Masking Food Smells

[philiphowa]

Anyone out there have experience with trying to mask food smells? I have noticed in areas where I have camped very near to civilization that a tiny bit of tea tree and/or cedarwood oil can help keep insects and small pests away from food, possibly by masking the smell or making it unappealing. I place it inside a plastic bag lining a stuff sack, but not in contact with food of course. I have never tried this in deep wilderness, and always hang or otherwise safely store food regardless. I'm wondering if anyone has tried this because I'd like to avoid foolishly drawing in animals with a half-baked idea that hasn't been thoroughly researched. I know nothing can perfectly prevent animals from finding food, it's the core of their survival, but I'd love to hear of anything that might reduce the chances of a faint smell(every food bag lets some smell out) from drawing in animals. I am more interested in repelling mice and other rodents anyway, since a bear will either tear down a bear bag, or fail to get it. Mice and other rodents can climb right in and leave me none the wiser till morning. Thoughts?

[sarbar]

It just isn't worth it. Use a bear canister or an Ursack. Those WILL keep rodents and birds out.

[Drybones]

Skunk musk or fox urine works pretty well to cover human scent for deer hunting so you might try that.

[philiphowa]

I had thought that the phenol scent of tea tree might have something to do with it, and cedarwood at least does not say "food" to animals. I don't intend to carry a bear canister cause I find them to be a very heavy, bulky, pain. Bear bags do pretty well, I have never lost one entirely anyway, but I haven't done as much remote camping in forests as in more arid climates. I would consider your suggestion Drybones, but in proximity to food..... Probably not. This is really a curiosity question anyway. Everyone looks for some added security that their food will be there in the morning. :)

[MuddyWaters]

Put some odorous potpourri in your bathroom. If you live with a woman you probably already have it.
Go take a crap.
Do you smell the crap, or just potpourri???

Yeah, that's how well you can mask a scent.

[WILLIAM HAYES]

i use the liquid stuff deer hunters use to kill odors i put it in a small spray bottle and spray the outside of my food bag before i hang it

[philiphowa]

In order to clarify the question. If anyone has *tried* some method of masking smells while camping, let me know if you felt there was any benefit or drawback to any particular method. It's common knowledge that nothing can outright prevent animals from knowing that people have food. I am only curious if someone who has attempted this feels there was a specific result from it they would be willing to share.

[philiphowa]

Thank you William I'll research that. :)

[Coffee]

I've used Opsaks on my last two trips. I still hang food when practical to do so but the Opsaks supposedly reduce (eliminate?) food scents when sealed properly. I'm a skeptic. Using them probably just makes me sleep better when I sleep with my food, but I'm probably not fooling any of the critters out there. I probably should ditch the Opsaks as they add weight to my pack and the zPacks food bag is already waterproof...

[philiphowa]

I've used Opsaks on my last two trips. I still hang food when practical to do so but the Opsaks supposedly reduce (eliminate?) food scents when sealed properly. I'm a skeptic. Using them probably just makes me sleep better when I sleep with my food, but I'm probably not fooling any of the critters out there. I probably should ditch the Opsaks as they add weight to my pack and the zPacks food bag is already waterproof...

Thanks for the tip. :) I thought the same thing about those types of food bags. Once animals are up close I bet nothing could really fool them. I prefer to keep my food under my head, but most of my experience backpacking has been outside of bear territory.

[overthinker]

I too use the OpSak, great piece of kit. I put mine inside of an Ursack and then tie off to a tree. I've never had my food bag disturbed during the night despite being right at ground level, which I attribute to the OpSak doing it's job to stop food smells from escaping. The trick is to make sure the sucker is really closed - the zipper can be a bit finickey sometimes. I've been thinking of switching to a couple of the smaller ones rather than one large one to help stop zipper issues, but I might not.