White Rim Road - Mice?

[dave4242]

Hi all,
I have permits for the white rim in august but just saw an alarming YouTube where they said they had mice crawling all over their car and one with mice crawling all over a roof top tent!
is this extreme or are mice a real problem?
thanks!
-David

[Luis-F-S]

bring cheese. Lots of cheese.

[dave4242]

Thanks Luis... Doh!

[Drew Wiley]

I once had a terrible time with just one little deer mouse determined to get into my backpack. The pack was leaned up on a big long log. In the morning I discovered that the mouse had gotten inside it and eaten nearly half a bag of M&M's - probably far more than it's own body weight! All along along the top of that log were different colored little splotches of mouse barf.

[dave4242]

Thanks Drew, yup while backpacking ive run into them I was just concerned as one of the videos said the mice had crawled up and on top of the roof top tent.... seems extreme but made me start to worry a bit...

[ic-racer]

Where can we see the videos of the mice?

[dave4242]

LoL there's no video of the actual mice the guy just said they crawled all over his RTT

[Drew Wiley]

I'd probably bring along one of my cats; make them earn a meal for once.

[dave4242]

Thanks drew.... :)

[Willie]

The Deer Mouse and the White-footed Mouse both can carry Hantavirus. Where you are going Deer Mice are the ones to watch for.

[Vaughn]

It will depend on how many fully satisfied coyotes, hawks, rattlesnakes, and so on, there are between now and August.:cool:

[dave4242]

Thanks Vaughn... :)

[Vaughn]

And a lot depends on how much left there is for them to eat after a spring/early summer of feasting.

I worked out a log cabin for a decade or so. Inside walls had been covered with thin plywood...which had turned the curved spaces between the logs and the plywood into a mouse condo. Never slept inside there, although I had to put up with bears and rattlesnakes occasionally while sleeping on the ground outside the cabin. There was one camp in the wilderness (near an isolated spring) that one had to be careful of leaving anything out at night -- an active pack rat was known to make off with socks, etc. I did (try to) chase down a bear who stole a bag of food one night at the same camp. Got enough back to stay out without going hungry.

But the biggest hit I ever took was a gang of ground squirrels that chewed into my pack in the Grand Canyon and emptied it "like a bucket brigade" as someone who saw it happen described it. Minimal food for dinner and breakfast, but nothing to eat for the hike back up to the rim the next day. Gone were the four dates I had saved for the hike up -- bought while hitchhiking through Death Valley on my way to the Grand Canyon...the little bastards!

[dave4242]

Thanks Vaughn :cool:

[karl french]

Sleep in the 4Runner and you'll be fine. Not an issue for me in 2016, but times may have changed.

[dave4242]

hey karl i was gonna ping ya about that, def planning on sleeping in the 4runner after seeing that video... :)

[Heroique]

If you’re in a tent, campsite mice love the straps that hold the tent to the stakes.

The sweat and salts that accumulate on the straps is delicious, they say.

If you wake and hear scurrying outside, just slap your hand down on the tent floor – they’ll scurry away, but they’ll be back.

Maybe you can bring some cat fur and rub it on the straps. ;^)

[Jerry Bodine]

Sleep in the 4Runner and you'll be fine. Not an issue for me in 2016, but times may have changed.

Just a note on this. A few recent years ago, my 4Runner had some mice get into it while parked in my garage. Turned out they found access to the glove box via the 'recycle' duct (that's the duct that is best closed when the interior is way too hot when starting the vehicle so as to get the AC to cool faster). In the process, they chewed up the cabin air filter as well. I learned to close that duct every time before turning the engine off in the garage (or any other time when it seems sensible).

[dave4242]

Hi Jerry, are you just talking about the vent button whether its pulling from outside or inside?
thanks

[biedron]

I asked about this on an overlanding forum I frequent. Someone replied that they did the White Rim in both February and August and neither time had any issues with mice. They had heard of others having mice issues however.

It’s probably an old wives tale, but I have heard that if you leave the hood open at night, mice and other critters are less likely to invade your vehicle.

Hope this helps

Bob

[Jerry Bodine]

Hi Jerry, are you just talking about the vent button whether its pulling from outside or inside?
thanks
Maybe "recycle" was the wrong word. Make that the "recirculate" button.
https://thenewswheel.com/your-cars-air-conditioning-button-symbols-explained/

[dave4242]

Hey Bob, Thanks!

[Roger Thoms]

I asked about this on an overlanding forum I frequent. Someone replied that they did the White Rim in both February and August and neither time had any issues with mice. They had heard of others having mice issues however.

It’s probably an old wives tale, but I have heard that if you leave the hood open at night, mice and other critters are less likely to invade your vehicle.

Hope this helps

Bob

I've got a second home in a rural area about 35 miles outside of Flagstaff AZ. I had mice do $2600 damage to the wiring under the hood of my truck. Ever since, on the recommendation of my mechanic I leave the hood open at night and haven’t had any problem since. The one time I let my guard down the mice started nesting, but fortunately I caught it before they did any damage.

Roger

[Drew Wiley]

This is a drought year. Hanta virus outbreaks are tied to exceptionally moist years of abundant forage when the mouse population explodes. It isn't restricted to the southwest, as fatal breakouts in Yosemite campgrounds and near Mammoth Mtn have demonstrated, and even in abandoned old mining towns here on the coast. It's no doubt endemic to certain widespread areas, but only gets traction under certain circumstances. Navajo legends considered deer mice taboo; "only a mouse can kill a great warrior" (hanta tends to afflict people in the prime of life, in excellent health, rather than the young or old). But no kind of rodent poo is exactly a good idea to have around, health-wise. Time for some chlorine bleach.

Critters that get under the car hood? When he got old, my dad didn't use his old GMC truck in winter, and just left it unattended in the garage. When we tried firing it up one spring and couldn't get it going, after briefly sleuthing under the hood, we discovered that a pack rat had gnawed through the air filter and stuffed acorns into the carburetor. But that wasn't half as bad as the fact he'd left a window open all winter, and the cat hopped in there to pluck and eat every bird it caught the whole season. Thick piles of feathers and small bones in there. But all of that trouble pales to the time a skunk clawed it way into the hose heating duct system of the house and decided to raise its family in that nice cozy spot. Around the same time, another pack rat built a whole twig nest in the duct above the fume hood in the kitchen.

Never a dull moment, critter-wise. A possum even somehow once got under the lid of the washing machine and went halfway through the wash cycle before we discovered him in there. He wasn't amused, and certainly didn't play possum in that instance. Big, fat, and hissing; but at least he was clean. We wrapped him in a coat to keep him from biting; and turned him loose. Moral of the story : it's risky to be as dumb as a possum. At least that's one thing that country living teaches you, if you aren't as dumb as a possum yourself.

[dave4242]

Thanks Roger :)

[ic-racer]

Didelphimorph with a prehensile tail...what more would one want...especially if it was washed...

217152

[abruzzi]

I'm never encountered anything like that anywhere near Moab, but I haven't been up there in years.

[Drew Wiley]

Who needs mice when Moab is already overrun with a plague of trail bicyclists? Right around the time that was starting to happen, and the surrounding area was getting "loved to death", and Moab itself was suddenly mushrooming into a tourist mecca, a local cashier in the little grocery market said, "If you see a bicycle, run over it". Their little town would never be the same. Now their back country rules are a little stricter involving designated routes, to spare the soft sandstone wear grooves etc from the constant flow of cyclists. But a herd of climbers was causing the same kind of damage by rappelling off natural sandstone arches and so forth. It's gotten like Telluride - a place to avoid if you want a real outdoor experience. Or just gas up there and move on to somewhere quieter.

[Roger Thoms]

Who needs mice when Moab is already overrun with a plague of trail bicyclists? Right around the time that was starting to happen, and the surrounding area was getting "loved to death", and Moab itself was suddenly mushrooming into a tourist mecca, a local cashier in the little grocery market said, "If you see a bicycle, run over it". Their little town would never be the same. Now their back country rules are a little stricter involving designated routes, to spare the soft sandstone wear grooves etc from the constant flow of cyclists. But a herd of climbers was causing the same kind of damage by rappelling off natural sandstone arches and so forth. It's gotten like Telluride - a place to avoid if you want a real outdoor experience. Or just gas up there and move on to somewhere quieter.

Oh and don’t forget about all the idiots jumping of the cliffs with parachutes. At least they have a short lifespan. :)

Roger

[Drew Wiley]

My nephew had to rescue a chutist who jumped off the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. Took about 10 hrs to get them off the cliff, with the chute barely clinging to a tiny tree halfway down. That's a long long time to have both a shattered hip and extreme anxiety. He and a climbing pal just happened to be there on the face when it happened; but it took them two full hours to traverse over to where the accident victim was and at least get them securely anchored to rock. The full rescue took another 8 hrs. And since it was a rule-breaking incident, that person probably had to repay for the cost of the rescue, including helicopter expenses.

[Roger Thoms]

My nephew had to rescue a chutist who jumped off the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. Took about 10 hrs to get them off the cliff, with the chute barely clinging to a tiny tree halfway down. That's a long long time to have both a shattered hip and extreme anxiety. He and a climbing pal just happened to be there on the face when it happened; but it took them two full hours to traverse over to where the accident victim was and at least get them securely anchored to rock. The full rescue took another 8 hrs. And since it was a rule-breaking incident, that person probably had to repay for the cost of the rescue, including helicopter expenses.

That’s pretty rough and that comes from someone who broke their pelvis and partially dislocated his hip on a base jump. Rescue was much easier as I was in an urban area. :) After that I figured I needed a safer activity which led me to large format photography. Still miss jumping but being busted up once is enough.

The jumper was very fortunate your nephew was there.

Roger

[Drew Wiley]

Guess they made the mistake of looking down the face, which is dead vertical below the top, and not clearing it enough for the more tapered section of the face below, where they banged into the wall and apparently bounced awhile before almost miraculously getting the chute tangled in the only tiny tree up there, growing in a crack toward the corner of the face.

As kids we'd find some giant impossible boulder and spend a day or two piling leaves or pine needles at the bottom before climbing and inevitably peeling off. It was either that or serious free-climbing so high up that we recognized we'd be killed rather than crippled if we fell. No fancy gear or special shoes. We were just poor untrained hill kids out for a risky thrill. Some of us survived; some didn't.

The neighbor a mile away had a 500 acre sheep pasture adjacent to our place, with one tiny little pine tree out in the middle of it. The skydiving club from the nearest city would land out there without permission on Sundays. One Sunday afternoon I came back down from my favorite nearby climbing hill and saw seven skydivers out there all desperately clinging onto that little tree. The rancher had put his meanest bull in there to teach them a lesson, and just left them there until evening. Then he brought another person and two Jeeps. While the bull was charging one Jeep, he'd ferry out a few skydivers at a time with the other Jeep. They never came back.

[Willie]

Oh and don’t forget about all the idiots jumping of the cliffs with parachutes. At least they have a short lifespan. :)

Roger

"If at first you don't succeed, sky diving is not for you."

[Roger Thoms]

"If at first you don't succeed, sky diving is not for you."

;)