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Do Mothballs Keep Cats Away? (Read This First!)

Do you have some stray cats or feral cats invading your house every now and then? Are you thinking of using some repellent to deter cats away?

Are you wondering whether you should use mothball or not? However, are you also wondering if it is harmful to use mothballs as a deterrent for keeping cats away from your house?

Keeping cats away with mothballs

Mothballs can keep cats away due to their toxic elements. Mothballs are basically chemical concentrations used as insecticides to repel insects. In spite of mothballs’ ability to deter cats away, you should not be using this method. Instead, you should find a more humane way of repelling cats.

Mothballs are highly toxic for cats because the high concentration of chemicals in mothballs is enough to deter or repel any cats away from your property.

Excessive exposure to mothballs will cause vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, seizures, digestion problems, neurological problems, and so on in cats

Therefore, this excessive usage of mothballs isn’t ideal for repelling cats away from your property rather you should use a very minimal amount of mothballs, especially the modern ones to do the job.

Accordingly, you can put mothballs in glass containers or crush them to make sure the cats don’t invade your property. Limited usage of mothballs can even safely keep cats from peeing around your yard or flower bed which again can be really effective for you.

Do cats like or dislike the smell of mothballs?

Cats do not like the smell of mothballs rather mothballs have repelling effect when it comes to cats or any other pets. In addition, cats are highly sensitive and vulnerable to the smell of mothballs.

Moreover, the inhalation of the gases of mothball or the consumption of mothball by your cat will result in vomiting, fever, kidney failure, liver damage, stomach problems, difficulty breathing, fatigue, and so on.

In addition, mothballs are actually made to repel insects and it has a high density of chemicals induced in them which is really harmful to any kind of pet including cats.

Moreover, some mothballs can be more harmful than others because some mothballs can even contain harmful naphthalene in it leading to severe health conditions for cats.

Are mothballs toxic to cats? 

Mothballs are definitely toxic to cats due to the harmful ingredients with which it is made.

The reason why mothballs are toxic or dangerous for cats is related to the naphthalene that can be found in mothballs.

In addition, the newer mothballs do not use naphthalene mothballs rather it is now made with paradichlorobenzene.

This paradichlorobenzene doesn’t have that level of toxicity in it like that of naphthalene which is why it is less toxic.

However, it doesn’t make mothballs safe and nonflammable for cats. Instead, both of these ingredients of mothballs again can be harmful to cats to different degrees.

In addition, mothballs are basically pesticides that release a vapor that can cause permanent health damage to cats.

Whether it is old-fashioned or the newer version mothballs, these mothballs do not only deter or damage cats’ health rather also cause problems for the environment as well.

What do mothballs do to cats?

Mothballs have a high concentration of chemical elements that work to repel cats or any other type of pet.

When your cat finds these little mothballs lying around the house or in the garden, their curious nature will get the worst of them.

Accordingly, they will start playing with it and they can sometimes even ingest or inhale mothballs.

In addition, the ingestion or inhalation of these mothballs will result in toxicity in cats especially due to the fact that cats are susceptible to foreign or toxic sent.

Moreover, many health hazards such as neurological discomfort, gastric upset, liver disease, kidney damage, and so on will be very prominent in cats especially if they are exposed to toxic mothballs.

Some mothballs are also made with camphor essential oil which can cause the breakdown of the nervous system and seizures in your cat if you are not careful enough with the placement of mothballs around your cat.

One of the most common things that will also happen to cats through the inhalation or ingestion of mothballs is called mothball poisoning.

This mothball poisoning will lead to rapid breathing, seizures, diarrhea, pale gums, lethargy, vomiting, abdominal pain, and so on.

Several other symptoms such as lack of appetite, irregular urination, discoloration of stool, discoloration on the eye areas, and so on are also evident in the case of mothball poisoning in cats.

Therefore, instead of using mothball as a repellent for cats, you should rather use some human measures to keep them from coming to your house.

Will mothballs keep stray cats out of these places?

Due to the toxic element of mothball, it has the potential to keep stray cats out of different places where you do not want them to be.

House:

Stray cats can be really adventurous in their demeanor when they find their way inside of your house.

In search of food, they may come across mothballs lying around the house which upon inhalation or indigestion, they can have mothball poisoning which means mothballs have the potential to effectively keep stray cats out of your house.

However, this is not a very good approach as stray cats can be seriously hurt from the consumption of mothballs.

Instead of giving mothballs to keep stray cats out of your house, you can use vinegar, herbs, plants, natural food, citrus, essential oils, and so on to keep stray cats away.

Flower beds in the garden:

When you have some wildcat or feral cats spoiling your flower beds in the garden, you need to adopt some measures to eradicate this problem.

Although it’s not a really good idea to use mothballs as a repellent for stray cats to remove them from your flower beds, mothballs can still be used in a safer way.

You can keep stray cats out of your flowerbed in the garden by putting some mothballs into a container of glass.

After that, you need to make sure to put some holes in the lid so that a bit of gas can be sensed by these cats who thus will be demotivated to come to the flowerbeds.

However, you need to make sure to use non-naphthalene mothballs so that any harmful effects cannot happen to the cats.

Yard:

Mothballs are typically known for their naphthalene component which has high flammability and if you plan to use naphthalene mothballs in your yard to keep the stray cats away, you will be endangering these stray cats’ health.

Accordingly, you have to use modern mothballs which contain less potency and will help in demotivating stray cats from coming to your yard.

How to safely use mothballs to keep cats away?

Although it is important not to use mothballs to keep cats away, you nevertheless can make safe use of mothballs to deter or repel unwanted invasions of cats.

Therefore, being knowledgeable about the proper ways to safely use mothballs to keep cats away will help you in eradicating confusion.

Use a glass container:

One of the safest ways of using mothballs is related to the usage of a glass container in which you will be adding a couple of mothballs.

Because you are putting the mothballs in a glass container by poking a hole in the lid, a little gas vapor may come out and deter cats.

However, cats will not be able to ingest them fully due to the glass barrier which is again a very safe usage of mothball in deterring cats away.

Don’t Use Old-fashioned Mothballs:

The old-fashioned mothballs are made out of naphthalene which is a highly toxic element that can cause neurological damage, eye problems, liver damage, and so on in cats.

This is why if you use the modern mothballs which are made out of safer options like para dichlorobenzene, the usage of these modern mothballs will result in some sort of safer use than compared to the naphthalene mothballs.

Use crushed mothballs:

Another safer way to use mothballs to keep cats away is related to the usage of crushed mothballs or mothball powder.

In this way, you will not be using a whole block of mothballs rather you are only going to use a pinch of crushed mothball powder which you will then sprinkle around the high-traffic cat areas where these feline or wildcats seem to linger around.

Accordingly, this will deter the cats from coming to your house or yard because these cats will be negatively reinforced by the toxic smell of mothballs and will keep their safe distance.

Final Thoughts

The usage of mothballs in keeping cats away from the vicinity of your house is feasible. However, it is not ideal. This is because excessive mothball exposure can cause kidney damage, liver failure, neurological discomfort, digestion problems, eye problems, and so on in cats.