Uninvited Guests in Camp.......

[WapitiTalk1]

Chipmunks, camp robbers (grey jays), mule deer are the most common for me. The chipmunks really get bold especially if you've fed them a handful of crumbs and the camp robbers can be brutal (landing on your head begging for snacks, and on occasion, they can get into tents and crap all over everything trying to fly out). The mule deer like to come around camp after dark and ruin my beauty rest and I've even had a couple of cow elk swing in to sniff and rustle around a tarp covered quad trailer (thought we had a bear in camp that night). I haven't really had any issues (knock on wood) with bears in camp for some reason.

What kind of uninvited forest guests have you had at your camps?

[Swede]

Mostly cattle. You wrote about birds crapping on everything, I think they are nothing compared to a herd of cattle hanging around. You won't clean up after them with a paper towel. Yellow jackets and bald faced hornets can be a big nuisance, and a real pain if you are not careful.

[Gypsumreaper]

Elk rubbing on guide lines, bears here and there not as common but have had them get into tents and they never leave through the door they went in. Cattle do become a nuisance but if I'm in cattle country a BB gun is always fun to have around.
But the hornets and wasps especially after there is meat in camp. Or mosquitoes. The most annoying one is the mice that get under the tarp and run under the floor all night, or the really brace one that sits on your chest til you wake up

[six]

Had a Moose take a big deep wiff of the tent one night. He must of not liked the smell because as he was walking away he was making the strangest noise. Sounded like someone was stomping a toad.

Note to self. Don't park your tent right next to the trail. Seems the locals had nicknamed the Moose "Bullwinkle" and he was a little on the friendly side.

[N2mywake]

I agree with SwedeCows in Elk camp SUCK, so do bees, we've had a fox in camp a few times that wouldn't leave about 1 am, he brushed against the tent a few times and I thought I was a bears last supper attempt. After listening to a few podcast I'm going to be more protective of where I sit my bow at night so the strings don't get chewed off....

[pointysticks]

one time hunting in AZ. we were car camping in the boonies. couse deer.

one evening, some guy walks into camp, plops into one of our camp chairs and says, "so which one of you is from California?" he noted our license plates..

he then starts hen pecking us about CA state politics..hahahah...

i almost picked up his bow and dried fired it...

[Swede]

one evening, some guy walks into camp, plops into one of our camp chairs and says, "so which one of you is from California?" he noted our license plates..he then starts hen pecking us about CA state politics..hahahah...

I have hunted around a lot of Californians over the years. I have yet to be around one that is as obnoxious as some locals - like the jerk you had to deal with.

[Roosiebull]

one evening, some guy walks into camp, plops into one of our camp chairs and says, "so which one of you is from California?" he noted our license plates..he then starts hen pecking us about CA state politics..hahahah...

I have hunted around a lot of Californians over the years. I have yet to be around one that is as obnoxious as some locals - like the jerk you had to deal with.

we have had a "southie" working with us quite a bit lately, he is one of my favorite people I have ever met. I have worked with a few up in Alaska too, also really good guys, and very hard workers.

only one uninvited guest in camp I can recall, it was a bull elk that walked through camp around midnight....don't know what was up with him, but he sounded like he was dying how he was breathing....likely just rut drunk, but it was a spooky sounding animal until it was ID'ed...we have had lots of stuff skirting camp, cow elk talking...they are always invited though....love midnight elk sounds while camping during elk season.

[saddlesore]

Mice, They run all around at night, running across your bag .When one ran across my head I had enough. Now I take about 8 mousetraps and peanut butter. It isn't anything to catch 2-3 dozen in a week.
One thing I might pass along. Do not kill one using a .357 mag and bird shot.Amazing how much the pattern opens up at 5 feet. and how hard it is to clean mouse guts off the ceiling of the wall tent.
I had black bear walk down the side of a wall tent on the outside one night. Don't know if he had an itch or was sniffing

[WapitiTalk1]

One thing I might pass along. Do not kill one using a .357 mag and bird shot. Amazing how much the pattern opens up at 5 feet. and how hard it is to clean mouse guts off the ceiling of the wall tent.

Way too early to read this; dang near spit coffee on my keyboard. When wall tenting, for the mice issue, we've found that putting a plate of that boil in a bag rice on a big plate either by the wood stove or tent entrance to keep em busy..... Those little suckers will make hundreds of trips all night, packing a few pieces of rice back to their place each trip; by morning the plate is damn near clean. We sit and watch em before we rack out... back and forth, back and forth. Giving them a target chow source seems to help keep em out of your gear/chow, and, away from the bunks .

[Rangerz]

Over the years have had several.

A mouse who decided to build a nest under the hood of my truck. Bet he was surprised when that Dodge diesel lit off.

A fox playing in the fire pit in the Alaskan bush while we were tent camping on a fishing trip in the middle of Brown Bear country. ( Yes he got our attention).

And the usual camp mascot Chipmunks.

[six]

Mice, They run all around at night, running across your bag .When one ran across my head I had enough. Now I take about 8 mousetraps and peanut butter. It isn't anything to catch 2-3 dozen in a week.
One thing I might pass along. Do not kill one using a .357 mag and bird shot.Amazing how much the pattern opens up at 5 feet. and how hard it is to clean mouse guts off the ceiling of the wall tent.
I had black bear walk down the side of a wall tent on the outside one night. Don't know if he had an itch or was sniffing

Had a mouse getting crumbs out of a pop tart bag at 3 a.m. I didn't have a clue what was going on as I squirted out of my sleeping bag. We brought traps the next year. I like setting a couple traps underneath my buddies cot by his head. We seldom hear them go off tho as we are exhausted.

[VT Sasquatch]

I don't have a camp out west (one day hopefully). My biggest pests here are the porcupines. They seem to chew everything. I have them trying to eat every piece of plywood on my outbuildings. Bears are a pain too. They tear branches off my fruit trees.

[Tigger]

A long time ago, my dad and I were sleeping in a wall tent on the ground. A mouse was running all over our sleeping bags. I fell asleep right away, and dear ol' Dad, mad that I fell asleep first, unzipped my sleeping bag to let the mice in! Thankfully, it didn't work. But I did get back to him big time, alas, that is another story.

Also had a bear walk down the side of the wall tent I was sleeping on. It got a little lively inside the tent for awhile trying to decide who was going to go outside and scare it off. In the end, I just went back to sleep and that got me out of going outside. It was gone by then anyway!

[jmez]

Several years ago when I still rifle hunted we had a grizzly bear come into camp during the night and walk around out tent a few times. Went all through camp. It snowed during the night and when we got up it was pretty obvious. No one woke up or knew he was there.

Wasn't camp but was bowhunting whitetails and sitting in a big brush pile one evening and there was an Ermine that lived there. He spent the entire evening running all around me trying to figure out what I was. He climbed up onto my boot a couple of times. After the first time I tucked my pants into my socks as I was pretty sure I didn't want him running up a pant leg!

Had a Great Horned Owl land on a branch right next to my head in a treestand once. Scared the *%$# out of me. We both about fell out of the tree.

Had three mice get into the cab of my pickup parked at a trailhead in MT a few years ago. I eat sunflower seeds when I drive. DO NOT LEAVE A 3lb BAG OF SEEDS IN YOUR TRUCK PARKED AT A TRAILHEAD! Got back from my hunt and my pickup was a mess, seeds everywhere. I figured they had left after the seeds were gone. Nope, about a month later I could smell mice in the pickup. Set a trap, caught one. Perfect I thought, done. Nope, over the next two weeks and other "food" messes I caught three more in there.

[Beendare]

We had a huge brownie messing with our stuff right outside the tent on Kodiak one year....

Had mtn lions going right by our tent every night last year backpacked into the mtns in western nev on an archery deer hunt....few deer, I wonder why!?

But the WORST is those mice....I was running a floorless tent in 2013 and the mice were running a 3 ring circus in there at night...it was hard to sleep with them running across my bag, etc. They trashed my favorite 125m merino shirt that was up on one of my rubbermaid bins the suckers...I had to dig out the DeCon

merino base layer

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[Deafirishman]

Baaaaaaa....100s of sheep rummaging through camp and not to mention mice and more mice chewing up our paper towel rolls.

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[scubohuntr]

Had bears in camp a few times when bear hunting in MN. Had one good sized individual that decided it was his camp and we were the interlopers; he put his head down, popped his teeth a few times, and didn't leave until the second .357 warning shot. The next four were going to be for real if he hadn't scooted. With nothing bigger than a .357 in camp (bowhunting), I really didn't want to get into a serious argument with him at midnight, at a range of 20 feet.

Another year, I had a bear take off with my cooler at 2 am. My brother and I chased him through the woods in our skivvies until he dropped it. In retrospect, possibly not the brightest response to the situation. We didn't have a weapon with us, just a flashlight (not one of your high dollar LED tactical lights, either- just a cheapie incandescent gas station light). I had assumed brother #2, who stayed in camp, would be following with a rifle for backup. Nope, he just went back to bed. I still have the cooler with the teethmarks in it.