{"id":1800,"date":"2019-09-19T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T00:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carcampingtips.com\/?p=1800"},"modified":"2021-11-27T07:23:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-27T13:23:06","slug":"how-to-keep-animals-away-from-your-tent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/decideoutside.com\/how-to-keep-animals-away-from-your-tent\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Keep Animals (and Bugs) Away from Your Campsite: Science Supported"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Besides the dangerous animals that everybody wants to avoid, there are plenty of pests that we’d rather stay away from our campsite. How can this be done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Careful dishwashing and bag stowing are crucial skills for keeping animals away from your campsite. The most effective tactic to keep bears and other animals away is to stay within groups greater than 2 people, although there are other methods.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was wondering what practices to avoid animals really make a difference, there is a lot of misinformation out there on the internet, so I tried to find good sources to discover what really makes sense to do to avoid animals and what doesn’t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Hang Up Your Food, or Hang Out With Animals<\/a> <\/li>
  2. Is There Safety In Numbers When It Comes to Wild Animals? What’s the Magic Number? <\/a> <\/li>
  3. Do Tents Keep you Safe from Wild Animals?<\/a> <\/li>
  4. Does Noise Attract or Repel Animals? The Science of Making a Racket<\/a>
    1. Human Noise as an Animal Deterrent<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
    2. Washing Dishes and Avoiding Crumbs<\/a> <\/li>
    3. Does Fire Attract or Repel Animals?<\/a> <\/li>
    4. What Attracts or Repels Bears?<\/a>
      1. Unwelcome Mats as a Bear Deterrent<\/a><\/li>
      2. Electric Fences With at Least 5000-6000 Volts <\/a><\/li>
      3. Bear Canisters<\/a><\/li>
      4. Does Ammonia Keep Bears Away?<\/a><\/li>
      5. Do Mothballs Keep Bears Away? <\/a><\/li>
      6. Are Bears Attracted to Human Urine?<\/a><\/li>
      7. Are Bears Attracted to Peppermint Oil?<\/a><\/li>
      8. Are Bears Attracted to Insect Repellent?<\/a><\/li>
      9. Do Citronella Candles Attract Bears?<\/a><\/li>
      10. Are Bears Attracted to Menstrual Blood?<\/a><\/li>
      11. What Types of Foods Attract Bears?<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
      12. What Attracts Or Repels Raccoons?<\/a>
        1. Do Pets Repel Raccoons?<\/a><\/li>
        2. Other Raccoon Deterrents<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
        3. What Attracts or Repels Bugs?<\/a>
          1. DEET as a Bug Repellent<\/a><\/li>
          2. Follow the Bug Repellent Dress Code<\/a><\/li>
          3. Natural Bug Repellents<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/li>
          4. What Attracts or Repels Coyotes?<\/a> <\/li>
          5. Summary<\/a> <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            Hang Up Your Food, or Hang Out With Animals In Your Campsite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            By and large, the vast majority of animals will leave humans alone and aren’t out to eat humans specifically. Your food though, pungent and delicious attracts all sorts of animals, from squirrels to bears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Always hang up your food well away from your tent. The basic premise is to hang your food on a branch extending at least 3-4 feet from the base trunk of the tree, and at least 10 feet above the ground. This means that a determined squirrel could get to your food, but it is much less appealing for an animal to go through the effort of trying to retrieve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            These precautions may not be enough in intense bear country, however. There are additional methods and ways to hang up your food making it more difficult for a bear to reach your food, such as the counterbalance method. The caveat with any of these methods is that you have to find a tree that will work, and bears are smart and sometimes determined enough to get around these precautions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            More important than an animal not getting to your food is for your food to be separate from you. Always keep your food well away from where you sleep, and also keep any smelly clothing or substances (like fishing gear) away from you as well. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If you’re car camping, oftentimes you can simply put your food in your car. If you’re not in bear country, this is completely sufficient, as long as all the windows and doors are shut. There are some caveats of course and some additional precautions you can take when storing food in your car which you can find out more about here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If you’d like more in-depth instructions on how to hang up your food, check out our article here! <\/a> It also talks more about how to be protected from bears, including how to use bear canisters or lockers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Is There Safety In Numbers When It Comes to Wild Animals? What’s the Magic Number? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            In this study<\/a>, it was shown that over 90% of all fatal bear attacks were of group sizes of 1-2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This is good information to know. It’s extremely rare for any wild animal to attack a human, and the numbers get even more rare the more people are around. If you are camping in bear country, consider finding enough people so you will have 3 or more adults in your group.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            You have a much greater chance of being hunted if you are in the backcountry for this reason–there are fewer humans around. But, the danger in campgrounds is the amount of trash that attracts scavengers. A wild animal can be dangerous even if it’s not around for you, specifically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In other words, safety in numbers works up to a point–having garbage easily accessible to wild animals will draw scavengers even if you are in a group of people.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Do Tents Keep You Safe from Wild Animals?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            Tents, unfortunately, offer little protection from wild animals. I wrote an article here where I looked through hundreds of animal attack cases and pulled out any that involved tents. The numbers are surprising! Check it out if you want to see details.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            While tents won’t keep out a bear or a cougar, they definitely will keep out some smaller animals while you’re sleeping. If you’re not in bear country, then you really don’t have anything to worry about if you’ve put your food away and you don’t have any in your tent. Even if a small animal won’t harm you, you still don’t want them sniffing around while you’re sleeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Does Noise Attract or Repel Animals? The Science of Making a Racket<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            If you try and look for products to repel a pest or a large animal such as a deer or even a bear, you’ll find a huge category of noisemakers<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The basic principle is that the noisemaker will either make a noise when an intruding animal is near or are simply made to make noise at regular intervals. When you’re camping, unless you’re out on your own in the wilderness, general noisemakers are not generally a well-loved solution because of other campers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There are ultrasonic noisemakers, though. Where the sound produced is above the range of human hearing, but is well within the range for many rodents ears. There isn’t a lot of evidence to support the effectiveness of these ultrasonic devices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The problem with any kind of noisemaker is that they will work for a very limited amount of time. (source<\/a>) A noise without a consequence is just a noise, and animals can figure this out within a couple of days or sooner. In this study, deer figured out some sound-makers in about a week (source<\/a>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If you want your noisemaker to be effective for a longer period of time, you can increase the intensity of the noise, move the noisemaker around periodically, use noisemakers with strobe lights, or adjust the schedule for a particular noisemaker, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            More intense kinds of noisemakers are often used by farmers, and they are shown to be effective at least in the short run (source<\/a>), but these types of noisemakers are not meant to be used while camping since they are much louder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The key point here is that noise DOES work to repel animals, but animals will figure out if there is no consequence associated with noise.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Human Noise as an Animal Deterrent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

            Humans make noise, naturally. We talk, we laugh and in a hundred other ways we make noise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Remember, noise itself isn’t considered a threat, but noise in the combination of a perception of a threat is key to deterring animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If you are hiking solo, then making noise will draw attention to yourself, but it all also announce your presence. Animals that don’t want trouble (such as a mama bear with cubs) will likely be deterred and avoid you. An animal that is hungry and is considering you as prey will likely not be put off by your solo noisemaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            If you’re in a group, this instantly will help your noisemaking.<\/strong> Talking, walking, clanking, clinging, all of these will add to the perception of a threat. If you’re camping with a large group of people, then you have little to fear in terms of an animal attack. (always keep an eye on little kids, though)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Washing Dishes and Avoiding Crumbs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

            One thing in common with all of the advice in this article is that those wild animals would love an opportunity to eat your food. The most important way to prevent wild animals from entering your campsite is to remove what they want: food.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            An unfortunate reality with this life on earth is that we have to do the dishes. This is a terribly sad fact we have been coming to grips with our whole lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Another difficulty with doing the dishes is that dishes often have little tiny bits of food stuck all over them.<\/strong> If you’re trying to avoid critters from coming to your campsite, you have to clean your dishes well and make sure those little bits of food don’t lay around for any animal to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Some quick pointers for doing dishes in the backcountry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n