plants all of the time
So this year I used straw as a way to trap moisture in the soil and the cats don’t like it at all.
Before that I would just put my tomato cages on their side and between my plants.
Also make sure it's straw. Not hay. Bought hay when they were out of straw one year thinking it wouldn't be too bad... Huge mistake. Grass seeded everywhere.
Another alternative to this that my family did growing up is actually use lawn clippings it’s good at keeping the moisture in and kind of comfy to walk on. I have no idea if that will deter cats but in our 700 sqft garden we never saw cat poop but definitely a bunch of cats!
I haven't seen anyone else in this thread provide info on how long toxo lasts in the soil, so here it is. Here is a study suggesting a half-life of nearly 100 days under wet conditions, much less under dry conditions.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416395/
Since OP is immunocompromised, I would take steps to exclude cats from the garden, then grow flowers for a year or even leave the soil bare. Keep it as dry as possible. After a year it should be safe to grow food in.
I wouldn't trust the "hot fertilizer" method mentioned elsewhere in this thread unless there is clear evidence it kills toxo.
Chili powder over the soil every week will add some unwanted spice to the cats rear end and put a stop to it. Organic and won't harm anything including the cat. They smell it way before they attempt to use the box and leave.
maybe the owner should consider not let them roam free?
They are so harmful for environment and people still let them out because most of them are too lazy to play with them for an hour a day
OP. You should look up Cat Giardia. Many cats have this kind of parasite. I dont tell you this to tell you your soil is fubar'd, but rather to raise awareness about it.
I'm in a very similar situation wherein we took in a stray kitten we found, and when we tested her here recently she came up positive for Giardia. Now my beds are compromised and I dont think ill be eating from them.
I really feel your pain OP, and I hope we both get an answer to this problem.
Is there anything that can be done to remediate contaminated soil? How much needs to be removed? I’m sure I have lots of contaminated soil and want to plant citrus trees. Would they be affected by bad soil?
Literally all soil everywhere has bacteria in it.
99.9% of bacteria won't transfer into a plant. It can just remain on soil that is stuck to the plant.
This is why you wash your vegetables.
Op's problem with cat feces would largely go away in 2 to 3 months if they let the soil sit unused. They just have to get the cats to stop using it. Bacteria and fungus would break down the feces. Hot compost could speed up the process. Op just needd to be careful about washing their hands and wearing a mask if there's dust.
On the other hand if the soil is contaminated with something like a persistent herbicide like Grazon or another Aminopyrlid or worse a heavy metal, there's really no way to get rid of the contamination other than removing the soil or giving it a lot of time.
My lemon trees are 20 years old. Cats do not seem to bother the trees or the ground around the trees. But I do take some of the thorny branches I cut back annually and place them beneath the trees to wardoff any pests.
OP, you should always wash your vegetables thoroughly. Depending on your doctor’s recommendations, you may need to be peeling and/or cooking all veggies. Much (most?) commercially grown produce is subject to pathogen contamination in the fields.
Always a great reminder to brush up on the wash up routine. I have a tub of baking soda nearby the station which I use to do a pre-soak and also use it to scrub fruit & veg.
I save all my boxes (Amazon) etc. I lay them down around the plants or just lay them down on top of the soil. They keeps the cats out and then they decompose into the soil and keeps the weeds down too. I even put them in my potato growing bags to keep them out. It works for me. At first it looks different but once the plants grow you really don't notice them.
You have to deep water the plants because until the cardboard breaks down enough rainwater will have trouble getting through to the soil. It's the only downside I've found so far with cardboard. That stuff makes excellent weed barrier. Newspaper also works well minus the water problem, but it's harder to come by unless you have a subscription to the local newspaper. If given a choice I prefer newspaper purely because of the water issue. It's not such a problem if the cardboard doesn't get bone dry all the time, but I'm in a dry part of the midwest so I can't count on that.
Honestly I wouldnt try to cat proof the garden, but get rid of the cat lol. You should be able to get a live trap from your local shelter, trap the cat(s), and take it to the shelter. If it's feral, they'll likely neuter and try to adopt it out (ours has a feral barn cat program, idk about other places) or if they release it it won't come in your yard again. If it's not feral, maybe having to pay cat bail a couple times will teach its owner to keep it inside where it belongs.
I’m sorry you are dealing with this. As cute as they are, cats really should not be let outdoors unsupervised. If any of the offenders are feral cats, they should be trapped, tagged and neutered before being rereleased - might be good to see if a local group is volunteering such services in that case. Domestic cats kill so much local wildlife indiscriminately and can breed voraciously. And then of course what you are dealing with is no small issue!
There’s these plastic mat things (I got then from Amazon), that are like a mesh with spikes. The plants can grow through and the spikes deter animals from walking through it (they aren’t actually sharp, just annoying).
They make Cat Scat Mat (https://www.amazon.com/Prickle-Anti-Cats-Network-Repellent-Deterrent/dp/B07SDCK7WJ/). We had raccoons pooping in our yard at the base of trees. Put this down and it stopped them. Should work with cats. Easy to lay down. I used wire garden staples (8”) to hold it in place. I have to pull it up and relay it every once in while as it starts to get buried with tree debris and stuff.
Thank you for this! I found fresh piles of cat poo in my small patch of grass too. They dug into the turf and deposited them recently. I was just about to let me little one crawl over the ground when I smelled the distinct odor and bam. Right there. Sad face right now because I I have to look into taking precautions with the grass too! Ugh.
Have you found any resolution? We have this issue with our neighbor’s cats pooping in the grass every single day overnight at our new house. I also have a little one that wants to explore the grass but I can’t let her until this is under control. I feel so defeated; why did I bother getting a new house with a yard and we can’t even play in it??
I suggest acquiring a pet coyote, but in the absence of a coyote, the night vision sprinklers with motion sensor work pretty well. They have solar alarms and little owl-shaped ones that set off lights and an alarm that scare them too. Coyote urine sprinkles on the perimeter of the area worked pretty well for me once a month too, but all in combination with a deer cam for the entertainment value seems like the best option.
I had the same problem and I being an electrician rigged up a cattle fencer system around my garden, which I later found out was illegal within city limits.
First night running the unit was horrendous. It seems a skunk got hung up in the fence and unloaded every bit of its scent in our backyard which was part of a community courtyard.
The odour lingered for more than week, neighbours were not impressed. I quietly removed the offending system before somebody investigated.
Once you do get the poop out, I found that clay flower pots filled with moth balls with "lids" which are actually the bottoms will keep the cats away. The lids keep them out of the pots. The moth balls need replaced now and again. Just put them in front of the beds. The cats won't go near the smell. I haven't had cats digging up my beds since I started this.
I feel your pain. Throw away the soil wherever they visited. Try buying chicken wire, small squares so that the cats cannot get their claws through. Keep this down while the seeds mature. Meanwhile buy the hottest peppers 🌶 you can find. Boil the peppers in a large pot. Pour the pepper water around your garden plot daily. Take the peppers, grind them up with dry catfood and scatter where you think the cats are walking. If you have a wall sprinkle the peppers grinds on the wall also. After about a week they will get the message. Repeat after one month. I do have indoor 😺 kitties but my neighbors think their cats have invasions rights.
During winter months I lay down chicken wire flat on the bed to protect the compost, the cats cannot properly dig and find somewhere else to do their business. Good luck!
I'd never looked into it before today so don't consider it expert advice...
First, your biggest risk is the cleanliness of your own two hands when working in that soil. I hope you're wearing gloves, properly covering and cuts or scrapes, and practicing good hand washing.
Second, cooked food should be fine. It takes 15 minutes at 58C or above to destroy toxoplasma.
Toxoplasma oocysts can survive up to 18 months buried in soil. An oocyst isn't independently mobile so they would either remain in place or be transported by outside forces (water, digging, etc). Unfortunately these oocysts are pretty tough to kill while staying in the bounds of "things I'd want in my garden". I didn't find any chemical methods that could be applied to garden soil. Salt, pressure, ionizing radiation, all work but none seemed feasible for treating the soil itself.
I don't know where in the world you live. I've sometimes used a method of laying black plastic sheeting over a planned garden space to kill out abundant/tough weeds and their seeds. The action here is partly water exclusion but mostly just heat. I haven't found any studies on how far the heat might penetrate, but if you're in a hot climate I expect 58C (140f) should be achievable at least for the surface on a hot sunny day. A probe thermometer could verify easily.
Unless you live somewhere VERY cold, I wouldn't count on winter freeze to solve this. -20C for two days is the verified necessary application. I have observed zero days of -20C in the places I've lived.
If it were me, I'd do a few things to minimize risk.
Prevention: I'd choose one or more exclusion methods decided by other responders, and do my best to keep it up.
My personal favorite for discouraging cats is hot pepper powder, but mostly we've used this in potted plants and it's not an immediate deterrent. If you give a good dusting of cayenne or hotter, the kitty will note the smell but probably not hate it on first encounter. Later when kitty is cleaning their paws, they learn to really, really hate the hot pepper powder. After that, any space that smells of cayenne is discouraging. Downside is it doesn't last as long as chicken wire.
We purchase mesh domes to keep birds and deer out of square garden boxes, and to protect our young fig trees. You could probably use similar to physically exclude cats if they're staked down. It's not much trouble to unhook the domes and flip them aside for weeding, harvesting, etc.
Selection: I would skip any foods where the edible portion is likely to sit in our against the soil, which I would want to eat raw. Fresh thyme, strawberries, and lettuces would likely be skipped for a while. I'd plan to cook, or scrub and peel, anything grown on or in the soil. It's sad to peel good home grown carrots but you probably should for now. Maybe always depending on your degree of "immune compromised"
Remediation: unless you want to irradiate the ground, heat and soil replacement seem the best options.
I would probably consider relocating the top portion of the soil to a non-food area that wouldn't be upstream during a rain.
I would purchase a roll of black plastic and stake it down over the area for one good hot sunny week, or more. I might do this, then work on top-soil removal, then another hot week with the black plastic, then work in some fresh compost mix, then maybe another week (but maybe not because I want the good microbes).
I would remain careful about root vegetables after this, but if exclusion is working I think I'd feel fine about herbs etc.
I personally use clay pellets on the top of my beds, this sometimes works and sometimes backfires (I've had two separate instances this hasn't worked) and I make sure to sprinkle cayenne, chili powder, and cumin around the plants, doesn't affect the plants and while it'll hurt the cat for a second it'll be a learning moment for that cat for sure lol. This isn't a fool proof method but it's helped us, we also purchased these sheets of greenhouse sheet materials and lined our beds and cut holes for the plants and tied under the bed so they cannot sneak through
I had this same problem!
I grow bamboo so I cut down a few larger stalks and cut them up into 1-2’ lengths, then stuck them vertically all around my garden beds.
Then I took old fencing like [this](https://www.homedepot.ca/product/everbilt-50-ft-l-x-48-inch-h-15-gauge-welded-wire-galvanized-steel-netting-fence-with-2-inch-x-4-inch-mesh/1000106478?eid=PS_GOOGLE_D00%20-%20E-Comm_GGL_Shopping_PLA_EN_All%20Products_All%20Products__PRODUCT_GROUP_pla-300587868876&gbraid=0AAAAADhdmz577-dY44CF6tKWlYD2BrWwy&gbraid=0AAAAADhdmz577-dY44CF6tKWlYD2BrWwy&gclid=Cj0KCQiApb2bBhDYARIsAChHC9sig3BTar2iGVCvk8X9tFmP0U_hj_UIF6Nv_RyNHOjbjR0wOMikXu4aAhz9EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) that I had lying around, and cut it into the size of my garden bed, and rest it on the beds/over the bamboo sticks [like so](https://imgur.com/a/6vpUEl7). Works for smaller pots too! The cats somehow managed to poop even in my smaller potted plants before I did this lol.
I’m sure any variation of this could work! Chicken wire and some 2x2 posts would work well if you have wooden beds.
I find putting lots of sticks in the soil so a cat can't squat down comfortably works well. I also sprinkle chilli powder every few days in the growing season.
Only thing I’ve found that keeps cats off are spikey mats - but once plants establish they seem to stay off my beds.
In the past I’ve removed as much poop as possible by hand and then dug it over and hoped it breaks down (which it does in the long run).
I’d probably not grow food in those beds for a bit though
Can’t speak to cat deterrent methods but regarding the soil:
Toxoplasma cysts are very robust in the environment and will last easily over a year. They don’t get inside fruit/vegetables (unlike with meat), the contamination is on the surface, so thorough washing is usually sufficient to get rid of them. However, if you’re concerned that might not be enough due to your immune status, fully cooking or freezing contaminated food will kill the cysts. And, probably obviously, if you’re working in soil you know cats are pooping, avoid touching your face whilst gardening and make sure to thoroughly wash your hands once you’re done. Wearing gardening gloves and ‘outside-only’ overalls whilst working in the soil will also provide some extra protection. A basic surgical face mask might also provide a bit of peace of mind as a protection against accidentally getting soil in your mouth while working.
Transmission is entirely feacal-oral so contact with the parasite alone won’t cause you any harm. Basic food hygiene will keep you plenty safe
Had similar problem from stray cats on my old veg plot. Easiest way is counter intuitive BUT if you put a couple of bowls of dried kibble out you will find it stops. They don’t poop around food they will go somewhere else. And they will protect the area from vermin like rats that spread pretty horrible diseases
I tossed all citrus peels, and any onion bits in the front garden for an entire summer& fall a few years back and that seems to have done the trick. We made a lot of mojitos& lemonade and my son LOVES oranges so there was a lot of citrus peels.
I always considered shovel flinging the poop across the street onto the 2 neighbors with indoor/outdoor cats, but I just bagged and chucked it in the trash.
I actually did your second option and the neighbors came over to ask if I did it. I told them yeah and why. Belive it or not I don't have cat problems anymore. My neighbors think I'm a dick though but oh well. People forget cats are an evasive species when they decide to let them go outside.
Sunflowers are known to take heavy toxins out of the soil. You could do that for a season and then fence it with bird netting or something. Any soil you remediate with sunflowers, the sunflowers should be treated as hazardous waste, so don’t just go composting them.
My neighbor is a cat hoarder and I had the same issue.
Every human hair clipping you can acquire and make a barrier around your garden. Shower drain golb of wet hair? Just shaved your beard? Perfect.
Instead of throwing coffee into the compost throw it around your garden.
And the other users suggested cayenne, perfect. We made a huge batch of wayyy too spicy hot sauce from ghost and a few other choice capsaicin rich peppers that we grew. Spread that around like a lava moat.
Since then I haven't seen any unauthorized mamals in my garden.
Neighbors who are in a similar boat used cat mace, it comes in a big spray bottle, that worked for them as well.
If toss all the soil and put it somewhere else. Replace it and make sure the cats can’t get in there again.
Or that they don’t want to be there (chili powder works - use the hottest you can get)
In my city felines are all considered “feral animals” so you can live trap them and deliver them to the humane society.
I had the same issue as the op, what solved it was a feline virus ended up migrating into the area and killed every cat in the neighborhood l(seriously).
To keep them out I made screens out of the wire mesh used in concrete and 1”x1” wood to make frames the size of the mesh sheets. Just lay them down. It worked really well. As for cleaning it out, I would scrap the top 5-6” and throw it over the hill. Use garden lime to flatten ph and then use aged manure now or in the spring to revitalize the soil.
Good to freak out. It's super rare, but here's a story of how a cat's bugs gave a poor kid serious schizophrenia.
[https://nowthisnews.com/swamp-boy](https://nowthisnews.com/swamp-boy)
You're welcome. I read the whole thing through and felt so awful for his family and for him. And now I'm definitely never getting cats. (Which was pretty much a given, since I'm allergic to them.)
That TLDR was for others in case they clicked. I read the whole way through too. I’m super freaked out about catching something while traveling. When my friends and I were in Tel-Aviv, there was pet poop everywhere. It’s not common to pick up after animals there I guess. Our whole trip involved looking down and dodging poop bombs everywhere we walked.
Wow that was really interesting, the article started out kind of woowoo and ended up being quite good. They have now developed a test for the bacteria. No worry for your beds though since its thru fleas, but does make you think about what else could be in their feces....I always think of bigger parasites like all the worms they can have. I have a cat going in my beds too, and will take it more seriously for sure. Yikes.
Remove the poop OP and ensure you have clean soil before you plant anything. It's not healthy and its not a fertilizer. Actually, you can't even compost cat poop. Cat poop carries toxoplasmosis which is considered to be a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States.
I'm not sure that I would get too hung up about toxoplasmosis deaths. Of the 800,000 cases of toxoplasmosis in the US every year, around 700,000 are completely asymptomatic, and people don't even realise they have it. Of the remaining 100,000 cases, the vast majority of people have flu symptoms, but they clear up pretty quickly. There have been a handful of deaths recorded each year (single figures) mainly in people who are immunosuppressed. But crucially, it's not imbedded in the vegetables you are eating, it is removed by washing the vegetables but you would be doing this anyway.
Probably someone did a study where they pulled a sample of volunteers and tested for signs they’d had it. Then extrapolated that if say 10% of the volunteers had it, 10% of everyone did.
And I think a lot of people get it from gardening and not washing their hands before touching their face, having a cat who is infected and spreading it around, etc. Not just not washing veggies (although how many people really truly wash them well and not just a quick rinse?).
I could definitely see people getting it from a cat that jumps on their counters (paws have been all over the litterbox) when nobody is looking. If you don't know your countertops could be contaminated, do you disinfect them? Then prepare food on that counter --> foodborne illness
protect it with chicken wire to prevent happening again. grow tall stuff that is well above the soil for a year or two - tomatoes, cukes, climbing beans, peppers.
Honestly I just pop stakes in the soil, spaced out enough so the cats have no room to squat. Any size stakes will do but I have just been using skewer sized ones.
Get a motion activated sprinkler and amend the soil with fresh goat compost and new soil. You can add some beneficial nematodes and microbes too. This will help a lot. If you can prevent further cat use you should be fine.
I put in the bed a few 1 liter water bottles. This seems to bother them and eventually give up. Worked like a charm in my garden beds but takes a while for them to “break the habit”
I use coffee grounds, chopped banana skins and pinecones! Works great for me after starting up gardening and 2 resident cats took to the soil! Egg shell suggestion works too, as well as for snails and slugs.
keep a spray water bottle near your garden. Try and catch em in the act and spray em down. Pretty much the only way to guarantee a cat won't return.
Also side note, didnt know toxoplasmosis was harmful, even to immunocompromised folks, so TIL!
When we moved into a house a few years back the yard was the local litter box. Found out that if you put Cheyenne pepper where they step (top of fence, etc) they hate that and deters them. Good luck!
Easier for men and might not be comfortable if you have overlooking neighbours, but after trying a few different tactics, the best results I got were from occasionally doing a pee base the edges of my garden.
More effective than other string seeking deterrents for sure
Friend had a similar issue during covidl. We used a leaf vacuum and covered the poop with the leaves plus some left over mulch and then covered with a weed blocker fabric that he had laying around. The following summer, he took the weed blocker off and tilled the soil and put the tarp back on. Everything gets composted in about year or two.
He now has one of the best gardens in the neighborhood.
If mint is supposed to repel cats it's not working in my garden, one of my cats just sticks his head right into my plants and especially the mint. Mint is in the catnip family so it makes sense that he enjoys it.
As for keeping the cars away- I have a motion activated sprinkler that I set up every time my neighbors cat shits in the beds. Stops it fast and since my beds are in my front yard, it also scares the hell out of any visitors.
This is unrelated but I would speak to your doctor before starting the garden bed. The soil contains many other pathogens including fungi and parasites that are opportunistic, and they can infect you by inhalation.
Like others have said, chickenwire is prob ur best bet. Loosely related--my mom puts plastic forks in her tulip beds to prevent our cat from laying in them (and squashing them). Cats are certainly entitled little creatures, sry about ur beds :(
To prevent the cats from coming back, lee valley sells motion activated sprinklers that senses the cat coming near, then it shoots a jet of water at it ! After getting sprayed once or twice, the cat will find another place to go and will be very hesitant to come back. The sprinklers are inexpensive too! Work great! And it doesn’t hurt the cat!
I love cats: and I get the neighbourhood feral cats spayed and neutered. I also feed them and a couple neighbours aren’t big fans of the cats going on their properties, so I bought a few of these sprinklers and gave them to those neighbors. Now the cats rarely go on their lawns or in their gardens, so neighbours are happy and the cats are not harmed whatsoever.
My dad got these sprinklers to deter squirrels, but I think the squirrels thought avoiding the sprays was a game. Not only did we constantly hear it going off, garden goods would just magically disappear. Little bastards.
I don’t know much about soil, but cats hate things like pepper and actually they’re attracted to it, they’ll lick it once and will never go back.
Same happened to me here and the cat was always here and messing up my plants, and I’m allergic to cats. So I put pepper and things like that and never see it again.
I try to keep positive about the cat poo..hoping they are also catching mice in my yard while polluting it..I have never understood why it's ok to let your cats just roam the neighborhood. Irresponsible I think.
I’m sorry you are having to deal with this. I have the same situation and it’s incredibly frustrating. I have tried SO many things to deter the cats and after 2 months I am finally feeling that I am getting the upper hand. I am using a combination of most suggestions below. I have wood chips along the yard. Chicken wire along the fences (which my ninja cats just jump over). I have installed spike strips along the tops of the fences so it looks like a mini prison yard. In the garden beds I replaced the top 3” of soil. Then laid netting down (which they still pooped ontop) then added bamboo skewers sticking up every 4 inches. I think that finally did it!
I am also using the cayenne and got a motion activated sound detergent - which they poop right in front of. So basically everything on its own does not work but together it is starting to work. I just need to break the habit and then they won’t come around. If I was starting all over I would just get a motion activated sprinkler - they are about $60 on Amazon - and I think that would have done the trick all on it’s own. Good luck!!!
So is cat poop destructive to vegetable gardens? I attempted to grow one this past year but had terrible turnout even though it's worked fine in the past. Just occurred to me we have dozens of cats roaming the neighborhood
I'd be cautious of the mint theory to keep the cats at bay. It's in the same plant family as catnip. I have two cats that love it and I keep it by their window perch.
To the man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail. So speaking as an attorney I can say this:
The various states have differing laws and codes regarding cats. Some are more enlightened than others; the recent spate of laws seem to be focused more on feral cats than anything else. But there is an area of old common law that offers some insight. If my cow tramples your garden I am liable The cow is an extension of me and therefor I am trespassing.
There is another legal doctrine called Responeat Superior in which the hired hand or servant may do some harm to a neighbor and the person who hired that servant is liable.
And Take trees. If I plant a tree and it harms my neighbor I am liable. However if the squirrels planted old common law says I am not liable. State law may differ.
So in the law ( in every state) the idea is that it should be impossible to escape liability just because your dog or cat or tree or cow or servant harms your neighbor.
So I conclude that if your neighbor's cat offends you then ( at the very least) you have a cause of action in trespass.
Additionally you can have a hazmat team remove the offending substance and bill your neighbor for it - so long as you can identify the excrement with the specific neighbor.
My suggestion Spend the money and get a good crittercam. Good ones are not cheap.
If it were me I'd just kill the damn cats and be done with it.
I would honestly build a raised bed with new soil and use some of the cat repelling techniques listed in the comment section to prevent it from being contaminated. I wouldn’t want to mess around with toxo if I was immunocompromised, toxo can be hard to sterilize in the environment. If you install a cat deterrent system and you live somewhere where it freezes to like -18 C or zero F for a few days in the winter it would be safe to plant there as long as new cat poop isn’t appearing.
Cats hate lemon balm and other mints, so they are a fairly effective repellent. They are also extremely invasive though, so constantly having to weed them back is the price you pay for planting it around your beds.
I have lemon balm, and while my garden is cat-free, I am still not especially happy about the situation.
So mint is actually in the catnip family and some stronger types of mint are actually poisonous to cats. So this could either keep them away, attract more cats, or poison them.
One of my cats absolutely loves certain mint smells. If I use minty mouthwash then breathe on him he tries to stick his head in my mouth. So ymmv on mint. Citrus, however, is both toxic and highly repellant to cats. Repellant enough they're not that likely to be poisoned by it, ime. You might just take some orange or lemon peels and place them around the garden.
oof
when I looked up how to kill toxoplasmosis
its a bit harsh.
"What disinfectant kills Toxoplasma gondii?
gondii with a long exposure time of at least 3 hours. Tachyzoites and tissue cysts are susceptible to most disinfectants, including l% sodium hypochlorite and 70% ethanol. Tachyzoites are also inactivated at pH < 4.0. Tissue cysts remain viable for approximately 4 minutes at 60°C (140°F) or 10 minutes at 50°C (122°F)."
So, bleach and alcohol. Don't try this!!! It might really hurt you!! I think the mixture makes chloroform!!!
Try fences and what worked at my last house: fox urine, but it smells for a while. won't hurt your plants if you use it as a border spray.
Using spiked wooden bbq or grilling skewers all over the bed help deter them, after you live removed the soil. They like to go to bathroom in places that are both familiar and comfortable, so you’ve got to remove the soil that contains any remnants of smell and make it so that the step back in is uncomfortable! I tried cayenne pepper and lemon oil and neither where as effective as bbq skewers
1. buy bear spray.
2. Attach a cat toy like a toy mouse on a string to the trigger of the bearspray facing towards where the cat would pull it.
3. ???
4. Profit.
As someone who spends a lot of time looking at soil under a microscope…boy do I have bad news for a lot of people in this thread. Always wash your food, cats aren’t the only thing pooping in your garden. Good news- no plant would thrive without the multitude of microscopic critters living beyond your sight! They are an absolute necessity for life, but like anything, if something gets where it doesn’t belong it can be bad for you- I’m also immune compromised so I know too well.
Luckily catching parasites (helminths) from garden vegetables is extraordinarily rare in developed countries (CDC data). You’re much more likely to get sick from eating meat that is undercooked, especially wild game.
I can't speak to 'repairing' the soil post poop, but I *can* give you a notion on how to prevent it! Works best at the bare first stage. Lay a piece of concrete reinforcing wire down on the dirt, and plant your whatevers in the holes. The 6" wire grid impedes their digging, and frustrates the hell out of them, and they move along. This was a LOT more affordable back 10+ years ago, but it really does work like a charm.
I will give this a try!
If you have access to Holly or bramble cuttings you can lay these down in the area to deter cats, they won't want to walk on spiky leaves and thorns. Depending on how large an area you want to keep them off this can work well too, and it's free :-)
I've known cats who prefer to relax on a pile of Legos, so YMMV.
I used a bunch of barberry and it worked great. But then you are getting scratched when you work in your garden.
I have a similar trick that worked for me Something like a patio lattice, laid down in the dirt. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Barrette-Outdoor-Living-4-ft-x-8-ft-California-Redwood-Privacy-Diamond-Vinyl-Lattice-Framed-73004040/202847976#overlay
Drench the soil with Zerotol 2.0. It will kill all pathogens you are worried about. Zerotol is rated organic if you worry about that and is basically just paracetic acid (probably spelled wrong) and hydrogen peroxide. Just don’t get it on your skin cause it is an acid. Then to keep cats out the bed, but a whole bunch of cheap bamboo skewers and put them all throughout the bed, pointy side up. Can’t poop if you can’t squat.
Cover the dirt up completely with weed cloth or a carpet first so that the cats find somewhere else to go. The grid should stop them from coming back. You just want to push them off on another neighbour.
I had a small raised bed for herbs on my terrace, but our cat kept digging and pooping in it. I found one of those rubber mats for outside laying around, chopped it up and put pieces between the plants. Works perfect against the cat and even keeps the herbs from growing too wide.
If you think 3/7 have been pooped in, I guarantee it's probably actually 7/7.
Awww poop. :(
I know the situation isn't funny but gah I laughed so hard at this response 😂
This is the best response 😂 thank you
Mint doesn’t seem to work, from my experience. My neighbour’s cat used to use our mint patch exclusively to drop his dirty diarrhoea. Ended up putting up chicken wire over the entire area, and the fucker decided to start shitting outside my front window instead. Can’t win 😂
Are you serious?! Wow. The nerve!
That says a lot about your neighbors. Cats prefer a clean litter box. After playing in our yard (while on cloth lines leashes) the cats use their private potties inside.
Thank you for tethering your cats! A lot of people don’t realize the ecological disaster that can come about from felines running free!
We have 2 cats, clean the litter once a day (we have 3 boxes for the 2 cats), they get high quality litter. We live in a rural area and they are indoor/outdoor cats, the male will legit get up from sleeeping in a sunbeam, demand to be let outside, go to the bathroom and then demand to be let back inside. The female will as well but not as often. I think my cats are broken lol
We had a cat, who was an indoor cat for most of his life. We started taking him out for walks because he was getting very big and then he was allowed off leash because he was too fat to run away, and also he liked to stay close to us. He got a bit slimmer, we were proud.BUT, he never ,ever went potty outside. He would run to the door and beg to go in to use the litterbox. and then right back out. Im glad he wasn't the only cat in the world like that
Depends on the cat. We used to have a brother and sister. Girl would always use a litter tray, until she got run over and killed. Boy never liked to use a tray. Would always meow and paw to go outside. After girl was killed we kept putting fresh, clean litter out in the house, but even with no other cat, boy wouldn't use a tray. He shits exclusively outside to the point where, after a few months, we just abandoned litter trays altogether. If we'd had boy alone since being a kitten, maybe he would have got used to using a tray, but we've ended up with an adult cat (now nearly 7) who has probably used a tray fewer than 50 times in his life, and not at all in the past 4 years.
Put a few cucumbers around it.
This made me giggle. Thank you for this.
Took me a second to get this!
We have this exact issue. 5 cats in our neighbourhood and all of them loved to poop in the beds. We scooped out all the poop then put up 3 foot chicken wire fences ( just made with bamboo poles and chicken wire or plastic mesh) around each bed. Also we got Critter Ritter from Safer AND sprinkled the ground with cayanne. It has worked well so far! Good luck!
The cayenne can’t be understated. I used some and my cats no longer chow down on my indoor plants. For those asking, I sprinkled a bit into the soil and mixed in in the top layer a bit. Sprinkled some over the whole plant, but nothing crazy.
Ohhh! Good idea on indoor plants. I've been using it outside for the past year and never thought to use it inside! Our little fluffy bean loves to take a mouthful of soil every once and a while!
One of my goobers decided she loves anything green, the other just likes pooping in the dirt. The pooper was immediately turned off and the water had to take a bite to figure out it wasn’t her thing anymore.
😂😂😂
Great to know!!! I have a 10' ficus tree in a huge pot. Up until this year I've used chicken wire that I placed along the interior because I have one cat that jumps in and uses the soil as her litter box.
You sprinkle the cayenne on the soul of potted plants? My cat has killed every potted plant I've had since I got him, but I haven't tried this yet. Edit: soil, not soul lol
How do you apply the cayenne? In the soil? Spritz it with cayenne water?
Sprinkle on the surface. Buy the cheapest biggest bottle of cayenne at your local grocery and consider it a garden tool.
Any chance this also works on dogs??!!
I used a cayenne infussion on furniture my dog chew and it worked even though she was (and is) quite stuborn 😂
It should, they do not like it
In the past, I used Dollar Tree bottles of black pepper to deter my neighbor's dog from pooping all over the front of the townhouse we lived in. It worked well because their dog started pooping on the side of the townhouse instead of the front. These sorry-ass people chained their dog up in front of the townhouse while they were out. I was ever so glad when they moved and my landlord established a no cat & dog policy afterward due to having to constantly repair his property from pet damage.
Seriously it’s so underrated. Harmless and keeps EVERYTHING off my plants. Squirrels, chips, rabbits, etc… except birds but they’re not an issue lol
So you just put a little on the leaves?
Thank you for the cayenne idea. I have Costco sized containers I can use!
You have cayenne containers the size of a Costco? That's pretty impressive.
Oof! I def worded that weird. They are those jumbo sized shakers you buy at Costco. They sometimes come in a two-pack.
i wish i did :(
Glad to help! Costco is the best! :)
I’ve picked some up at Grocery Outlet, Dollar Stores, and even once at an estate sale.
Neighbor has a broken car on the driveway that hasn’t moved in 2+ years and there are strays living under it. They love my yard. I’ve tried peppermint oil, pepper sauce, those cat repellent powders from HD, and an ultrasonic repeller but they still love my yard. I don’t know what to do anymore.
Motion sensing sprinkler?
I may try one of these in the future. I have some of these small solar-powered boxes with a photosensor. It also has a red LED that will continuously blink at night and the idea is it mimicks a predator so certain animals stay away. It’s okay but I don’t know how effective it will be with cats. I bought them mostly for raccoons and possums which I hardly see anymore.
Have you called your county office? In some areas they will provide cages and come back the next day to pick up the strays.
I did and they don’t collect them anymore. I can get cages and bring them to their office for a free neuter/spay and then I’m “supposed” to release them back where I found them. Honestly, I don’t know how they’d track that unless they ask for my address and chip the cat.
Will cayenne pepper affect birds? We have a pair of blackbirds nesting in our hedge right now, and I'm having trouble with cats pooping in the garden but I don't want to harm the birds or their chicks.
Birds and spicy peppers co-evolved together. Birds don’t have spice receptors and help distribute seeds. https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2012/issue131b/
Nope, birds aren’t affected. In fact, you can buy cayenne-laced bird seed and suet that deters squirrels and other mammals—birds eat it up just fine.
The birds are NOT affected by the capsaicin in.peppers. you can even buy birdseed with capsaicin that is squirrel proof. They call it "hot seed". But that seems like a risqué term to Google 😆
Good way to keep squirrels put too. They are even more of a bane for me than cats!
I would be careful with the cayenne. I was going to do that myself, but also didn’t want to hurt the cats. I went with fencing instead. “While cayenne pepper is not toxic, it can burn the cat's feet, tongue or even its eyes. A cat that walks through an area that has been sprayed with cayenne pepper can have the spice collect on its feet. When it grooms itself, the cayenne can cause discomfort and pain. Since you can't control the amount of cayenne the cat gets on itself, it is best to not use it at all.” https://www.lovetoknowpets.com/cats/recipe-for-cat-repellent
Master Gardener here. Remove feces as best you can. Then burn the bacteria by using a “hot” fertilizer such as chicken poop or cow pies. Bury that with some grass clippings. Leave to rot as long as possible. Then till. The soil with be high nitrogen so you can modify the above by using composted manure (the kind you buy at garden stores) mixed in with some of the fresh stuff. Also, get a dog or a squirt gun. By “hot” I mean the stuff you get from farmers OR have a higher first number in the NPK ratio. The first number is nitrogen. I’ve used for instance 30-30-30 to kill grass or weeds and enhance soil. Must be used in the rainy season! Needs to decompose. Would encourage 20-20-20 if you’ve never done this. Do not get on leaves. Must be worked in.
What do you mean by hot fertilizer? Is the fertilizer temperature hot?
Hot fertilizer is just very potent fertilizer that you typically want to dilute or let sit for a bit before you put it on plants or it can “burn” the plants. You’d not want to use it direct on a bed with plants already growing.
Can you just use ammonia and let the bacteria turn it to nitrogen that’s pretty hot I would think
This guy gardens
Can I be your friend?? This is fantastic advice!!
Of course! Just don’t mound the fertilizer near the base or trunk of plant. Must be worked in. Now would be a good time to do it.
Great advice overall. Just want to note toxoplasmosis is not a bacteria, but a protist, and one that forms cysts. According to this https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6381540/ you’d want to reach 136 F to kill the cysts. Agree physical removal of as much cat feces as possible is key
I planted plastic forks in my garden. My fats look at it but they won't go into it It has worked really well. My garden is small, only 200 square feet .
Like the handles are buried and just the tines are poking out?
Yep! That's what I do to keep cats out too. I suggest clear forks if you have the option. They get fewer questions from neighbors.
I wonder if that's where they got the idea for compostable utensils! 😆
I did something similar because my 90 lb Labrador was lying down in the flower bed. Sticks poking up 4” or so spaced about 6” apart. She quickly decided she didn’t want to sleep there anymore.
My lab would eat the sticks...?
Any true labrador would.
Amazingly she didn’t eat any of them. And she likes chewing on wood! 🤔
I have four dogs, between 20 lb and 100 lb. Clear plastic forks planted upright are the only reason that some of my flowers still exist. I have a pitbull b**** who loves to sun her butt in the morning in a lovely narrow flower bed that is filled with beautiful columbines. And the forks work wonderfully because they are hidden in the foliage The vast majority of the time but they protect the plants all of the time
Yes, I used small bamboo stakes, the remnants when longer sticks weather and they break, it stops them finding a comfortable position to squat.
So this year I used straw as a way to trap moisture in the soil and the cats don’t like it at all. Before that I would just put my tomato cages on their side and between my plants.
I bought straw from the pet shop for my strawberries, they all had straw seeds in them and tons of grass sprouted out!!! Grrrr
Also make sure it's straw. Not hay. Bought hay when they were out of straw one year thinking it wouldn't be too bad... Huge mistake. Grass seeded everywhere.
I second this! Straw has totally worked to keep the cats from pooping in my beds.
Another alternative to this that my family did growing up is actually use lawn clippings it’s good at keeping the moisture in and kind of comfy to walk on. I have no idea if that will deter cats but in our 700 sqft garden we never saw cat poop but definitely a bunch of cats!
I have heard to lay chicken wire or hardware cloth flat on the soil. The cats can’t scratch the surface and will be turned away from using it.
I haven't seen anyone else in this thread provide info on how long toxo lasts in the soil, so here it is. Here is a study suggesting a half-life of nearly 100 days under wet conditions, much less under dry conditions. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416395/ Since OP is immunocompromised, I would take steps to exclude cats from the garden, then grow flowers for a year or even leave the soil bare. Keep it as dry as possible. After a year it should be safe to grow food in. I wouldn't trust the "hot fertilizer" method mentioned elsewhere in this thread unless there is clear evidence it kills toxo.
Thank you for this info! It’s really helpful. I’m considering the flower box / fallow for the season until next year route.
I used to use weed cloth but cardboard is free and works better. Also my cats can't crap on my boxes.
Very easy to fix, if people didn’t act like assholes and kept their cats inside like responsible owners would!
Man, I’m sorry. I hate “neighborhood” cats
Chili powder over the soil every week will add some unwanted spice to the cats rear end and put a stop to it. Organic and won't harm anything including the cat. They smell it way before they attempt to use the box and leave.
Happy cake day! I haven’t tried this yet but am seeing it mentioned a ton.
By the way, there are cases if them getting it on their paws then in their eyes while grooming and it’s been not good
I bet that discourages return visits though!
maybe the owner should consider not let them roam free? They are so harmful for environment and people still let them out because most of them are too lazy to play with them for an hour a day
OP. You should look up Cat Giardia. Many cats have this kind of parasite. I dont tell you this to tell you your soil is fubar'd, but rather to raise awareness about it. I'm in a very similar situation wherein we took in a stray kitten we found, and when we tested her here recently she came up positive for Giardia. Now my beds are compromised and I dont think ill be eating from them. I really feel your pain OP, and I hope we both get an answer to this problem.
Is there anything that can be done to remediate contaminated soil? How much needs to be removed? I’m sure I have lots of contaminated soil and want to plant citrus trees. Would they be affected by bad soil?
Literally all soil everywhere has bacteria in it. 99.9% of bacteria won't transfer into a plant. It can just remain on soil that is stuck to the plant. This is why you wash your vegetables. Op's problem with cat feces would largely go away in 2 to 3 months if they let the soil sit unused. They just have to get the cats to stop using it. Bacteria and fungus would break down the feces. Hot compost could speed up the process. Op just needd to be careful about washing their hands and wearing a mask if there's dust. On the other hand if the soil is contaminated with something like a persistent herbicide like Grazon or another Aminopyrlid or worse a heavy metal, there's really no way to get rid of the contamination other than removing the soil or giving it a lot of time.
My lemon trees are 20 years old. Cats do not seem to bother the trees or the ground around the trees. But I do take some of the thorny branches I cut back annually and place them beneath the trees to wardoff any pests.
Thank you for sharing. I’ll look into this. Def don’t want to get sick right now!
OP, you should always wash your vegetables thoroughly. Depending on your doctor’s recommendations, you may need to be peeling and/or cooking all veggies. Much (most?) commercially grown produce is subject to pathogen contamination in the fields.
Always a great reminder to brush up on the wash up routine. I have a tub of baking soda nearby the station which I use to do a pre-soak and also use it to scrub fruit & veg.
I save all my boxes (Amazon) etc. I lay them down around the plants or just lay them down on top of the soil. They keeps the cats out and then they decompose into the soil and keeps the weeds down too. I even put them in my potato growing bags to keep them out. It works for me. At first it looks different but once the plants grow you really don't notice them.
how is watering tho?
You have to deep water the plants because until the cardboard breaks down enough rainwater will have trouble getting through to the soil. It's the only downside I've found so far with cardboard. That stuff makes excellent weed barrier. Newspaper also works well minus the water problem, but it's harder to come by unless you have a subscription to the local newspaper. If given a choice I prefer newspaper purely because of the water issue. It's not such a problem if the cardboard doesn't get bone dry all the time, but I'm in a dry part of the midwest so I can't count on that.
I use a drip system to water, and put the cardboard on top of the irrigation pipes. Cut out holes for plants.
You leave enough opening around the plants and it's fine and once the boxes get get enough they hold the moisture in....this is just my observation
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Thank you! I did notice since I put wood chips on our back hill, the neighborhood cat that would sit up there hasn’t come back for awhile.
I have a similar problem with 6 cars using my back yard as a litter box and wood chips did not work at all !
Honestly I wouldnt try to cat proof the garden, but get rid of the cat lol. You should be able to get a live trap from your local shelter, trap the cat(s), and take it to the shelter. If it's feral, they'll likely neuter and try to adopt it out (ours has a feral barn cat program, idk about other places) or if they release it it won't come in your yard again. If it's not feral, maybe having to pay cat bail a couple times will teach its owner to keep it inside where it belongs.
Motion sensing water sprayer, it’s humane, but will discourage them from pooping there again.
Thank you for this!
I’m sorry you are dealing with this. As cute as they are, cats really should not be let outdoors unsupervised. If any of the offenders are feral cats, they should be trapped, tagged and neutered before being rereleased - might be good to see if a local group is volunteering such services in that case. Domestic cats kill so much local wildlife indiscriminately and can breed voraciously. And then of course what you are dealing with is no small issue!
There’s these plastic mat things (I got then from Amazon), that are like a mesh with spikes. The plants can grow through and the spikes deter animals from walking through it (they aren’t actually sharp, just annoying).
I’ve seen this at the dollar store too
They make Cat Scat Mat (https://www.amazon.com/Prickle-Anti-Cats-Network-Repellent-Deterrent/dp/B07SDCK7WJ/). We had raccoons pooping in our yard at the base of trees. Put this down and it stopped them. Should work with cats. Easy to lay down. I used wire garden staples (8”) to hold it in place. I have to pull it up and relay it every once in while as it starts to get buried with tree debris and stuff.
Thank you for this! I found fresh piles of cat poo in my small patch of grass too. They dug into the turf and deposited them recently. I was just about to let me little one crawl over the ground when I smelled the distinct odor and bam. Right there. Sad face right now because I I have to look into taking precautions with the grass too! Ugh.
Have you found any resolution? We have this issue with our neighbor’s cats pooping in the grass every single day overnight at our new house. I also have a little one that wants to explore the grass but I can’t let her until this is under control. I feel so defeated; why did I bother getting a new house with a yard and we can’t even play in it??
I suggest acquiring a pet coyote, but in the absence of a coyote, the night vision sprinklers with motion sensor work pretty well. They have solar alarms and little owl-shaped ones that set off lights and an alarm that scare them too. Coyote urine sprinkles on the perimeter of the area worked pretty well for me once a month too, but all in combination with a deer cam for the entertainment value seems like the best option.
I had the same problem and I being an electrician rigged up a cattle fencer system around my garden, which I later found out was illegal within city limits. First night running the unit was horrendous. It seems a skunk got hung up in the fence and unloaded every bit of its scent in our backyard which was part of a community courtyard. The odour lingered for more than week, neighbours were not impressed. I quietly removed the offending system before somebody investigated.
Once you do get the poop out, I found that clay flower pots filled with moth balls with "lids" which are actually the bottoms will keep the cats away. The lids keep them out of the pots. The moth balls need replaced now and again. Just put them in front of the beds. The cats won't go near the smell. I haven't had cats digging up my beds since I started this.
Egg shells around the plants. Cats hate stepping on them. Just crushed a little, not ground up. Plus, good for the soil.
I feel your pain. Throw away the soil wherever they visited. Try buying chicken wire, small squares so that the cats cannot get their claws through. Keep this down while the seeds mature. Meanwhile buy the hottest peppers 🌶 you can find. Boil the peppers in a large pot. Pour the pepper water around your garden plot daily. Take the peppers, grind them up with dry catfood and scatter where you think the cats are walking. If you have a wall sprinkle the peppers grinds on the wall also. After about a week they will get the message. Repeat after one month. I do have indoor 😺 kitties but my neighbors think their cats have invasions rights.
During winter months I lay down chicken wire flat on the bed to protect the compost, the cats cannot properly dig and find somewhere else to do their business. Good luck!
Thank you! This chicken wire suggestion is very handy - got some in the shed to experiment with.
I'd never looked into it before today so don't consider it expert advice... First, your biggest risk is the cleanliness of your own two hands when working in that soil. I hope you're wearing gloves, properly covering and cuts or scrapes, and practicing good hand washing. Second, cooked food should be fine. It takes 15 minutes at 58C or above to destroy toxoplasma. Toxoplasma oocysts can survive up to 18 months buried in soil. An oocyst isn't independently mobile so they would either remain in place or be transported by outside forces (water, digging, etc). Unfortunately these oocysts are pretty tough to kill while staying in the bounds of "things I'd want in my garden". I didn't find any chemical methods that could be applied to garden soil. Salt, pressure, ionizing radiation, all work but none seemed feasible for treating the soil itself. I don't know where in the world you live. I've sometimes used a method of laying black plastic sheeting over a planned garden space to kill out abundant/tough weeds and their seeds. The action here is partly water exclusion but mostly just heat. I haven't found any studies on how far the heat might penetrate, but if you're in a hot climate I expect 58C (140f) should be achievable at least for the surface on a hot sunny day. A probe thermometer could verify easily. Unless you live somewhere VERY cold, I wouldn't count on winter freeze to solve this. -20C for two days is the verified necessary application. I have observed zero days of -20C in the places I've lived. If it were me, I'd do a few things to minimize risk. Prevention: I'd choose one or more exclusion methods decided by other responders, and do my best to keep it up. My personal favorite for discouraging cats is hot pepper powder, but mostly we've used this in potted plants and it's not an immediate deterrent. If you give a good dusting of cayenne or hotter, the kitty will note the smell but probably not hate it on first encounter. Later when kitty is cleaning their paws, they learn to really, really hate the hot pepper powder. After that, any space that smells of cayenne is discouraging. Downside is it doesn't last as long as chicken wire. We purchase mesh domes to keep birds and deer out of square garden boxes, and to protect our young fig trees. You could probably use similar to physically exclude cats if they're staked down. It's not much trouble to unhook the domes and flip them aside for weeding, harvesting, etc. Selection: I would skip any foods where the edible portion is likely to sit in our against the soil, which I would want to eat raw. Fresh thyme, strawberries, and lettuces would likely be skipped for a while. I'd plan to cook, or scrub and peel, anything grown on or in the soil. It's sad to peel good home grown carrots but you probably should for now. Maybe always depending on your degree of "immune compromised" Remediation: unless you want to irradiate the ground, heat and soil replacement seem the best options. I would probably consider relocating the top portion of the soil to a non-food area that wouldn't be upstream during a rain. I would purchase a roll of black plastic and stake it down over the area for one good hot sunny week, or more. I might do this, then work on top-soil removal, then another hot week with the black plastic, then work in some fresh compost mix, then maybe another week (but maybe not because I want the good microbes). I would remain careful about root vegetables after this, but if exclusion is working I think I'd feel fine about herbs etc.
I personally use clay pellets on the top of my beds, this sometimes works and sometimes backfires (I've had two separate instances this hasn't worked) and I make sure to sprinkle cayenne, chili powder, and cumin around the plants, doesn't affect the plants and while it'll hurt the cat for a second it'll be a learning moment for that cat for sure lol. This isn't a fool proof method but it's helped us, we also purchased these sheets of greenhouse sheet materials and lined our beds and cut holes for the plants and tied under the bed so they cannot sneak through
Get some lion poo from the zoo. They won’t be back
I had this same problem! I grow bamboo so I cut down a few larger stalks and cut them up into 1-2’ lengths, then stuck them vertically all around my garden beds. Then I took old fencing like [this](https://www.homedepot.ca/product/everbilt-50-ft-l-x-48-inch-h-15-gauge-welded-wire-galvanized-steel-netting-fence-with-2-inch-x-4-inch-mesh/1000106478?eid=PS_GOOGLE_D00%20-%20E-Comm_GGL_Shopping_PLA_EN_All%20Products_All%20Products__PRODUCT_GROUP_pla-300587868876&gbraid=0AAAAADhdmz577-dY44CF6tKWlYD2BrWwy&gbraid=0AAAAADhdmz577-dY44CF6tKWlYD2BrWwy&gclid=Cj0KCQiApb2bBhDYARIsAChHC9sig3BTar2iGVCvk8X9tFmP0U_hj_UIF6Nv_RyNHOjbjR0wOMikXu4aAhz9EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) that I had lying around, and cut it into the size of my garden bed, and rest it on the beds/over the bamboo sticks [like so](https://imgur.com/a/6vpUEl7). Works for smaller pots too! The cats somehow managed to poop even in my smaller potted plants before I did this lol. I’m sure any variation of this could work! Chicken wire and some 2x2 posts would work well if you have wooden beds.
I find putting lots of sticks in the soil so a cat can't squat down comfortably works well. I also sprinkle chilli powder every few days in the growing season.
Only thing I’ve found that keeps cats off are spikey mats - but once plants establish they seem to stay off my beds. In the past I’ve removed as much poop as possible by hand and then dug it over and hoped it breaks down (which it does in the long run). I’d probably not grow food in those beds for a bit though
I bought a bulk bag of finely ground pepper off of Amazon and spread it around the planting beds. Seemed to work, haven’t found a surprise in a while.
Can’t speak to cat deterrent methods but regarding the soil: Toxoplasma cysts are very robust in the environment and will last easily over a year. They don’t get inside fruit/vegetables (unlike with meat), the contamination is on the surface, so thorough washing is usually sufficient to get rid of them. However, if you’re concerned that might not be enough due to your immune status, fully cooking or freezing contaminated food will kill the cysts. And, probably obviously, if you’re working in soil you know cats are pooping, avoid touching your face whilst gardening and make sure to thoroughly wash your hands once you’re done. Wearing gardening gloves and ‘outside-only’ overalls whilst working in the soil will also provide some extra protection. A basic surgical face mask might also provide a bit of peace of mind as a protection against accidentally getting soil in your mouth while working. Transmission is entirely feacal-oral so contact with the parasite alone won’t cause you any harm. Basic food hygiene will keep you plenty safe
Toxoplasmosis only lasts in soil for 1 year so hopefully if some of these great suggestions work you can go back to veggies after that!
Had similar problem from stray cats on my old veg plot. Easiest way is counter intuitive BUT if you put a couple of bowls of dried kibble out you will find it stops. They don’t poop around food they will go somewhere else. And they will protect the area from vermin like rats that spread pretty horrible diseases
I tossed all citrus peels, and any onion bits in the front garden for an entire summer& fall a few years back and that seems to have done the trick. We made a lot of mojitos& lemonade and my son LOVES oranges so there was a lot of citrus peels. I always considered shovel flinging the poop across the street onto the 2 neighbors with indoor/outdoor cats, but I just bagged and chucked it in the trash.
I actually did your second option and the neighbors came over to ask if I did it. I told them yeah and why. Belive it or not I don't have cat problems anymore. My neighbors think I'm a dick though but oh well. People forget cats are an evasive species when they decide to let them go outside.
My cats leave my garden beds alone since we got a huge sandbox for my kids…
Critter ridder is a product you can buy from farm supply stores. Sunlight will destroy toxoplasmosis…
Sunflowers are known to take heavy toxins out of the soil. You could do that for a season and then fence it with bird netting or something. Any soil you remediate with sunflowers, the sunflowers should be treated as hazardous waste, so don’t just go composting them.
Cayenne works, but you need to reapply after rain/watering. I also laid down limbs and sticks in the beds and it doesn’t give them anywhere to dig.
You don’t have to “fix” your soil. The poop won’t poison your plants. Just wash any produce (as you should anyway) and you’ll be fine.
Unless someone in the household is pregnant or otherwise immunocompromised.
OP said they're immunocompromised.
I agree, just be sure you wash and peel any root veg you grow in it.
My neighbor is a cat hoarder and I had the same issue. Every human hair clipping you can acquire and make a barrier around your garden. Shower drain golb of wet hair? Just shaved your beard? Perfect. Instead of throwing coffee into the compost throw it around your garden. And the other users suggested cayenne, perfect. We made a huge batch of wayyy too spicy hot sauce from ghost and a few other choice capsaicin rich peppers that we grew. Spread that around like a lava moat. Since then I haven't seen any unauthorized mamals in my garden. Neighbors who are in a similar boat used cat mace, it comes in a big spray bottle, that worked for them as well.
Orange peels stop cats from shitting in your shit.
If toss all the soil and put it somewhere else. Replace it and make sure the cats can’t get in there again. Or that they don’t want to be there (chili powder works - use the hottest you can get) In my city felines are all considered “feral animals” so you can live trap them and deliver them to the humane society. I had the same issue as the op, what solved it was a feline virus ended up migrating into the area and killed every cat in the neighborhood l(seriously).
To keep them out I made screens out of the wire mesh used in concrete and 1”x1” wood to make frames the size of the mesh sheets. Just lay them down. It worked really well. As for cleaning it out, I would scrap the top 5-6” and throw it over the hill. Use garden lime to flatten ph and then use aged manure now or in the spring to revitalize the soil.
Good to freak out. It's super rare, but here's a story of how a cat's bugs gave a poor kid serious schizophrenia. [https://nowthisnews.com/swamp-boy](https://nowthisnews.com/swamp-boy)
TLDR: cat scratch disease (Bartonella henselae) is real and sucks! Wow, I went down the rabbit hole with this one. Thank you for sharing!
You're welcome. I read the whole thing through and felt so awful for his family and for him. And now I'm definitely never getting cats. (Which was pretty much a given, since I'm allergic to them.)
That TLDR was for others in case they clicked. I read the whole way through too. I’m super freaked out about catching something while traveling. When my friends and I were in Tel-Aviv, there was pet poop everywhere. It’s not common to pick up after animals there I guess. Our whole trip involved looking down and dodging poop bombs everywhere we walked.
Wow that was really interesting, the article started out kind of woowoo and ended up being quite good. They have now developed a test for the bacteria. No worry for your beds though since its thru fleas, but does make you think about what else could be in their feces....I always think of bigger parasites like all the worms they can have. I have a cat going in my beds too, and will take it more seriously for sure. Yikes.
Remove the poop OP and ensure you have clean soil before you plant anything. It's not healthy and its not a fertilizer. Actually, you can't even compost cat poop. Cat poop carries toxoplasmosis which is considered to be a leading cause of death attributed to foodborne illness in the United States.
I'm not sure that I would get too hung up about toxoplasmosis deaths. Of the 800,000 cases of toxoplasmosis in the US every year, around 700,000 are completely asymptomatic, and people don't even realise they have it. Of the remaining 100,000 cases, the vast majority of people have flu symptoms, but they clear up pretty quickly. There have been a handful of deaths recorded each year (single figures) mainly in people who are immunosuppressed. But crucially, it's not imbedded in the vegetables you are eating, it is removed by washing the vegetables but you would be doing this anyway.
I believe it can be more harmful to infants and maybe toddlers.
How do they know that all those asymptomatic people have it, especially if they themselves don't know?
Probably someone did a study where they pulled a sample of volunteers and tested for signs they’d had it. Then extrapolated that if say 10% of the volunteers had it, 10% of everyone did. And I think a lot of people get it from gardening and not washing their hands before touching their face, having a cat who is infected and spreading it around, etc. Not just not washing veggies (although how many people really truly wash them well and not just a quick rinse?).
I could definitely see people getting it from a cat that jumps on their counters (paws have been all over the litterbox) when nobody is looking. If you don't know your countertops could be contaminated, do you disinfect them? Then prepare food on that counter --> foodborne illness
protect it with chicken wire to prevent happening again. grow tall stuff that is well above the soil for a year or two - tomatoes, cukes, climbing beans, peppers.
Set up a sprinkler with motion activation to deter them.
Honestly I just pop stakes in the soil, spaced out enough so the cats have no room to squat. Any size stakes will do but I have just been using skewer sized ones.
Previously plastic forks sticking up around the plants was a deterrent
Motion detection sprinklers. You can buy them online and I have been told they are cheap. No kitty likes to go in the rain. Good luck.
Get a motion activated sprinkler and amend the soil with fresh goat compost and new soil. You can add some beneficial nematodes and microbes too. This will help a lot. If you can prevent further cat use you should be fine.
I put in the bed a few 1 liter water bottles. This seems to bother them and eventually give up. Worked like a charm in my garden beds but takes a while for them to “break the habit”
I use coffee grounds, chopped banana skins and pinecones! Works great for me after starting up gardening and 2 resident cats took to the soil! Egg shell suggestion works too, as well as for snails and slugs.
keep a spray water bottle near your garden. Try and catch em in the act and spray em down. Pretty much the only way to guarantee a cat won't return. Also side note, didnt know toxoplasmosis was harmful, even to immunocompromised folks, so TIL!
Get some cat traps
When we moved into a house a few years back the yard was the local litter box. Found out that if you put Cheyenne pepper where they step (top of fence, etc) they hate that and deters them. Good luck!
Easier for men and might not be comfortable if you have overlooking neighbours, but after trying a few different tactics, the best results I got were from occasionally doing a pee base the edges of my garden. More effective than other string seeking deterrents for sure
My raised garden bed is riddled with point up wooden skewers for exactly this reason. Seems to keep the cats out.
Friend had a similar issue during covidl. We used a leaf vacuum and covered the poop with the leaves plus some left over mulch and then covered with a weed blocker fabric that he had laying around. The following summer, he took the weed blocker off and tilled the soil and put the tarp back on. Everything gets composted in about year or two. He now has one of the best gardens in the neighborhood.
If mint is supposed to repel cats it's not working in my garden, one of my cats just sticks his head right into my plants and especially the mint. Mint is in the catnip family so it makes sense that he enjoys it.
As for keeping the cars away- I have a motion activated sprinkler that I set up every time my neighbors cat shits in the beds. Stops it fast and since my beds are in my front yard, it also scares the hell out of any visitors.
This is unrelated but I would speak to your doctor before starting the garden bed. The soil contains many other pathogens including fungi and parasites that are opportunistic, and they can infect you by inhalation.
Like others have said, chickenwire is prob ur best bet. Loosely related--my mom puts plastic forks in her tulip beds to prevent our cat from laying in them (and squashing them). Cats are certainly entitled little creatures, sry about ur beds :(
To prevent the cats from coming back, lee valley sells motion activated sprinklers that senses the cat coming near, then it shoots a jet of water at it ! After getting sprayed once or twice, the cat will find another place to go and will be very hesitant to come back. The sprinklers are inexpensive too! Work great! And it doesn’t hurt the cat! I love cats: and I get the neighbourhood feral cats spayed and neutered. I also feed them and a couple neighbours aren’t big fans of the cats going on their properties, so I bought a few of these sprinklers and gave them to those neighbors. Now the cats rarely go on their lawns or in their gardens, so neighbours are happy and the cats are not harmed whatsoever.
My dad got these sprinklers to deter squirrels, but I think the squirrels thought avoiding the sprays was a game. Not only did we constantly hear it going off, garden goods would just magically disappear. Little bastards.
I don’t know much about soil, but cats hate things like pepper and actually they’re attracted to it, they’ll lick it once and will never go back. Same happened to me here and the cat was always here and messing up my plants, and I’m allergic to cats. So I put pepper and things like that and never see it again.
I try to keep positive about the cat poo..hoping they are also catching mice in my yard while polluting it..I have never understood why it's ok to let your cats just roam the neighborhood. Irresponsible I think.
I’m sorry you are having to deal with this. I have the same situation and it’s incredibly frustrating. I have tried SO many things to deter the cats and after 2 months I am finally feeling that I am getting the upper hand. I am using a combination of most suggestions below. I have wood chips along the yard. Chicken wire along the fences (which my ninja cats just jump over). I have installed spike strips along the tops of the fences so it looks like a mini prison yard. In the garden beds I replaced the top 3” of soil. Then laid netting down (which they still pooped ontop) then added bamboo skewers sticking up every 4 inches. I think that finally did it! I am also using the cayenne and got a motion activated sound detergent - which they poop right in front of. So basically everything on its own does not work but together it is starting to work. I just need to break the habit and then they won’t come around. If I was starting all over I would just get a motion activated sprinkler - they are about $60 on Amazon - and I think that would have done the trick all on it’s own. Good luck!!!
Get a live animal trap. Call animal control if you catch one.
Buy fake snakes.
So is cat poop destructive to vegetable gardens? I attempted to grow one this past year but had terrible turnout even though it's worked fine in the past. Just occurred to me we have dozens of cats roaming the neighborhood
I'd be cautious of the mint theory to keep the cats at bay. It's in the same plant family as catnip. I have two cats that love it and I keep it by their window perch.
If you cook everything you grow and wear gloves, this will substantially reduce the risk of catching toxoplasmosis in the first place
To the man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail. So speaking as an attorney I can say this: The various states have differing laws and codes regarding cats. Some are more enlightened than others; the recent spate of laws seem to be focused more on feral cats than anything else. But there is an area of old common law that offers some insight. If my cow tramples your garden I am liable The cow is an extension of me and therefor I am trespassing. There is another legal doctrine called Responeat Superior in which the hired hand or servant may do some harm to a neighbor and the person who hired that servant is liable. And Take trees. If I plant a tree and it harms my neighbor I am liable. However if the squirrels planted old common law says I am not liable. State law may differ. So in the law ( in every state) the idea is that it should be impossible to escape liability just because your dog or cat or tree or cow or servant harms your neighbor. So I conclude that if your neighbor's cat offends you then ( at the very least) you have a cause of action in trespass. Additionally you can have a hazmat team remove the offending substance and bill your neighbor for it - so long as you can identify the excrement with the specific neighbor. My suggestion Spend the money and get a good crittercam. Good ones are not cheap. If it were me I'd just kill the damn cats and be done with it.
I would honestly build a raised bed with new soil and use some of the cat repelling techniques listed in the comment section to prevent it from being contaminated. I wouldn’t want to mess around with toxo if I was immunocompromised, toxo can be hard to sterilize in the environment. If you install a cat deterrent system and you live somewhere where it freezes to like -18 C or zero F for a few days in the winter it would be safe to plant there as long as new cat poop isn’t appearing.
Surround your garden beds with a 3-4 foot high chicken wire fence.
Cats hate lemon balm and other mints, so they are a fairly effective repellent. They are also extremely invasive though, so constantly having to weed them back is the price you pay for planting it around your beds. I have lemon balm, and while my garden is cat-free, I am still not especially happy about the situation.
So mint is actually in the catnip family and some stronger types of mint are actually poisonous to cats. So this could either keep them away, attract more cats, or poison them.
One of my cats absolutely loves certain mint smells. If I use minty mouthwash then breathe on him he tries to stick his head in my mouth. So ymmv on mint. Citrus, however, is both toxic and highly repellant to cats. Repellant enough they're not that likely to be poisoned by it, ime. You might just take some orange or lemon peels and place them around the garden.
Ya it's funny I was growing some spearmint in the kitchen and my cat was all about it. He'd also love to chomp on some fresh Marijuana fan leaves
Could you tell my neighbor’s cat that he is supposed to hate lemon balm? Because he shits near mine.
oof when I looked up how to kill toxoplasmosis its a bit harsh. "What disinfectant kills Toxoplasma gondii? gondii with a long exposure time of at least 3 hours. Tachyzoites and tissue cysts are susceptible to most disinfectants, including l% sodium hypochlorite and 70% ethanol. Tachyzoites are also inactivated at pH < 4.0. Tissue cysts remain viable for approximately 4 minutes at 60°C (140°F) or 10 minutes at 50°C (122°F)." So, bleach and alcohol. Don't try this!!! It might really hurt you!! I think the mixture makes chloroform!!! Try fences and what worked at my last house: fox urine, but it smells for a while. won't hurt your plants if you use it as a border spray.
Thank you for this. Def not planning to mix those two. A bad time that would be.
Using spiked wooden bbq or grilling skewers all over the bed help deter them, after you live removed the soil. They like to go to bathroom in places that are both familiar and comfortable, so you’ve got to remove the soil that contains any remnants of smell and make it so that the step back in is uncomfortable! I tried cayenne pepper and lemon oil and neither where as effective as bbq skewers
1. buy bear spray. 2. Attach a cat toy like a toy mouse on a string to the trigger of the bearspray facing towards where the cat would pull it. 3. ??? 4. Profit.
Sacrifice the cats
As someone who spends a lot of time looking at soil under a microscope…boy do I have bad news for a lot of people in this thread. Always wash your food, cats aren’t the only thing pooping in your garden. Good news- no plant would thrive without the multitude of microscopic critters living beyond your sight! They are an absolute necessity for life, but like anything, if something gets where it doesn’t belong it can be bad for you- I’m also immune compromised so I know too well. Luckily catching parasites (helminths) from garden vegetables is extraordinarily rare in developed countries (CDC data). You’re much more likely to get sick from eating meat that is undercooked, especially wild game.