Expert: Christopher Littrell - 4/16/2008

Question
Hey, My name's Setu and I have a question about carnivorous plants.

Basically my mom loves gardening, it's all she does since my dad dies. It was the first thing she was able to do without breaking down and bawling her eyes out, so it's nice you know. But recently this Canadian family moved in across the street (I think one of them's Jewish) and they have 2 cats. One of them's cool but the other one keeps on peeing and eating my mom's plant.

We put up a fence but it crawled under on our neighbors side and got in anyway. Basically I was wondering if there was some kind of plant that could bite it so it bleeds or maybe even just eat it to death. I want my mom to be happy. I don't know what else to do. I'm 14 so my options are kinda limited.

If I can't think of anything else I'm going to smash it's head in when no one's looking.

I want my mom to be happy again.

Answer
Hello Setu,

Sorry to hear about your families problems,

There are no carnivorous plants capable of catching, injuring, or digesting a cat. Cats are very good at getting into and out of places.

The best options for cat control would be to call the City Animal Control to pick the animal up since it is not being controlled by the owner. I would also avoid attacking the animal since that would cause more harm than good as Animal Control and Police would see injury to an animal as animal cruelty and have the individual that injures an animal arrested and fined.

There are motion control sprinklers that spray water when they detect anything moving in your yard. If you could have some of those installed they would spray the cat... cats do not like taking showers usually.

Carnivorous plants are generally cultivated by hobbiests as a fun and beautiful addition to their home and garden, not for pest control of any kind.

I wish you and your family the best,

Christopher