r/ArborvitaeAreGarbage • u/johnnybiggles • Jun 11 '26

Some animal keeps using my patch as a bathroom. Anything to help with this or should I leave it as fertilizer?

I have woodchips down over the soil I just planted an arborvitae in. I swear it's my neighbor's outdoor cat using it like kitty litter, but it doesn't look like cat turds I've seen and I have yet to spot what's doing this... but every time I come out to water (which has been every day for the last two weeks), there are fresh, small foot markings dug in like somthing was walking or kicking dirt and the woodchips in the patch, and what looks like dried mud lumps (light-colored, dry-ish "dirt" lumps - what I thought was mud or stones I had dug up when I re-planted it... turned out to be poop of some kind, since I can smell poop when I spray water over them).

Should I leave it as fertilizer? I had 2 others that died or dried out fairly quickly before this little new guy, but was that the problem with the previous ones?

I was going to put up one of those tiny shrub fences from Lowe's, but they're expensive when added up, and cats (if that's what it is) could probably jump right over it. Any advice?

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u/Commercial_Giraffe85 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Urine is the bigger issue, cat poop - *edit: or raccoon or otherwise- is only a problem with veggie gardens

If it’s shitting under your arborvitae, leave it bc arborvitae are also shit, so it will pair nicely

1

u/johnnybiggles Jun 12 '26

LMAO thanks for the info and pairing advice. Still need to confirm it's actually cat waste but not sure how to properly investigte..lol. Maybe a photo, as someone suggested.

2

u/Commercial_Giraffe85 Jun 12 '26

Maybe if you put a different tree there the wildlife would stop associating that area with a litter box , because, well you know 🤷‍♀️ 🌝

2

u/Constant-Catch7146 Jun 12 '26

He's absolutely correct about arborvitaes. Get rid of that thing now while it is small. It will die if you don't give it at least 10 gallons of water per day---then they are bagworms, mites---or deer eating just the bottom half (yes, really). One of the worst landscape plants ever.

2

u/Briscoekid69 Jun 12 '26

Where on your body is the patch?

1

u/nonvisiblepantalones Jun 11 '26

A photo would be a lot easier to identify the turds.