[pct-l] moth balls

[Bob]

> I know of no studies involving the actual use of moth balls in an attempt to repel said beasts.

Not a scientific study, but a seasonal Ranger, Dick Hatfield, on the Gallatin NF in the 1980's discovered that the garbage outside his trailer was untouched one morning by the bears.   He realized he had dumped some moth balls on top of the garbage.  Intrigued, he alternated moth balls/no moth balls all summer thereafter and found that his trash/garbage was untouched whenever he put moth balls on top.  I have a copy of the article about it buried somewhere in my basement.

Because of that article, I used mothballs myself for a number of summers, eventually stopping because of the extra weight and the fact that in N CA on the PCT one morning I discovered my deployed mothballs had been partially eaten by some small critter(s).  Yummy!  If you dig in the old camping literature you'll find a lot of old timers used them.  Walkin' Jim Stoltz used them for a few years and we joked about camping moth free!  They really were a pain to carry, deploy and collect.

Dr Bob