don't know about a scent to keep them away. the neighbor behind us has them under her shed (which is closer to our house than hers actually) and last year we put out a live trap by her shed and other areas around the back end of her yard (the part that is closest to ours) and over the whole summer we caught about 10 of them. hubby drove them across town (which is actually across a few rivers) and let them go. that's the only thing we do. we've seen one a few houses down but if he's happy there and doesn't venture over our way i'm not going to worry.