Exactly How Bad Are the Mice?

[illininagel]

A question for those that have thru-hiked:

Exactly how bad are the mice in the shelters along the AT? Are they merely a nuisance or will they pose a more serious health hazard?

Will it force me to tent more frequently?

Thanks.

[MOWGLI]

They are worse off early on in the season. Once the warm weather hits, the snakes are out to put a hurtin' on the mice, and natural food supplies (for mice) become more abundant.

Health hazard? I wouldn't worry.... If you don't like mice, you can always tent though. Its a big woods out there.

Little Bear
GA-ME 2000

[Ethesis]

They are worse off early on in the season. Once the warm weather hits, the snakes are out to put a hurtin' on the mice, and natural food supplies (for mice) become more abundant.

Health hazard? I wouldn't worry.... If you don't like mice, you can always tent though. Its a big woods out there.

Little Bear
GA-ME 2000

In March with snow on the ground we really didn’t see mice. Drought conditions seem to really reduce them a lot.

Chipmunks and bats and everything else has visited me on the trail.

The snakes are a blessing. People who leave traps with peanut butter in shelters and dead mice outside to teach the mice a lesson? Not so much (come on. Bears are not immune to the allure of peanut butter.).

Ive used various bear hangs, a rat sack (like an op sack but lighter for the volume) and a bear canister.

But mice (or “the little bears” as my wife calls them) are something to live with and account for.

[Grimace]

I sstayed in tons of shelters and barely noticed them. I did hike SOBO which may make a difference. On the occasion that they were eating the shelter at night, ear plugs did the trick. I slept so well out there that they may have been crawling on my face, but I doubt it.

Make sure you open up the poclets of your pack so the mice can crawl in and out. They'll make holes if you don't open the door for 'em.

I don't think they are a huge health hazard. A little Hantu never hurt anyone.

[steve hiker]

I'm SCEEEEERRED of mouses! Saw this on another board and sceers the living nighttime out of me:

Almost forgot to mention the mice at the Gooch Mountain Shelter. We took extra special precautions to pack away all our food and anything at all with a scent, but the mice still found a way to play some havoc on our night.

-The mice of Gooch Mountain will chew on nice wool socks if they cannot find food.

-When hunting for food the mice of Gooch Mountain will chew threw ziploc bags looking for food and eventually chew on some of your toilet paper.

-Your cigars should be properly stored in a hard pelican case. If someone by chance stored their cigars in a zip loc, the mice of Gooch mountain have a certain taste for fine tobbaco leaf.

-If the mice of Gooch Mountain cannot find any food, they will get mad and proceed to use your titanium cup as a toilet. I assume that is why they chewed into the toilet paper.

[DebW]

Search the shelter for bits of tin foil before you go to bed. Mice chewing on foil are LOUD.

[icemanat95]

I had one run across my face one night. It didn't survive the experience. Caught it, crushed it and threw it out of the shelter in less time than it takes to tell it. Nothing like feeling something scampering acoss your face to make you sit up and take notice.

Worst damage I suffered from a mouse occured because I forgot about some GORP in a jacket pocket then proceeded to forget to open up the jacket pocket. THe mice chewed a hole in the mesh of the pocket fabric, tore into the gorp and chewed my pack towel a bit. That was in the smokies. I never had a further problem with the mice other than the face incident. I did however develop an allergy to mouse dander or whatever. I had to sleep with my head toward the shelter opening rather than in to the wall or my sinuses would start to close up. Since the shelters are generally pitched a little bit toward the opening, it made for some interesting nights.

[Virginian]

I found that if you put peanut butter on fellow hikers foreheads at nite. The mice would pretty much leave you alone

[steve hiker]

I heard of this hiker who <b>lynched</b> a mouse. Yup, put a noose around the little rascal's neck and hung him high, swingin from the rafters.

[Kerosene]

Don't forget to check to make sure that there aren't any mice taking a morning snooze in your pockets before you close them up! Out of Seth Warner shelter in southern Vermont I apparently zipped one inside a side pocket, forcing him or her to chew their way to freedom.

I was a lot more concerned about the big wood rat in Manassas Gap Shelter in northern Virginia a few years ago. That sucker was big and had a penchant for nibbling on the salty hair of sleepers. Fortunately a local camper came by and kept a lantern burning all night, keeping the rat in the rafters, but I still didn't sleep very well.

[illininagel]

Kerosene,

Just out of curiousity, with a rat that big residing in the rafters of the shelter, why not tent that night?

I'm getting the impression that my preference might be to tent---but, with so many experienced thru-hikers staying in the shelters, there must be a very good reason. Is it generally the weather that prompts hikers to use the shelters? Or, is it the ease of setup, or the company of other hikers?

[Kozmic Zian]

Yea....why? All of that...and the fact that if you get to the shelter and it's not crowded you have a tendency to set up your spot, hoping nobody else comes. Also, if the weather turns bad overnight, you have the clean up, dry out the next am. I rather camp out....I take a small batt op'ed weather radio. So's I can anticipate rather or not I want to stay a shelter. As far as the mices go....just set your sleeping area up with enough space beside and behind for the mices to run around you....then they don't have the urge to 'jump over your head' so much.....KZ@

[Brushy Sage]

If this development spreads, the mice might hike beside us:

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/health...alth-headlines

[Mountain Dew]

Grimace, :"I sstayed in tons of shelters and barely noticed them. I did hike SOBO which may make a difference. On the occasion that they were eating the shelter at night, ear plugs did the trick. I slept so well out there that they may have been crawling on my face, but I doubt it." --- oh man I just got a good laugh when reading this one. On my 2003 thru-hike me and a friend got in late to a shelter just south of Hanover and a lone hiker was already asleep inside. Upon reading the register we discovered that he was a Sobo. Soon after that we saw a mouse climbing all over this Sobo who had ear plugs in. The dang mouse even started to eat crumbs out of his beard. Our Eyes bulged at one point when we thought the mouse was gonna go inside his mouth which was wide open ! If that would have happened we would have considered waking this guy despite being a sobo for health reasons ofcourse.

[Uncle Wayne]

I have a friend that uses a Dorito bag to hold the mice and then releases them the next morning. Here's what he recommends:

Place your pack diagonal to the corner of the shelter (or use your boots) and place the empty bag in the void created. Your pack or boots will hold it up nicely, and allow the mice to climb up to enter the bag. But, they will not be able to climb out! They will be nicely contained for the evening.

I've never tried this but may on our next section hike just to see if it will keep the mice from climbing through my wife's hair. She doesn't like mice climbing through her hair.

[Blue Jay]

I am completely astounded at how many seemingly normal humans are afraid of a mouse. If you've got to be scared of something, pick something that can actually hurt you like a car or a gun or a dog.

[B Thrash]

Originally posted by illininagel
Kerosene,

Just out of curiousity, with a rat that big residing in the rafters of the shelter, why not tent that night?

I'm getting the impression that my preference might be to tent---but, with so many experienced thru-hikers staying in the shelters, there must be a very good reason. Is it generally the weather that prompts hikers to use the shelters? Or, is it the ease of setup, or the company of other hikers?

_________________________________________

One very good reason is a large majority of thru-hikers have sent their tents, tarps, bivys home to reduce the weight so their shelter is in the shelters.

Rigormortis

[Moon Monster]

I avoided shelters my first week in Georgia because of all the hype about mice and overcrowding and such. But then it started raining and it really never stopped my whole hike. The persistent rains drove me into sheltering most nights and after a while, I didn't care about mice or overcrowding (both of which weren't much of a problem this year north of Georgia).

My food bag was chewed through one night in Tennessee and a couple of my more fuzzy things were chewed on (for nesting material) near Damascus. Further north, I'd see mice from time to time, but they never seemed to even try to get at food bags or packs that were hung. Two attacks in 2200 miles is liveable.

I found the most interesting weapon against them was an empty Pringles can which is irresistable to them and makes a great mouse-cannon once one goes inside (think Jai Alai or Lacrosse). We're talking 50 yard launces at least.

[MOWGLI]

Originally posted by illininagel
Kerosene,

Just out of curiousity, with a rat that big residing in the rafters of the shelter, why not tent that night?

Wood Rats are good looking, interesting animals, and should not be confused with non-native disease carrying rats like those that run around the streets & sewers of coastal cities like NYC.

I encountered a Wood Rat recently while removing an old freezer from a trailhead on the Cumberland Trail here in Tennessee. It was living inside the unit that we were pulling from the woods. It was a strikingly beautiful critter.

[Youngblood]

Originally posted by B Thrash
_________________________________________

One very good reason is a large majority of thru-hikers have sent their tents, tarps, bivys home to reduce the weight so their shelter is in the shelters.

Rigormortis

Gee, I don't remember any thru-hiker that totally depended on the shelters when I hiked the trail in 2000. It sure seemed like every solo hiker had a tent/tarp/bivy and every couple/group also carried a common tent/tarp. At times no one wanted to sleep in trail shelters and at other times everyone wanted to. Had a lot to do with available options, whether it was raining and how bad the mosquittos where. But heck, I didn't camp with every thru-hiker that year and I was not aware of any kind of poll about shelters. However, when you state 'large majority', I felt I should speak out so that somebody doesn't head out without tent/tarp/bivy thinking that they won't need one, because I think they will.

Youngblood