That's interesting. What type of animals were you trying to lure in?
I trapped fox, fisher, and raccoon. A skunk would occasionally get into a fox set. The peppermint was mainly used in the raccoon lure along with many other sweet and pungent odors. I believe it is used in other lures. It has been a long time. I stopped trapping as a very young man. I would never do it again. I would much rather take a picture than use a club now.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
On the other hand, I've seen packets of peppermint oil sold as a mouse repellant. Maybe it just depends on how concentrated it is?Originally Posted by BirdBrain
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
The take away in my mind is that it attracts some animals. Personally I do not desire to attract any animals to me or my stuff while I am sleeping in the woods. Perfume is for home. If I want a deoderant on the trail, I will stand in the smoke of a campfire. Again, this is a personal choice. You won't see me giving anyone crap on the trail if I notice their preference for pretty smelling soap.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
Bears are intelligent and curious. They are attracted to any unusual smell. I prefer to minimize those smells.
And they are repelled by human smells so it is best to maximize that.
Here in the great outdoors of the city of Chicago, supposedly concentrated peppermint oil would keep the rats away from my yard (and garden beds). But I'm skeptical.
Don't know about other critters, but there's no evidence any smells attract bears. There's literally thousands upon thousands of hikers going into to woods daily and yet there's practically no evidence of bears attacking hikers. The few rare incidents ate too few to draw any conclusion about why there was an encounter.
I do my best in that department too.
If that is true, then all my friends that bait bears in are wasting their time. All those that voted in Maine to keep bear baiting legal wasted their time. And God wasted His time giving the bears their great sense of smell.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
That interesting point about bears and their smelling ability I have often wondered if it would work to put a scent out around a campsite that would scare a bear or disagree with them enough to keep them away but no idea what that would be.
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Bears are risk assessors and they learn. The smell that best deters bears is us. The smell that attracts bears is the food we carry. If the bear learns that food can be acquired from us with little risk, then they become more bold. The same thing happens around bird feeders. Squirrels learn which feeders are safe and which ones are not. If you shoot squirrels that come near your feeders, then all you have to do is open a window and they run. If you do not, you can bang pots together and scream all you want. They are not going anywhere. In Maine, bears associate people with guns. In other areas they associate people with food. That is why our bears run and some bears in other areas do not. They know the risk up here. Some learn there is no risk down there. All one can do down there is make it as hard as possible to get your food. If they learn that food can be obtained, then they become a problem.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
Some may say this is too heavy. But I usually bring a travel size pack of unscented baby wipes . It is like a 16 count pack from walmart. I wipe my pits and personals before bed. It is the least I can do to try and keep a little clean, since I only bring 2 pair of underwear. The ones I have on and 1 to change into. These are easy to resupply at walmart, dollar store, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Huggies-Natura.../dp/B00C4DIYNG
If you google "why is personal hygiene important when camping important?" and there are some 590,000 results, many of these include State/Regional health departments, Center for Disease Control, and medical research. There is abundant research of personal hygiene from simple hand washing to body care and the relationship of disease and illnesses stemming from poor hygiene and oral (dental) care. This also includes how body wastes are managed to protect those who may be near where you have been.
These wipes can be great, however they do not break down in the environment. Just as a reminder to those who may not know, these should be packed out (TP should be as well unless you really know what you are doing with cat holes) otherwise this stuff will mar the landscape.
In NYC, they use mint scented trash can liners to repel rats in trash rooms of apartment buildings. Supposedly, they work.
Ok, perhaps you prefer, "There's no evidence that bears are attracted to campsite by smells." Every time I've been at a campsite that was visited by a bear the bears knew where they were headed. I speculate that campsites have such an abundance of smells that bears then operate on sight. I've been at sites with people cooking on grills and the bears head for the hanging bags. The long and the short of it is there's no evidence that any smells will lead bears to attack you. If there's such evidence please reference it. Arguments are nice but where's the evidence. As I said thousands upon thousands enter the woods daily yet bear attacks are rare and in the few attacks that have occurred there's no evidence of smells being a factor.
Honestly, some of the things you proclaim are so nonsensical that it is hard to reply. It is like saying prove that some of the water that falls from the sky onto dry land ends up in the ocean. How do you prove the obvious? What do you think the hunters in Maine are using to attract bears? Holograms? Blueberries? I stopped replying to your statements a while ago. I made a mistake here. I won't repeat it.
In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
As I said arguments are nice, but where's the evidence of bears attacking people because of smells.
Honestly, unless you are cooking and eating in an entirely different set of clothes and bear-bagging your cooking clothes at night, your soap is probably irrelevant. The smells of food on your clothes and hair from your breakfast/dinner is going to be much stronger than any (reasonable) biodegradable soap.
How much citrus soap does or take to wash a fullgrown bear anyway?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
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