Nope. Sorry. It smells lovely when the weather is warm, and is a good mulch for the plants, but doesn't deter varmints, as far as I know.

In my garden, it smelled wonderful very briefly, didn't deter slugs/snails or four legged critters, promptly grew mold the first time it rained. I had bought a couple of bags to do one test section of garden, did not return to buy more :)

Cocoa bean mulches will not deter any of the garden pests and has been known to make household pets very sick when they ingest some. Since this is a waste product it is quite expensive for us but very profitable for the makers of chocolate. I consider this stuff to be something people with more money than they know what to do with to throw that excess away on.
If someone knew much about how the cocoa beans are harvested they probably would not buy any chocolate.

I like cocoa mulch....but can't afford it. Sure it molds....but so does any wood type mulch that's on the way to becoming compost.
My dog doesn't eat it and it does sort of mesh together and really keep the weeds down....but alas I am on more of a shredded pine mulch budget.

rhizo, that assessment is harsh only to those that remain ignorant of the use of child labor to harvest the cocoa beans.

No, Kimmsr....your comment was judgmental. AS USUAL. Why not take that little bit of extra effort to educate someone instead of tossing invective comments such as, "I consider this stuff to be something people with more money than they know what to do with to throw that excess away on.".

Tell me, please...how can a statement like that be the least bit helpful or informative? If you feel strongly about the methods of cocoa harvesting then speak to that. As it stands, your assessment speaks only to those with 'too much money'.

This thread is from last year, when I first tried cocoa bean mulch for my brown pots - my experiment with a "chocolate garden". In my experience, not only does the mulch not deter critters, the rich chocolate smell drew in the raccoons - they kept ripping up my container garden! Looking for whatever was causing that yummy smell is my guess. I know the warnings for dogs, but it never seemed to do the 'coons any harm.

I overwintered the pots indoors, thinking that the smell had faded enough to be safe, but sure enough, since I put the pots back outside this spring, they have been dug up twice already! Into the compost tumbler all the cocoa bean mulch has gone, and I put in some brown cedar mulch, instead.

I don't know how it does in beds, but I would definitely not recommend it for containers if you're in any kind of area with roving bands of chocolate-mad raccoons! Too bad, I really did like the smell, and it wasn't prohibitively expensive for small amounts needed for container gardens. Oh, I didn't have any mold last year, but the year-old mulch molded as soon as it saw moisture this year.

nornster....thank you so much for sharing your experience. Looks like I'll stay away from the chocolate mulch.

out in beds... it smelled nice for a week .. and then rotted.. and molded ... and looked like heck for a long time..

and the dark brown color actually cooked the plants above ...

no upside to the stuff .. other than that first few days with a whiff of heaven.. lol ..

ken

Kwyet - my pleasure! When this happened again this year, my first thought - well, second thought, after "D*n raccoons!" - was to share it with the folks on GardenWeb. It was nice to see a thread already started that dealt directly with the situation.

kwyet1, Here is a LINK which might answer your questions...very indirectly.