Shelter mice ate my down jacket!!!

[caleb]

This week I slogged my way through the Mahoosuc Range. But just when I thought I had borne the full extent of Mother Natures fickle November furry...icy ledges and pounding sleet..I was wakened in the middle of the night to the sound of a mouse (or possibly mice) making precise little holes in my down jacket!

Has anyone EVER heard of this before? There was no food anywhere near...

It was at the Carlo Col shelter. The jacket was brand new (EMS glacier). The only thing i can think of was that the mice were looking for, and getting, bedding for winter.

If so, this is war. I just added another item to my 'full winter gear' list: a rack of mouse traps.

ARG....

-C

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Every winter they start mining the insulation from the garage walls. Pretty soon I'll start putting out the 'test' trap and if it gets sprung then the whole dozen go out until the frost is gone.

One year they built two nests in the blower of my car lined with insulation from the garage walls. I learned to keep it on recirculate after that!

Tim

 

[DougPaul]

A mouse chewed some holes in a friend's new Stil Longs (Merino wool underwear), presumably for nest material. He had left it in a shelter--we were tenting nearby. Winter, Abol Camground, BSP.

Doug

 

[Waumbek]

Yup, those little critters will shred just about any insulating material at this time of year. I can't leave any fabric--seat cushions, chamois cloth, bike gloves, etc--in the barn in winter without finding it all chewed up later on. Sometimes it ends up in the air filter in the car, which becomes a toasty little mouse motel for the winter. If you (and your shelter companions) don't mind the naptha smell of mothballs, it can repel some of the less determined mice. I used to leave an open coffee can of mothballs in the engine block when the car was parked outside in winter. I have probably just bred a generation of super naptha resistant mickies.

 

[BrentD22]

Try this

I'm not positive if it will always work, but it worked 2 seperate times for me know.

Ever notice when you put the lights on the mice run away (usually). Stayed up one night hearing mice trying to get into my food stuff. I threw a glow stick at them to scare them off. I then noticed the mice wouldn't go near the glow stick. So the next time I was out I tried this, but instead of throwing it I just placed it next to my food stuff. They stayed away all night.

Who knows maybe I'm on to something. Then again maybe not.