Stray cats making sandy zone into a litter box. Advice?

Good Afternoon Permies,

I have a bit of a challenge on my hands. An area on the edge of my property is made up mostly of gravel/sand and it seems it has attracted some unfortunate attention. It is RANK with a strong ammonia scented cat pee odor.

I'm looking for a more passive solution than putting in stray straps or a motion sensing sprinkler.

Would you think putting pine chips over the area would at least neutralize some of the stink? I don't intend on planting anything in that spot as it is right next to a large Norway pine.

How much property are we talking? If it's big enough, it may be worth making that corner even more cat-attractive so they prefer that as a poop palace over your garden beds. If it's small and you don't have a friendly terrier, it might be easiest to bury or dig out the sandy base they like so much.

You can cover it with thorny twigs like wild rose (or any other thorny rose), etc. A pile of such twigs will also provide a shelter for small critters like pygmy shrews, etc which get hunted by cats.

Whenever we have stray cats using our garden beds as a litter box, we get these pellets that have cayenne in them and sprinkle them all over the area. It gives them spicy feet and they leave it alone. Just needs a refresh every time it rains.

A huge factor is how large of area.  From previous descriptions of your property, I assume relatively small. I would first buy a cheap, large bottle of hot sauce and sprinkle the area now and after each rain.

I think I mentioned elsewhere that ethnic food stores have giant bags of cayenne pepper that is *incredibly* hot compared to the usual stuff we get. It's bear spray in a bag.And it's cheap, cheap, cheap. That's what I would use. Don't inhale or rub your eyes!

My patio is made of white pea gravel.

The cat doesn't like doing her business there and doesn't like to sit or lay there.

Maybe the sand could have a layer of pea gravel over it.

Luckily for myself, the zone is about a 5ft x 5ft square so it is not TOO big.

I have laid down a layer of wood chip on top of it. The sand is lifeless so I can't see it hurting any. I'm going to monitor for any scratching or disruption to see if the cats even mind it or not.