Critter Ridder Ready-to-Use Spray

i'm glad I didn't look at the reviews before I bought this! I might not have gotten it. Here's the story. We live in a neighborhood of relatively newer houses on large lots. Some people put in pools and concrete, but have lawn and some beautiful big trees-cottonwood and pepper trees. The back 1/3 of our yard is fenced off so our dogs cannot get back there because we have some big cactus and century plants and other spiny things. Just this spring, our yard, especially our fenced off area, became a place where cats congregate. First, a couple, then, two or three more and finally we stopped counting. Our little dog would get very excited and would chase the cats, but a couple of times the cats ran into the hedges on the side of the yard and Bernie went in after them and got whacked, but good! I went to Amazon and just started looking for cat repellant and bought two bottles of Critter Ridder. My husband gave the top of the fences that border our yard a good spraying, He sprayed under the hedges and went into our drought tolerant area and sprayed thoroughly along the fence and retaining wall. The cats stopped coming. It has been a week now and we have not seen or heard a single cat in our yard. I am thrilled, but Bernie is very disappointed. I don't know how long it will last, but even this amount of time is a real relief.

This product doesn't work at all. Cats, Dogs, and Raccoons, ignore the area I soaked. They walk right over it. I've sprayed a raccoon in the face, and he rubbed his eyes for a few seconds, and returned to my porch. I used quite a bit on my trash cans, and woke up to my trash all over the place. I soaked a washcloth with it, and my cats smelled it and walked away. It bothers me more than the animals it is suppose to repel. I've tried many things to get this to work. I can honestly say, it does not work for me. It was a waste of money. Maybe it will work for you...

We had a problem with the dog eating out of the kitchen trash can, so I went looking for a mild capsaicin spray or similar to make her stop doing it (or at least to regret doing it). This stuff seemed to fit the bill. I started spraying one blast of it into the trash after throwing out anything that seemed like it might be delicious to a labrador (so anything, really). I was worried it would be too noxious to use indoors, but it's fine. It does have a lightly peppery smell, but one squirt into the trash can, which we then close, is barely noticeable. After we started doing this I caught the dog sticking her nose in the trash can a few times and deciding against further investigation, so I think this has solved our problem.So it's not quite the intended use, but I recommend spraying this on your trash to stop animals from eating it. Would probably work great for trash pandas.

Doesn't work as well as expected

I received deer & rabbit critter ridder. I ordered all animals in the blue bottle displayed above. I received a green & white bottle. I don’t think I’ll be seeing any deers nor rabbits in the city where I live any time soon. I decided to keep it because of the ingredients similarities. It also took too long to arrive, which made me suspicious. The bonide brand animal ridder arrived the next day at a fraction of the price.I have purchased critter ridder in the past from a home improvement store and it does work. Strong scent to deter animals.

I had raccoons going up a tree for three days after a nearby deli closed and took its dumpster. I get up early and wear a head lamp, so I saw a family of 4 going up a tree. Raccoons can be dangerous if cornered, so I was cautious and used flood lights, the horns on my vehicles, etc. to keep our paths from crossing. I sent for this product Monday afternoon and it was on my stoop Friday. I used it the next morning by putting an 18" band 5 feet up several trees. It is basically pepper spray ( use goggles!) with a long residual. (Effective for up to 30 days). I gave it the Columbus Day weekend to work. Tuesday morning no more raccoons! It allowed me to break up the animals newly established behavior pattern before it became entrenched because it is effective and was used quickly.

The product is somewhat effective in the very short-term, but it seems to lose effectiveness quickly - especially with rain and morning humidity. But the worst part of the product is the spray bottle mechanism - the product quickly plugs the sprayer after a few uses and it is fairly impossible to clean the nozzle and tube once that happens, due to very poor design. The product also seems to thicken with age, making the sprayer even more ineffective. There is a lot of pepper material in this product and you can notice it if you happen to breathe some of the spray. But modern city-bred gray squirrels seem to be accustomed to virtually everything there is, including these pepper-based products and they don't seem to be bothered by it. There is no defeating the city squirrel! When everything else on the planet is extinct, gray squirrels will still be around and thriving. Neither global-warming nor nuclear winter will stop the squirrel.

I tried everything, electronic, chemical, management (hood up, etc) and nothing worked until this. Before I found this stuff my Toyota (soy based wire coatings, as with some Hondas), suffered massive damage from rats when I was out of town for 10 days. To the tune of over $13,000. I could no longer park it in my carport. Since then I have only succeeded in controlling them with Critter Ridder (forget peppermint, that was mere cologne).Pros: Cheap, easy to apply (DO NOT BREATHE THIS STUFF), and most important it repels, so rats leave rather than dying. (If you want to kill them that is different process. But having had a couple die inside my dashboard, I can't recommend it until they are OUT of the car.)Cons - It does have to be re-applied every few weeks to months, depending on the infestation level and determination of the rats.I just applied it under my house where I was having issues. Ah, life on the farm...