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turtle fast
11-20-2007, 22:17
How do you handle the pesky critters while sleeping in the shelters. I guess I am not a fan of having my face ran over in the night. As well, how do you combat the mosquitos while sleeping in the shelters as you sleep... without youir face feeling like a pin cushion in the morning? :(

RITBlake
11-20-2007, 22:37
well the simple answer is not to stay there, use your tent or hammock and sleep outside instead.

However if you do have to sleep in a shelter or the weather is really bad, then you'll have to be prepared to deal w/ mice because they are there.

- leave your pack open and all zippers open.
- put all food, toothpaste, toilet paper etc. in to a vinyl bag and hang it from a mouse hanger or a bear line.
- mice activity varies from shelter to shelter and season to season so some nights will be mice free some might be a bit noiser
- on cooler nights you can tuck your face in to your bag, on hotter nights you can wear a bug net and then hope for the best.
- some people will tell you to leave some food in the corner so mice can get their 'fill' but mice will just store the food and then go looking for more. Also it helps to encourage the number of mice in a shelter
- some people will set up their tent in an empty shelter. This doesn't work if anybody else is there and you shouldn't inconvienence someone else.

It can be a little skeevy but the mice crawling factor seems to fade w/ more nights you spend on the trail


also do a search on WB for mice and you'll find plenty of threads like yours

Footslogger
11-20-2007, 22:40
How do you handle the pesky critters while sleeping in the shelters. I guess I am not a fan of having my face ran over in the night. As well, how do you combat the mosquitos while sleeping in the shelters as you sleep... without youir face feeling like a pin cushion in the morning? :(
=============================

Well ...best advice is NOT to sleep in shelters.

That said, what worked best for me when I took to shelters during the rain in 2003 was to sleep in the "head out" direction. The mice seemed to like the inside walls of the shelters and spent last time traversing the open end of the shelter floors.

'Slogger

Two Speed
11-20-2007, 22:55
Yeah, first option is to not sleep in shelters. Second is to sleep with your feet to the wall. As I understand it rodents like to run near walls.

Kirby
11-20-2007, 22:57
They were everywhere in the wilderness. I slept with the broom next to me, and if I was awoken in the middle of the night, and saw them on any food bag, I would hit the bag hard enough to get it off, while trying not to hurt the damn things.

I have been told mosquito face nets work pretty well for sleeping. All this can be solved by tenting/tarping, my prefered method of sleeping.

Kirby

Uncle Silly
11-20-2007, 23:03
Take a dog. Like other suggestions, this doesn't completely eliminate mouse activity, but it can help keep it to a minimum. :D

Just a Hiker
11-20-2007, 23:10
Don't forget to get all of your dinner out of your beard before you so to sleep. I've learned that one the hard way!:eek:

Summit
11-20-2007, 23:14
I only stay in shelter during heavy rain for the very reason of mice (and snoring hikers). I find that hard rain keeps both at bay! :eek: :D

Marta
11-20-2007, 23:14
I slept in my tent during the mosquito season because it was just too hot to hide in my bag to keep them off me, and I'm too light a sleeper to sleep through their whining and biting.

As far as mice, though, I put everything I wouldn't need during the night in my pack, and hung that where mice couldn't get it. I slept away from the wall so they wouldn't run over me on their way from place to place. I spread a mylar blanket out and put my sleeping pads and what not on it. Mice seemed to avoid the mylar. (This sort of thing would be very annoying to other campers if the shelter were crowded, but I had the shelters to myself from October through January.) There were only a couple of nights where the mice bothered me. One was in Plumorchard Gap Shelter, where there were no mouse hangers, so the mice could get at my pack and make a racket. I didn't want to hang my pack from the bear hangers because it was raining torrents outside. If I ever plan to sleep in another shelter in Georgia, I will bring my own mouse hanger.

Footslogger
11-20-2007, 23:21
Take a dog. Like other suggestions, this doesn't completely eliminate mouse activity, but it can help keep it to a minimum. :D

==================================

Actually ...a cat would probably be a better choice. A few years ago I hiked into Damascus for Trail Days and there was a resident cat at the Iron Mountain Shelter. I took a look around and didn't see a single sign of mice.

'Slogger

EWS
11-21-2007, 01:53
Terriers are good at catching mice.

Blue '07
11-21-2007, 02:48
I agree with the suggestion of sleeping with feet to the wall. Three quarters of my trip was sleeping in the shelters and never had a problem with mice crawling over me. They'll check out the area around you initially, then disappear when they don't find anything interesting. Also found those hangers with the tuna cans don't work too well. In the 100 Mile Wilderness, I spotlighted a few mice running around those cans with no problems and my food bags were swiss cheese by the end. One hiker brought his own lightweight contraption involving a wide piece of foldable tin (like your windscreen) he hung on the string and didn't have food invasion problems.

Mosquitos were bad in the MA area, and tenting was the best way to go.

Have a great hike!

Doughnut
11-21-2007, 07:38
Without the miles of experience of others who have answered your questions, my preferred method is to hang my entire pack on a bear rope, with a very light poncho or garbage bag over it, It looks like a ghost up there swinging. So far, (Knock on wood) I have not had anything get in to my pack that I know of.

Leave the zippers open so a mouse doesn't chew through it to get inside, as mentioned.

One night in GA , (Plum Orchard, I think) it was very warm so I slept on the porch under a tarp lean to, and one night, just before NOC I slept in a shelter (Wesser Bald, I think) Both nights I heard mice scurrying but nothing was bothered because I left nothing for them to bother.

BTW, both nights I had the shelter to myself, so there was nothing to entice the mice.

I think a problem would occur when someone else decided to have a mid night snack and left crumbs for the critters..
Dough Nut

mudhead
11-21-2007, 08:39
Pet snake.

ki0eh
11-21-2007, 08:54
I've resorted to a BearVault...

Frolicking Dinosaurs
11-21-2007, 09:04
A question for those who actually use shelters (the Dinos may actually have to sleep in a shelter in the GSMNP :mad: if the alternate BMT route is not approved): has anyone used one of the hanging bug-nets (http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=7899&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1) in a shelter to keep the mice at bay and, if so, did it work? She-Dino is a light sleeper and critters on the face and in the hair will virtually guarantee she will squeal like a little girl all night long.

Lone Wolf
11-21-2007, 09:34
How do you handle the pesky critters while sleeping in the shelters. I guess I am not a fan of having my face ran over in the night. As well, how do you combat the mosquitos while sleeping in the shelters as you sleep... without youir face feeling like a pin cushion in the morning? :(

stay out of them. sleep in a tent. why anybody would want to cram into a dirty, hard, mice infested dirty box at the end of a day after being surrounded by thousands of acres of open woods, is beyond me

hopefulhiker
11-21-2007, 09:43
I have heard of people tearing up little pieces of toilet paper for "offerings" to keep them out of their hair. One time in Maine during the flooding in 05 I was stuck in a shelter in the Bigelows for a day. For entertainment I through out a little bit of food and watched these two mice fight over it for hours...( I know this is absolutely against policy but the shelter was already packed with the critters anyway..

EWS
11-21-2007, 09:46
I have heard of people tearing up little pieces of toilet paper for "offerings" to keep them out of their hair.
Isn't that a scene from Borat?

Roots
11-21-2007, 09:49
I totally agree with LWolf. EEWWWW-only if I have to will I stay in a shelter. Even then it had better be for a very good reason!:eek:

Dances with Mice
11-21-2007, 09:50
Enough is enough. There are no mice in AT shelters. Anywhere.

This is just a long-running joke made up to scare first-time hikers. It's time for it to end.

I'll probably get flamed for revealing this truth. But the 'mice in shelter' thing is just a rural legend. There aren't any.

Deadeye
11-21-2007, 10:05
Enough is enough. There are no mice in AT shelters. Anywhere.

This is just a long-running joke made up to scare first-time hikers. It's time for it to end.

I'll probably get flamed for revealing this truth. But the 'mice in shelter' thing is just a rural legend. There aren't any.

He's right - they're just stunted rats.

I sleep in a shelter when I feel like it, and all the solutions above contribute to a quiet night: sleep head out, put food in a mouse-proof container (I use a plastic jug), and unzip your pack. Most shelters just have a few residents, and those are easy to deal with. Some are just plain overrun with critters, and the only solution for those is to hang or tent.

dessertrat
11-21-2007, 10:18
A question for those who actually use shelters (the Dinos may actually have to sleep in a shelter in the GSMNP :mad: if the alternate BMT route is not approved): has anyone used one of the hanging bug-nets (http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=7899&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1) in a shelter to keep the mice at bay and, if so, did it work? She-Dino is a light sleeper and critters on the face and in the hair will virtually guarantee she will squeal like a little girl all night long.

Not to get too much off track, but why do they require it there? Are bears really that much of a problem (I hear they have chain link over the front of the shelters?), and would you really be that much more at risk in a tent, or. . . ?

Lone Wolf
11-21-2007, 10:22
Not to get too much off track, but why do they require it there? Are bears really that much of a problem (I hear they have chain link over the front of the shelters?), and would you really be that much more at risk in a tent, or. . . ?

they've torn all the chain fences out. they have bear cables now. bears aren't a problem on the AT in the park. they should build tent platforms at all shelters

dessertrat
11-21-2007, 10:47
they've torn all the chain fences out. they have bear cables now. bears aren't a problem on the AT in the park. they should build tent platforms at all shelters

Thanks, but that still leaves me wondering-- why do they require people to stay in shelters? Is it a "Leave No Trace" thing?

Lone Wolf
11-21-2007, 10:50
Thanks, but that still leaves me wondering-- why do they require people to stay in shelters? Is it a "Leave No Trace" thing?

don't really know. the shelter "areas" in the Smokys are s**tholes anyway. LNT doesn't exist in or around shelters for a 100 yard radius

Kirby
11-21-2007, 11:00
On some level, I am with L. Wolf on this, shelters are miserable to sleep in, my best nights sleep in the wilderness came in my tent. Your tent also deals with the mosquito problem, all you have to do is kill all the ones that get in when you open the door, and that is it. L. Wolf has had good fortune, I tried sleeping with my food bag in my tent in the wilderness, but found mice were running up and down the side trying to get in, so I had to get up in the middle of the night to hang it.

Kirby

Johnny Thunder
11-21-2007, 11:43
They're just trying to find the meaning of life...or, maybe they're just trying to find the question. Can't we all just get along, Kirb?

That's what Jesus said.

Marta
11-21-2007, 11:47
On some level, I am with L. Wolf on this, shelters are miserable to sleep in, my best nights sleep in the wilderness came in my tent. Your tent also deals with the mosquito problem, all you have to do is kill all the ones that get in when you open the door, and that is it. L. Wolf has had good fortune, I tried sleeping with my food bag in my tent in the wilderness, but found mice were running up and down the side trying to get in, so I had to get up in the middle of the night to hang it.

Kirby

Kirby--You must be the Pied Piper of Maine.:D

rafe
11-21-2007, 12:21
Perhaps I'm just charmed. Except for one night at Calf Mtn. shelter in SNP, I had no issues with mice or other critters in shelters on this year's section hike. OTOH, I was hiking off-season (August-Sept.) and had the shelters mostly to myself on most nights.

The critter at Calf Mtn. was probably not a mouse but something larger. It made off with one of my socks and chewed up the strap on one of my hiking poles.

DAKS
11-21-2007, 12:34
Yer' right, Calf mtn. shelter does have a ton of critters living there. I had the place to myself in late July so I slept in my bug bivy which I think kept the mice/critters off of me. It seems as though the mice play a pretty rough game of soccer or rugby on the top bunk there from midnight on?

NICKTHEGREEK
11-21-2007, 12:40
stay out of them. sleep in a tent. why anybody would want to cram into a dirty, hard, mice infested dirty box at the end of a day after being surrounded by thousands of acres of open woods, is beyond me
It is absolutely impossible to agree with you more-on this issue. It's like checking into a suite at the Fairmont and then sleeping out back in the alley between the dumpsters.

Dances with Mice
11-21-2007, 12:45
Enough about the mice. We need to discuss the real problem at shelters: the misuse of beer cables.

I heard that Georgia installed beer cables at each shelter. But each time I visit a shelter people are hanging packs, foodbags and trash from them. Nobody's ever left a beer up there for the maintainer.

I will continue stocking the shelters with fresh mice until this problem is corrected.

Lone Wolf
11-21-2007, 12:48
It is absolutely impossible to agree with you more-on this issue. It's like checking into a suite at the Fairmont and then sleeping out back in the alley between the dumpsters.

that's a damn good analogy

Lone Wolf
11-21-2007, 12:50
Enough about the mice. We need to discuss the real problem at shelters: the misuse of beer cables.

I heard that Georgia installed beer cables at each shelter. But each time I visit a shelter people are hanging packs, foodbags and trash from them. Nobody's ever left a beer up there for the maintainer.

I will continue stocking the shelters with fresh mice until this problem is corrected.

last time at springer i pretty much tented under the beer cables with beer and food in the tent

Kirby
11-21-2007, 13:46
Kirby--You must be the Pied Piper of Maine.:D

?:confused:. Perplexing.

Kirby

Johnny Thunder
11-21-2007, 14:17
You are the mouse "Xenocide"...they run in terror and call you "Ender". They leave you mouse droppings in hopes that you may one day unearth their meaning. Kirby, you are the mouse "Omega Man". You are legend. You are the mouse "VanHelsing". You're David in reverse.

Quit slappin' mice or one day they're going to tie you down with silly string and extract your brain. Just watch.

generoll
11-21-2007, 14:35
always bring a few crusts of bread or left-over ramen to throw on the OTHER side of the shelter after folks are asleep.

Uncle Silly
11-21-2007, 14:43
I will continue stocking the shelters with fresh mice until this problem is corrected.

Ah-HAH!! I knew the culprit would reveal himself eventually. Now all we have to do is take out his mouse-breeding facility and the AT shelter mouse will be a thing of the past.

MWUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Kirby
11-21-2007, 15:05
You are the mouse "Xenocide"...they run in terror and call you "Ender". They leave you mouse droppings in hopes that you may one day unearth their meaning. Kirby, you are the mouse "Omega Man". You are legend. You are the mouse "VanHelsing". You're David in reverse.

Quit slappin' mice or one day they're going to tie you down with silly string and extract your brain. Just watch.

I do what I please to the damn things, I do sit back and watch when they are not on a food back, once they step on the a food bag, all bets are off. I try to be humane, but I care more about my food than I do these little creatures.

Diplomacy before war,
Kirby

Dances with Mice
11-21-2007, 15:18
I do what I please to the damn things, I do sit back and watch when they are not on a food back, once they step on the a food bag, all bets are off. I try to be humane, but I care more about my food than I do these little creatures. All the people having problems with mice haven't used the beer cables properly. You did not hang a beer on the cable either, did you? Admit it!

Kirby
11-21-2007, 15:21
All the people having problems with mice haven't used the beer cables properly. You did not hang a beer on the cable either, did you? Admit it!

All the shelters I stayed at this summer had ropes, later proven to be useless, to hang food bags to prevent mice. When I did not stay at a shelter, only once, I hung a proper food bag.

Sorry to dissapoint,
Kirby

Alligator
11-21-2007, 15:21
A question for those who actually use shelters (the Dinos may actually have to sleep in a shelter in the GSMNP :mad: if the alternate BMT route is not approved): has anyone used one of the hanging bug-nets (http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=7899&memberId=12500226&storeId=226&catalogId=40000000226&langId=-1) in a shelter to keep the mice at bay and, if so, did it work? She-Dino is a light sleeper and critters on the face and in the hair will virtually guarantee she will squeal like a little girl all night long.Yes they work. I have a rectangular one. I use it with my tarp too. For ease with the tarp, I just set up pyramid style and drape it over the front opening.

The one you listed is probably easier to deal with but I bought the rectangular one for either 8 or 9 dollars. I didn't want to spend $30. I couldn't find that one cheaper online at the time.

RITBlake
11-21-2007, 16:31
Got bored, graphic shows how to build a quick and easy mouse hanger w/ TWO lines of defense! The PB jar should be empty!

http://www.maine2georgia.com/mousehanger.jpg

The idea is that the top should wobble. Couple thin strips of duct tape on the paracord holds the top and jar up nicely.

dessertrat
11-21-2007, 16:46
Got bored, graphic shows how to build a quick and easy mouse hanger w/ TWO lines of defense! The PB jar should be empty!

http://www.maine2georgia.com/mousehanger.jpg

The idea is that the top should wobble. Couple thin strips of duct tape on the paracord holds the top and jar up nicely.

It works even better if you glue some needles and pins to the top of the peanut butter jar, and so forth. :)

Trillium
11-21-2007, 23:30
Got bored, graphic shows how to build a quick and easy mouse hanger w/ TWO lines of defense! The PB jar should be empty!

http://www.maine2georgia.com/mousehanger.jpg

The idea is that the top should wobble. Couple thin strips of duct tape on the paracord holds the top and jar up nicely.now that is something that even I can build.

next challenge that I'll likely need help with is to make an aluminum can stove. I'm hoping someone can show me at SoRuck.

veteran
11-22-2007, 00:43
now that is something that even I can build.

next challenge that I'll likely need help with is to make an aluminum can stove. I'm hoping someone can show me at SoRuck.

PEPSI-G STOVE INSTRUCTIONS:

http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/pepsiGstoveinstruct.shtml