how to keep rodents away
besides keeping food away from your tent has anyone used things like mothballs or bobcat / fox urine crystals around their tent to keep out mice and rats
Keep all food smells inside your food bag (including all garbage) and hang that and mice will have nothing to encourage them to try to get inside your tent.
mothballs or bobcat / fox urine crystals have no affect on mice/rats.
Mothballs are a fumigant and work fine in a enclosed space at deterring mice from say a closet and questionably may deter garter snakes. But you are outside. Not worth the trouble.
Last edited by Wise Old Owl; 09-04-2013 at 14:08.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Dryer sheets are suppost to keep mice away and they don't stink as bad as mothballs, which I think only keeps moths away. I spread a bunch of sheets around my place, in draws before I took off hiking in the spring and they seemed to work.
I just wish I could keep them out of my attic! It's that time of year again and thier moving in.
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Nope, I've never tried any of those things. I just keep food out of my tent. I carry a smallish Cuben Tarp that if the weather is bad I hang out, cook and eat under.
You won’t keep all the rodents, mice , away from your pack. Make sure all food is in your food sack and hang it up on the bear cable, open all the zippers and flaps on your pack so the mice will get in see that nothing is in your pack and move on. If they smell food and your pack is zipped up it only takes a few moments for the little buggers to chew through your pack only to find nothing. Also if you are using Gator Aid or similar in your water bag, (some do) the mice will chew on your bite valve.
"Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, smoldering and totally worn out, shouting...Holy S*#t...what a ride"
has anyone had trouble with rodents other then shelter areas?
I'm so confused, I'm not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.
I have, twice. Both times it was in a heavily impacted camping area.
As far as keeping mice away from your gear I suggest that's a little backwards. My approach is to keep my gear away from mice, as in don't sleep in shelters and find remote, lightly or completely unused camp sites. My theory is once a mouse population figures out it can find food in hiker's gear it's game over unless you pack your own cat.
Me no care, me here free beer. Tap keg, please?
bring a cat
(Its been done)
Or just avoid shelter areas. Not just shelters, the areas around them.
Rats and mice can be found in and around every town and farm in the country. It is estimated that there is one rat for every person living in the United States. Rodents have followed man to almost all parts of the world. They have no respect for social class; they are equal opportunity pests.
Rats and mice are so closely linked to man they are called domestic rodents. Man supplies their three basic needs: food, shelter, and water.
Rodents are a threat to health, and they interfere with our economic and physical well being.
- They are destructive pests and serious safety hazards.
- They start fires by gnawing on electric cables. The next time you hear the phrase "fire of unknown origin," think about rats and mice.
- They eat large amounts of food, and they contaminate even more with their urine, feces, and hair. At least 20 percent of the world's food is eaten or contaminated by rats and mice each year.
- They damage structures, books, furniture, even appliances, through gnawing and burrowing.
- Worse, they spread disease to humans and other animals through their bite, by transporting fleas, lice, mites and ticks, and by leaving their droppings in food and other materials that humans contact. Rodents are vectors for bubonic plague, rat bite fever, leptospirosis, hantavirus, trichinosis, infectious jaundice, rat mite dermatitis, salmonellosis, pulmonary fever, and typhus. Mice have been linked to asthma.
- Rats will bite babies in their cribs, because the smell of milk or other food on the baby is attractive to a rat looking for food. A clean baby in a clean crib is a lot safer from rat attack. To protect your baby, take the bottle away as soon it's finished, and wash its hands and face. Do the same for any disabled or elderly persons in your household who cannot care for themselves.
Rodents can be found in our homes, supermarkets, restaurants, livestock pens, and farm fields. Warehouses, grain mills, elevators, silos and corncribs are especially vulnerable to rodent infestation. Rodents will eat anything man or his livestock eats. They are active at night. Rats are seldom seen during the day except when populations are exceedingly large. Rats and mice can crawl through very small crevices, which makes it hard to confine their movement. Even if you can't see them, you may hear them moving after dark. If your pet paws at a wall or cabinet it may be after a lurking rodent. Cats and dogs are not much of a deterrent to rodents, however.
Usually, the first clue of a serious rodent problem is their droppings on the kitchen counter, in kitchen drawers, cabinets, or the pantry. When one dwelling is infested, it's likely the immediate neighborhood is, too. That's why rodents are so difficult for one homeowner to control. Rodents are a community problem. Effective control necessitates that all homeowners in a community work together to eliminate sources of food, water, and shelter. Rodents are persistent in their efforts to invade the home, but you can deal with them effectively if you know their capabilities.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
thanks everyone
but they make cute pets
Honest to better understand rats I kept one on a night vision video in the house for 6 months (Caged) They cannot control their bladders and after a while I decided to feed it to a hawk... No they really do not make a pet - they do keep the pythons happy... Sorry PETA animal lovers... they really are dinner and a show. I am not telling everything here... I love all animals
Last edited by Wise Old Owl; 09-04-2013 at 22:09.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
On my hike in 2009 I spread fox an bobcat urine crystals(powder really available at Ace hardware) around my sleeping bag in the shelters and it seemed to work pretty good for me....Old Man RiverOriginally Posted by opfldc
"the legs feed the wolf gentlemen, the legs feed the wolf" from the movie "Miracle"
Ah well I am so glad you didn't smell of peanut butter.... you would have been eaten alive.... Serious - don't waste the weight on this stuff its all an internet myth... Repellants really only control insects... not rodents, they are mammals. There is very little science to back up an outdoor rodent repellant and to be honest - I won't waste my time testing this.
I have a bottle of snake oil right here - for $20 bucks anyone interested?
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
That's basically my strategy. Avoid highly impacted or highly frequented by human areas and that mice and rats on trails issue largely goes away. You can say that about quite a few issues associated with human behavior. Stay away from the human masses and very often problems can diminish. Sounds so anti social but it can work.
or an OWL (preferably a wise old owl)
good post, WOO
I mothball my mower, haven't seen a mouse nest since.
sorry, forgot to add, I soak em in gasoline and fill up my water pistole' w/a duck taped BB-Que lighter underneath...those little suckers are fast! Yep, every spring we have a round up/cook out...only burned down one shed so far.
Last edited by rocketsocks; 09-05-2013 at 07:27. Reason: seriously though...works for me, give it a shot...it's cheap!
Ahh..but does it attract snakes..that might solve the rodent problem.
Just last weekend I was camped at a spot just below the AT at an overlook near the end of a jeep road. Just had my food in my pack tied to a tree 3' off of the ground w/rain cover on it. Next morning something nibbled on 2 separately packaged bagels. Same thing happened at a well used campsite just north of Camp Creek Bald firetower.I'd say it was field mice. Guess I should hang my pack a little higher next trip.
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