How to Keep Cats Off Your Car

Keep cats off your car by keeping them inside, using a car cover, or purchasing a motion-activated ultrasonic animal repeller.
Written by Cameron Thiessen
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
If you’re having trouble with pesky felines using your car as a lounging spot, your first solution should be to try to communicate with your neighbors. If you’re dealing with your own cats, try changing your cats’ schedules and limiting outside time. Use repellents as a last resort.
Many owners of outdoor cats have no idea what sorts of shenanigans their furry friends are getting into, so a quick trip around the neighborhood knocking on doors and asking questions should give you a better idea of who to talk to regarding the intrepid kitties roaming your street.
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Keep cats indoors

A lot of cat owners won’t like to hear this, but the best way to avoid damage done to vehicles by cats is to commit to keeping your cat indoors, limiting outside time, or ensuring that outside time is supervised.
Discuss with your neighbors about keeping cats indoors in the neighborhood or monitoring their cats’ outdoor activity more closely. If your neighbors respect you and your property, they should have no issue reeling in their cantankerous kitties to prevent them from causing damage.
It may be helpful to explain that the scientific community generally agrees that keeping cats indoors is the healthier choice for cats. Other benefits include reducing your local stray population and not annoying your neighbors who are just trying to keep your cats off their cars.
Key Takeaway When cats are left to roam outside, unsupervised, they’ll get into trouble. Discuss with your neighbors about keeping neighborhood cats inside.

Use a cover on your car

So you’ve tried talking with your neighbors, you’ve kept your own kooky kitties in the house, but those strays keep coming.
Now it’s your job to outsmart them. One of the best ways you can do this is by using a car cover. If it’s secure enough, a car cover can easily keep cats from damaging or climbing on your car. If a cat knows it can’t get into something, it will eventually stop trying.
Of course, the downside of the car cover is the lack of convenience. If dealing with this extra step just isn’t your cup of tea, there are other options.

Use physical repellents

If a cat doesn’t feel comfortable somewhere, it won’t want to lounge around. That’s why a highly effective solution to keeping cats off your car is to use a motion-activated
sprinkler system
or a motion-activated ultrasonic animal repeller.
Cats hate water, and they are absolutely irked by sounds produced by ultrasonic animal repellers—sounds that we humans can’t even hear! If the cats keep coming and messing with your prized ride, and you’re willing to put in a little extra money and effort, this method of repelling cats will prove consistently effective and runs no risk of poisoning or hurting the cats.

Remove food and waste sources around your car

If you’re guilty of leaving food and garbage in your car, that might very well be the thing attracting the cats. Cats have a heightened sense of smell, and while you may not notice the odor emanating from the food you accidentally left in your car overnight, chances are that the neighborhood cats did.

Use herbs and spices cats don’t like

If all else fails, you could try the trusty cayenne pepper trick, as cats are known to hate the smell of cayenne pepper. This would involve sprinkling cayenne pepper on and around your car—a delightful activity for a Sunday afternoon. You could do the same with small amounts of rosemary or lavender, but in large amounts, these plants can make cats sick.

How NOT to repel cats

Some things just shouldn’t be used to repel cats, for humane reasons. Here are a few that you may have heard of that should be avoided:

Mothballs

While cats are known to hate the smell of mothballs, if a cat is curious and inexperienced enough, it might just try a taste of the new stinky thing in its environment. Mothballs are toxic to cats, and with so many better options for repelling cats, it’s hard to imagine why you’d choose such a stinky one.

Essential oils

Essential oils contain high concentrations of plant matter—high enough that they can be quite dangerous for cats. You should avoid using them as cat repellent.

Cat spray

Even cat spray can be potentially toxic to cats if used in irresponsible amounts. You’re much better off trying the cayenne trick.
Key Takeaway Try to avoid using potent chemical repellents such as concentrated essential oils or mothballs.

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FAQs

Comprehensive insurance
does cover certain kinds of damage inflicted on your vehicle by animals. Depending on the circumstances, you may be able to file a claim for cat damage if you have comprehensive coverage as part of your policy.
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