There is a guy on another forum who used bait, the rat died on top of his black tank and the smell lingered for years. They found it a few years later when he was upgrading his plumbing bay.
One year I used the bait boxes and when I was taking the 5er out in the spring I saw the clear section of the tail light was green. Yeah bait stash.
I used the peppermint bags this year for the 1st time along the walls of the garage. I also set 6 victor spring traps just in case. Caught 2, 1 being right next to the peppermint bag :W
Short of owning a cat I don't know of any solution that is 100% effective for controlling mice.