I think how successful any herb would be depends on the type of rodent you are trying to deter. Might work well for small critters (mice and perhaps even rats) but doubt it would have much impact on something like a nutria or capybara.

Well, they don't eat the mint, but the chipmunks around here seem to have no issue running past it to steal the cherry tomatoes. They did seem to go after the plants further from the mint patch last year, but I suspect that was more about the tomato than the mint. That being said, our mint is adjacent, so maybe it's not close enough to annoy them. I think we had mild improvement planting onion and garlic starts in our pots, but the most successful seems to lift the branches so they're harder to get to.

I've spent time trying to deter squirrels with various smells. Zero success. Even with predator urine. Especially urban rodents, who are street-wise and uppity. They just laugh at funny smells and pretend threats.

No, mint will not defer (?) rodents.

My garden thief is a fat mouse or a smallish rat.

If mint won't work, what will? I don't want to use poison and I'm afraid that a trap might hurt my neighbor's useless cat.

Live traps work well with rodents. Trap it, and cart it off. I have several Havaharts. You can rent them at most feed stores.

Please no poison ... it poisons the whole food chain, since anything that eats the poison becomes toxic itself. Traps are more for inside pests ...

Fencing/caging could help some, though mice and chipmunks can generally climb over it. Most critters aren't a fan of being inside an enclosure, so a smaller cage can help somewhat, so long as it isn't so close to the plant as to be a scaffold that they can reach the plant while sitting on.

I too thought a cage would help. I put one over the entire tomato plant (top too). The next day, my best tomato had a large bite out of it. So I pegged the side nets to the ground in more than two dozen places. The next day, my second best tomato was bitten. It did this in daylight while I was working in another part of the garden. I think if I'd had enough pegs to fasten the sides down every quarter inch or less, the rodent would still have found a way in.

They dont care about cover of night ... unless you're literally on top of the tomato, rodents view them as fair game. How wide are the openings on your cage? They can get through pretty small spaces. You might pretty much need mesh, though it'll be hard to screen out rodents while still allowing in pollinators.

We have had some that we move to the screen porch once they've finished their last set of flowers. We also had some that we had to pick before fully ripening because they must have been particularly tasty.

Nonsense. Traps are very much for outside pests. We're not talking shoebox sized traps. In the last decade I've trapped about fifty squirrels, and a lot of possums, and raccoons. A couple of rats as well. Just yesterday, got myself a big raccoon that would have ended up eating my melons. If baited right, they work!

If you have ONE pest that is bothering you, don't bother with caging your plants. Now, for a mouse or small rat, we're talking a killing trap that would never hurt a cat. Then again, there is no such thing as ONE mouse or rat.

what works for me is a concoction of spicy pepper. i make it by brewing a bunch of hot pepper pulp with some garlic and spray it everywhere, mostly on the soil and around the plants as i do not want the squirrels digging.