View Full Version : Mouse Baffle
UnkaJesse
07-20-2006, 09:56
The bear bag thread made me remember that the micro-bears chewed a small hole in my bear bag while hung up on the cables at the Stover Creek shelter last weekend. (Why do cables have baffles on only one side? Even a dumb mouse could get lucky and go up the other cable)
I'm trying to figure out a way to engineer a mouse baffle that would be light enough to carry. The construction would be simple enough, but I'm stumped on the baffle material itself.
Any suggestions?
Time To Fly 97
07-20-2006, 11:04
Plastic. Heavy paper plate or thin dollar store frisbee - cut out centers to size....or really kcik it up a notch:
Metal trash can lid? LOL!
Dances with Mice
07-20-2006, 11:15
The bear bag thread made me remember that the micro-bears chewed a small hole in my bear bag while hung up on the cables at the Stover Creek shelter last weekend. (Why do cables have baffles on only one side? Even a dumb mouse could get lucky and go up the other cable)
I'm trying to figure out a way to engineer a mouse baffle that would be light enough to carry. The construction would be simple enough, but I'm stumped on the baffle material itself.Any suggestions?What raided your food bag probably wasn't a mouse.
Flying squirrels really like the new cable system.
The bear bag thread made me remember that the micro-bears chewed a small hole in my bear bag while hung up on the cables at the Stover Creek shelter last weekend. (Why do cables have baffles on only one side? Even a dumb mouse could get lucky and go up the other cable)
I'm trying to figure out a way to engineer a mouse baffle that would be light enough to carry. The construction would be simple enough, but I'm stumped on the baffle material itself.
Any suggestions?
I've never seen these "baffles" befor, but if it's what I'm thinking of.... Maby a mini foil pie pan. Have a hole in the middle of it and a cut from the middle to the outer edge so you can pop it around a cabel.
StarLyte
07-20-2006, 11:16
Why don't we ask Matthewski how he feels and what he does with mice?
yep I'm stirring that big pot today ;)
Skidsteer
07-20-2006, 18:48
Why don't we ask Matthewski how he feels and what he does with mice?
yep I'm stirring that big pot today ;)
Do you really want to know how to smoke a mouse? ;)
TN_Hiker
07-21-2006, 09:20
Do you really want to know how to smoke a mouse? ;)
Smoking a mouse??? Hmmmm......what kind of buzz does that give ya? :banana
Kevin A. Boyce
07-21-2006, 11:46
I was thinking about this too... what about the top of a 1 or 2 liter soda bottle? Just the top third or so? This is an idea I have been debating, I use something similar when aid climbing as a way to keep the knots protected and organized at the top of my haul bag.
You just feed your bear cord through the opening of the bottle top. the bottle top would need to be suspended a few inches off the bag otherwise the little buggers will just slide down the bottle and snag on to the food bag. But you suspened it a few inches up the line it should be a good baffle.
A few downsides would be the bulk, where to store, another piece of 'stuff' to carry... But if you kept the cap, you could use it to dip from a shallow spring. I am sure there are other uses.
Two Speed
07-21-2006, 11:56
Do you really want to know how to smoke a mouse? ;)First, you got to dry 'em real good.
johnny quest
07-21-2006, 12:29
how about the plastic from those thin, rollable cutting boards you can get at walmart? cut and overlap it like a very shallow funnel.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
07-22-2006, 10:40
How about a homemade sil-nylon bag with a cone-shaped top of sil-nylon? Even mice can't hang on to sil-nylon with steep sides.
I saw a guy improvise a baffle using an umbrella once in an area that was overrun with micro-bears - not sure exactly how he did it, but it did work.
I've also seen people use those emergency space blankets as an outside wrapper. Supposedly, mice don't care for the taste of the silver lining.
how about an old cd. The center already has a hole in it and it's quite light.
UnkaJesse
07-23-2006, 11:53
how about an old cd. The center already has a hole in it and it's quite light.
This is just the type of suggestion I was hoping to get! Thanks!! I think that's it. The only drawback I can think of is that it could break. But, it could ride in the bottom of my pot. Problem solved.
Now, the only challenge is to find a CD that will be a good conversation starter...........
ABBA?
Britney Spears?
Blank CD-R with "NORAD Launch Codes" handwritten with a Sharpie?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
It won't break - if you have ever tried to destroy one - it takes a heck of allot of force, and it will actually bend quite far before breaking.
Great - now I've got 'Dancing Queen' in my head - thanks - like I really needed that today. :D
//V\\èå†b壣
07-23-2006, 12:51
Another option is to use the lid of your cook pot. It's an item lots of folks already carry, and can actually be lightened in the process-- if it has a center handle, remove it, and enlarge the center hole just enough to allow your stuff sack's rope to pass through freely. A little improvisation is required to adapt this modification to cooking, but it's not hard to "handle".
Kevin A. Boyce
07-24-2006, 15:10
EUREKA! A CD!
I will have to try that out, small, lightweight, takes up no real space... Perfect! :banana
Thanks Lilredmg!!!
y'all are quite welcome good luck with it
I used a CD on my thru this year. It works.
minnesotasmith
08-03-2006, 07:11
What raided your food bag probably wasn't a mouse.
Flying squirrels really like the new cable system.
May 2005, I slept at a shelter in Georgia north of Neels Gap (which one momentarily escapes me), and had my properly-bear-cabled food bag raided by a flying squirrel. I got up to take a leak at 0300, and walked by the bear cables. I shone the light from my headlamp on my food bag, and a thing the size of a chipmunk was atop my foodbag. I waved my light at it several times, and it took a leap to a tree over a dozen feet away as if it were in 1/20th Earth gravity. I brought down my food bag, and a dime-sized hole had been chewed in it. Several food items had been sampled, including a blueberry breakfast bar and a miniature chocolate bar.
NICKTHEGREEK
08-03-2006, 07:50
Smoking a mouse??? Hmmmm......what kind of buzz does that give ya? :banana
100% dependent on which end you light and which end you take a drag on.
Don't Bogart that mouse, my friend....
hopefulhiker
08-03-2006, 08:55
On a related issue, up north the mice are really smart and agressive. I have a picture of one on a pack under a baffle.. Also some of the metal bear boxes are vulnerable to mice, better to hang from a tree.
vaporjourney
08-04-2006, 12:59
I understand how it would be easy to secure a cd as a baffle on a rope you've hung yourself, but what do you do when you're using the pulley systems in parks like the Smokies? Rope would allow you to make knots on either side of the cd to hold it in place, but these pulleys are made with thick wire...
I took the lid off of a large can of Enfamil baby formula, sliced it to the center point, and put a small piece of duck tape on it. I'm talking about the clear plastic lid that you use after you pop out the metal one. The plastic is slick enough that you can pull off the duct tape and put it back on once you have your bear bag cord at the middle. It's foldable and weighs nothing. Coffee and many other products have the same type of plastic lid.
Regarding mouse baffles, I want to know why on the installed bear cable system with the pulleys, why only one of the two pulley cables has a metal mouse baffle? Baffling to say the least.
Bigben
Dances with Mice
08-04-2006, 14:55
Regarding mouse baffles, I want to know why on the installed bear cable system with the pulleys, why only one of the two pulley cables has a metal mouse baffle? Baffling to say the least.I'm trying to remember - isn't the clasp that fastens the cable to the pole fixed to the end of the baffle?
I understand how it would be easy to secure a cd as a baffle on a rope you've hung yourself, but what do you do when you're using the pulley systems in parks like the Smokies? Rope would allow you to make knots on either side of the cd to hold it in place, but these pulleys are made with thick wire...
The bear cables have a hook that you hang your food bag on. I carry a 2 foot piece of parachute cord with the ends tied together to make a 1 foot long loop, with the cd knoted in place. You hang one end of the loop on the hook and the food bag goes on the other end. I use a carabiner for the food bag. Also comes in handy in shelters where there are only nails.