View Full Version : Mouse chewed food bag...arrgh
A mouse chewed my new waterproof (used to be, anyways) foodbag. I thought about this while hiking the next day. I almost always bearbag from a tree limb with paracord. Mice and hunting dogs are more of a fear than actual bears. So...
Here's my idea for the future, tell me what you think.
I have a small nylon stuff sack that I intend to hang just above the real food bag and in it will be a small food item. Sort a sacrificial offering to the crafty little mouse.
Free appetizers before they eat the main course?
Anumber1
01-03-2010, 01:14
Mice at a shelter are like flies at a BBQ. Even if you drop a 20oz steak on the ground, the flies will still land on the food on your plate.
The only thing you can do is use something like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbyboi/439366078/
We've all seen this done with an old tuna can in the shelter, but that really wont deter a hungry mouse. Its got to be at least frisbee sized.
Anyway, if you're going to sacrafice a small food item just put it on a mouse trap. How do you think 10x10 got his name?
Use the mouse baffles most shelters have for hanging food. I saw a couple of thru's who made and carried their own baffles. Nice idea when none are available.
Big Dawg
01-03-2010, 09:55
A mouse chewed my new waterproof (used to be, anyways) foodbag. I thought about this while hiking the next day. I almost always bearbag from a tree limb with paracord. Mice and hunting dogs are more of a fear than actual bears. So...
Here's my idea for the future, tell me what you think.
I have a small nylon stuff sack that I intend to hang just above the real food bag and in it will be a small food item. Sort a sacrificial offering to the crafty little mouse.
I assume your food bag was "safe" in a tree when it got chewed on?
Sleep w/ your food. It'll be safer than in a tree.
bigcranky
01-03-2010, 09:56
After we had one too many food bags chewed up by mice, we bought a couple of Ursacks. They aren't that much heavier than the waterproof stuff sack I had been using, and critters can't get inside.
RedneckRye
01-03-2010, 09:57
Relax and don't worry about it.
You are a visitor in their house.
armored products sell the "Rat Sack" supposed to be safe up to coyotes. Weighs less than 8 oz.
An aluminum pie tin works great as a mouse deflector, It is assuring to hear the scamper, then the scratching of desperation trying to stay on, then the thud. Kinda like listening to the rain on a tin roof. Never had a problem with mice in a properly hung bag away from the sleep area. Pie tin won't work against ferrell pigs or bears, so I figure I don't want to hear that anyway. However the pie tin can double as a hat while on the trail to prevent or at least hamper alien abductions. So there...multi use item well worth the weight.:-?
mweinstone
01-03-2010, 10:15
once again. a small amount of plastic bag sticking out of the sinched closed food bag ,will have mice makeing trips all night long for insulation in the form of chewed peices of plastic bag. they have no interest at all in food when dry high quality insulation for home building is available. food is on the ground in abundunce for them. but insulation , dry insulation like toilet paper, left in a few small balls thrown around the shelter on the floor before sleep, has them busy all eve and mindlessly crazed for insulation and nothing else. as kids, we allways threw two or three tp balls out before sleep in a shelter. in the morn, you pick up the small mess they have made and stare with amazement at food left out and open right next to the toilet paper. or, simularily, wake up and open your foodbag untouched but for the chewed plastic bag you left sticking out of the opening. you see my dears,to a mouse trying to raise a family, instinct teaches it to eat for heat energy.as do the same instincts carry the knowlage of insulating a home for the same pourpose. and they know that food dont last and insulation does. so plastic or toilet paper is like perpetual heat as food is temperary heat. all forms of tuna can devises can be defeated by them. the reason they work at all is because their is easier food available. i.e., crumbs.so, lets reveiw. matthewski solved the mouse problem as a teen in the woods and has preached it to a chior deaf. why? why arent i famouse for my mouse understandings. why? why cant i be the president of the world?
Were you in a shelter or out in the woods?
Just hang your foodbag on the top of a hiking pole. They can't scale metal poles. I've done this dozens of times at shelters with no problems.
Wise Old Owl
01-03-2010, 12:04
armored products sell the "Rat Sack" supposed to be safe up to coyotes. Weighs less than 8 oz.
http://www.armoredoutdoorgear.com/
Mice are attracted to anything with the smell of bread flour, it's the first thing I inspect when entering a Pizza Shop is where the flour is prepared for droppings and feces. Peanut Butter & tuna is second runner up. So if you are packing your pack and you have these items in your pack ,don't be surprised.
one underfed solution...http://www.nvcc.edu/home/cbentley/geoblog/uploaded_images/lola_backpack-741700.jpg
I'm with Redneck Rye, you can obsess about the mice to a fault but they will still occasionally get to your food. A lot will depend on the time of year and the shelter your staying in so take precautions and take your lumps. Hey Rye, with all the miles you've logged why haven't you posted more photos. I know you've got 'em so let us see them?
Mice...the bane of all hikers! As I said in an earlier post, there is no feeling in the world like discovering a hole chewed in your pack, food sack, jacket, etc. etc. I have waged an unsuccessful campaign against the furry horde from time to time but the results have been mixed. Until they invent the "sky hook" there is always a chance that your perimeter will be breached. I like the cat idea but not so sure my cat would feel the same so try everything and anything that the law allows to keep them at bay. As of now, the mice hold the high ground and upper hand but I'll keep trying.
mweinstone
01-03-2010, 13:29
wow. sooooo,.....im guessing im a lier? and i wasnt in shelters all my life longer than you all? and my mice prevention tips are pure lies? okay. happy trails idiots.again,....no mouse even has the ability to think about food in the presence of insulations. why must you bring youe foolishnesses too my hike? why will you continue to avoid truth? how dumb are you? mice domnt want your food first. they want it second. after plastic and toilet paper. so , hang steaks around you or whatever the frick you do. dont use my methods. dont fall asleep laughing at the worried masses as you lull in the securety of mice defeated. what the frick ever. idiots!
still, nice idiots.
mweinstone
01-03-2010, 13:31
and dont ever ask me for anything ever again. wait. ill pay anyone any amount they care to wager that they cannot force a mouse to choose food before plastic. period. sooooo, put some money where your mouth is.
LIhikers
01-03-2010, 13:52
Along the aluminum pie plate idea, I use the round aluminum piece that came with our MSR Simmerlite stove as a mouse barrier. I put a hole in the middle of it so I can slide it onto the line above my food bag, then I tie a knot to hold it above the bag, then I attach the food bag. It's light, folds into quarters so it's fairly small, and is carried with my stove.
Someone got drunk and started posting, didn't they matthewski?
Dances with Mice
01-03-2010, 14:51
A mouse chewed my new waterproof (used to be, anyways) foodbag. I thought about this while hiking the next day. I almost always bearbag from a tree limb with paracord. Mice and hunting dogs are more of a fear than actual bears. If your food was hanging in a tree and it was chewed on at night then it was probably a flying squirrel, not a mouse, doing the damage.
I've seen mice jump from a sitting position on a shelter floor to a rafter 10 feet in the air. If a mouse wants your food it will get it. Just one more reason not to sleep in a dirty wooden box. Sleep with your food in your tent.
Anumber1
01-03-2010, 16:11
This guy pretty much nailed it. I have also witnessed the incredible leaping power of ordinary mice... its insane.
I've seen mice jump from a sitting position on a shelter floor to a rafter 10 feet in the air. If a mouse wants your food it will get it. Just one more reason not to sleep in a dirty wooden box. Sleep with your food in your tent.
StarLyte
01-03-2010, 16:31
Every time I read about mice on the Trail I think of Bill Bryson's book and how he hammered mice with his fists as he was trying to sleep. It sounded so gross, but I guess if you have the nerve to do something like that...
But waking up to a hole in your food sack is a bad thought. This has never happened to me. I have always hung my food sack appropriately and even included my toothpaste & deodorant in that bag. My problem was always trying to find the right branch.
I kind of like Matty's idea; it makes sense. They are busy little creatures, starving or not, they search for materials for shelter / security.
ChinMusic
01-03-2010, 16:40
Every time I read about mice on the Trail I think of Bill Bryson's book and how he hammered mice with his fists as he was trying to sleep. It sounded so gross, but I guess if you have the nerve to do something like that...
If memory serves, I believe that was Catz and he used a water bottle.
I use a plastic lid from a big coffee container as a mouse baffle. Just cut a slit from the center to the edge and put a couple strips of duct tape on it. I'm sure it isn't the be all end all of mouse protection, but it weighs next to nothing and has worked for me for the past 5 years on the AT(knock on wood).
I love it - call me Mouse-Hammer the god of mouse squashers. Squirtin' mouse eyeballs all over the shelter all night long.
You could sprinkle green tea around you and the food bag- or I forget- does that just work for fending off Wampus Cats?
I've seen mice jump from a sitting position on a shelter floor to a rafter 10 feet in the air. If a mouse wants your food it will get it. Just one more reason not to sleep in a dirty wooden box. Sleep with your food in your tent.
I have to see this. I'm dieing just thinking about it.
Toolshed
01-04-2010, 19:32
http://www.armoredoutdoorgear.com/
Mice are attracted to anything with the smell of bread flour, it's the first thing I inspect when entering a Pizza Shop is where the flour is prepared for droppings and feces. Peanut Butter & tuna is second runner up. So if you are packing your pack and you have these items in your pack ,don't be surprised.
one underfed solution...
Pizzeries and bakeries are the bane of existence for rodent control. Can't use glueboards, since drifting fllour destroys stickability. Too much food competition for bait. Catch-alls are the next best thing, but if you can only get there once a month to service them, you end up having dessicated mice to scrape out.
Blissful
01-04-2010, 19:59
I have also heard of mice and other creatures much larger chewing through $300 tents to get at the food in your tent.
I have also heard of mice and other creatures much larger chewing through $300 tents to get at the food in your tent.
Yep, many years ago Scar Tissue a SOBO hiker had a mouse chew a perfectly round hole about the size of a quarter through the top of his tent. Seems the rodent was trying to get to a Snickers wrapper he left in the fabric shelf near the apex of the roof.
Darn varmints!
Sounds like you guys could use come of our California wildfires to take care of that rodent problem.
I like that picture - imagine - rats climb up one rope past the baffle on the other rope, switch over, continue on to the ship. :D
Er, this picture http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbyboi/439366078/
being "that picture" in my post above.
I wonder if these leaping shelter mice are a product of natural selection. In the wild, a regular field mouse doesn't really have much reason to be able to jump so high. But at a shelter, there is pretty much unlimited food for a mouse that can jump 10 feet into the air :-?