I lay pieces of chicken wire flat on top of the mulch to keep the neighbor’s cats from using my flower bed as a potty.

One size fits all solution? Livestock electric fence charger and I'm not talking about the dinky pet deterrents. Get one intended to hold cattle,horses,goats and sheep. Caveat if your kids aren't old enough to know better than mess with it. Conibear traps do the job but are lethal. Trip-wire booby traps are an amusing solution but require a little construction skill. I bought 2 owl statues constructed of light weight resin and attached them to spring wires that launched when triggered. Following a single encounter, no animal would get withing 50 feet of where I sat them in the yard.

My most simple experience is reduce the thing that attracts critters, which is ~95% smell. Short form: keep adding so there's usually a thick layer of woody stuff on top.

Compost talk is mostly about keeping out stuff that tends to be the worst smelly (meats/fish/dairy). I've found more effective approach is to focus on a pile that has a lot of non-smelly (from critters point of view) or smell-absorbing stuff in it - and I do that by just adding smell-absorbing stuff to the pile. That is mostly / most effectively made up of leaves, wood chips, sawdust, shredded paper/cardboard, etc - in other words woodier materials. Most general yard waste won't smell in a way that's attractive to most critters, but YMMV.

In my bin management, I've mostly just kept a bunch of leaves and/or woodchips around to layer on top when needed. If you have access to sawdust, that's great. There are some other things you could add/sprinkle on top like wood ash - in moderation, and not all composters approve. But it does mask smells.

That's mostly worked and I've gotten away with putting a lot of stuff in the bin that "compost types" often recommend against. Squirrels and chipmunks don't seem interested enough to bother. I've found a mouse nest occasionally or two in a leaf bin or pile.

But it depends what your local fauna is and their predilections. When I've been in places with raccoons, no guarantees and I've been much, much more conservative with what goes in the bin.

If you have animals that dig to get at worms like in compost bins (eg moles) that may or may not be a problem. I didn't have time to worry about dealing with that.

dogs and cats.. keep most out of the usual urban yard.. presuming they spend a good part of the day outside..

so will children ... but that can be an expensive cure.. lol ...

but if you work full time.. and are only there in the evening and/or weekends.. its probably losing battle ...

chipmunks can be trapped with a rat trap ... you might be surprised how few there actually are.. on my 5 acres.. one year i trapped 3.. and the problem ended.. i was very much surprised...

one other thought.. is to xmas gift neighbors 2 or 3 doors away.. with bird and or squirrel feeder units.. and have your unsuspecting neighbors lure them away from you.. lol ..

ken

If you are looking for simple application, you might try the Critter Ridder by Havahart (the pet friendly people). Granules in blue can, not spray. It helps with dogs, cats (can attest its helpful for those) and does show skunks and other urban animals on the label. Home Depot for one.

I had problems with rabbits and squirrels digging up my pots and garden bulbs. What worked for me was to stick chop sticks in the ground where they dug. Maybe space them every 4" or so. I think it hurts their paws, so they stay away. You could probably use anything pencil sized like small twigs..