"The light/noise/water/coyote urine methods have proven to be ineffective."

I've never understood these things to work, including salting with spices to make unpleasant smells. Now, I'm an urban gardener, as are you, and I'm convinced that urban rodents are hardened to stuff that might terrify rural animals. They just laugh at these things.

As to "masked bandits" it depends. If we're talking small rodents, like chipmunks, caging is probably the only option, outside of getting an outdoor dog or cat. Just too many of them. I have issues with squirrels, possums, and raccoons, and I just trap and move. Possums and raccoons are the real garden killers for me, and I displace about a half dozen of them every year. They recolonize in the spring, so if you get them in the spring before produce is available, you won't have any trouble with them for the rest of the year. That is, it's not quite "bailing the ocean". I've been doing this for two decades and, by and large, I believe I've won.

You can't make your garden 100% critter-proof. Even if you build an electrified fortress around it, one day a flock of birds will descend on your tomatoes and have a party. It's the cost of doing business and you have to roll with the punches.

Don't worry in advance -- just find a solution when something actually starts happening on a regular basis. For example, some nocturnal bandits were taking bites out of my tomatoes. They stopped when I supplied them with large bowls of water. It turned out they were thirsty.

One night something pulled out a large pepper plant and dragged it on the patio (???). But it never happened again and I started planting more peppers, just in case.

Once you start your garden, you will probably have to take some steps to protect your plants, and issues will keep coming up, but don't stress in advance.

P.S. As to "little masked bandits that appear in dead of night" we're talking nocturnal. So we aren't talking about chipmunks and squirrels. But quite possibly possums and raccoons. What exactly are we talking about? Do you know?

Raccoons. We get an occasional skunk...but it’s the raccoons that I’m concerned about. At the end of our street, there’s a wooded area with a creek. Lately coyotes and bobcats have been spotted, so for that I’m more worried about my dog! For awhile there were a crazy amount of crows, but now, most seem to have relocated.

Thanks JoJo ...good advice. I am stressing over it! I just thought if we needed to “cage” it, it would be easier to dig post holes while there’s nothing around.

Traps work well. Bait with peanut butter. Again there are a finite number of raccoons, so displacing a few will fix the problem for a season. Sounds like you're already having problems with them, so this isn't about worrying in advance.

The only successful time I've ever seen a country garden not become the local oasis for the critters is one where the man literally buit a huge cage box with a door - meaning that even the floor was part of the cage.

Here the neighbors hunter cat has helped with the ravages of birds and critters. I now can actually pick a veggies or two that doesn't have a bit out of it. ( I now live in the city and thought I would leave the marauding critters behind. hah! )

Kate

I recommend watching the documentary Raccoon Nation.

During my gardening time out in the country we had skunk, racoon, gophers, voles, possums and more.

I have used sound emitters for years and haven't had any problems unless the batteries went dead.

I actually never even thought that they would keep away the larger animals, but perhaps they did?

Now, living in town, there are still gophers, but NOT at my house!

Now to get rid of the squirrels eating my peaches!