Cat repellent

We are surrounded by cats - seems we are the only ones in our neighbourhood without one. Bloody things spray on our property and use it as a toilet. Last straw is one has taken to tearing open the rubbish bag when it is out on the street awaiting pickup.

Has anyone found and used an effective cat repellent? Not interested in recommendations for dogs, firearms, or getting a bigger cat ourselves...

We had a problem a couple of months ago and SWMBO read in a women's magazine that the best way to keep cats away was a mixture of white vinegar and water sprayed on the areas they use. It worked for us. :) 1:1 mixture.

A dog works well

Couple of oz of lead:devil

Spray the bag with fly spray; really, it works.

Citrus also works , supposedly
But you cant spray your whole section with cat repellent . And then re-spray repellent, constantly.

I get the occasional wandering cat spraying my doors at night , its a stink thats hard to get rid of. Luckily it doesnt happen very often.

Thx very much for the 3 useful replies. The issue of toileting is too hard to deal with, but there are specific places where they spray, and the rubbish bag issue has to be sorted. I have a really vicious crawling insect spray for outdoor use (Taupo has Gisborne cockroaches so I spray around potential house entry points from time to time). I will use that first, and if that fails I will try the vinegar remedy. Citrus after that! Thanks again.

Hopefully these solutions work, something I found very effective is a super soaker water pistol. Doesn't really help when you are not around but they learn to avoid you and stay off your property when they see you.
And for the cat lovers, no it doesn't hurt them.

My neighbour has had 2- 3 cats over the many years she's lived there, I didn't realise how effective my tiny little dog was as a deterrent until he died and I started seeing them all the time.

You need to use scented flyspray, it's not the strength of the can so much as the potency of the cheap scent, Pyrethrum combination I believe.

They are smelling the leftover food through the plastic bag you need to disguise that and make it smell undesirable.

Thanks for that advice about the fly spray. As far as the dog recommendations are concerned, it's not going to happen. I was brought up on a farm and believe dogs have no place in town or inside houses (except for working dogs like guide dogs). Secondly, new neighbours have moved in on two sides of us. One set has a labrador or retreiver. The others have a rat like thing and two rottweillers. They have made not a jot of difference to the behaviour of the neighbourhood cats. In fact, if anything, the cat behaviour has got worse. The rubbish bag tearing started after the dogs arrived.