Cosmic
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2017
Planning our first Fort vacation for November, and I know you guys talk about the squirrels a lot. We've been camping a few times, and we haven't had problems with squirrels... until this past weekend in Delaware. On the weekend at the beginning of the trip, everything seemed fine. We saw the squirrels, but they didn't hang around too much. That all changed, however, when the campground emptied out on Monday and Tuesday. Presumably, the pickings got a lot slimmer (CG was only ~10% full). The squirrels were all over us. The grand finale was when one ate a whole through a mesh window in one of our tents. It was our first test run of our planned setup for the Fort, so I guess it was fitting to run into some squirrel activity?
Here's our setup:
- 8'x10' tent just for sleeping... no squirrels
- 10'x14' tent for fridge, electric griddle, electric kettle, clothes, sitting space, etc. Squirrel city.
We kept all non-fridge food in the trunk of our car, based on advice here. The problems, as far as I can tell, were probably food garbage and maybe cooking. A squirrel got my oatmeal cup from the garbage when one of the kids left the door open, and we were cooking lots of tasty-smelling things inside the tent that might have left a lingering invitation for the squirrels.
Moving the food garbage to the car somewhat regularly probably wouldn't be too hard (seems obvious as I'm typing this out), but do you guys think that will be enough? Do we have to cook outside? Do I need to slather the tent in squirrel repellant? Do I need to bribe the squirrels with a 10lb bag of sunflower seeds? This whole experience has made me fully aware that I'm going to be living in a tiny little shell of a tent, and leaving it for hours at a time while at the parks.
Here's our setup:
- 8'x10' tent just for sleeping... no squirrels
- 10'x14' tent for fridge, electric griddle, electric kettle, clothes, sitting space, etc. Squirrel city.
We kept all non-fridge food in the trunk of our car, based on advice here. The problems, as far as I can tell, were probably food garbage and maybe cooking. A squirrel got my oatmeal cup from the garbage when one of the kids left the door open, and we were cooking lots of tasty-smelling things inside the tent that might have left a lingering invitation for the squirrels.
Moving the food garbage to the car somewhat regularly probably wouldn't be too hard (seems obvious as I'm typing this out), but do you guys think that will be enough? Do we have to cook outside? Do I need to slather the tent in squirrel repellant? Do I need to bribe the squirrels with a 10lb bag of sunflower seeds? This whole experience has made me fully aware that I'm going to be living in a tiny little shell of a tent, and leaving it for hours at a time while at the parks.