Guest BLEdwardsJ Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 I hope this isnt topic that has had its turn but Im new to geocahing and it is something I am wondering about. It seems as thought it is NOT agood idea to have food in a cache. With animals and all it may not be a great idea. So my question is? Is it OK to remove food from a cache that was left by other people. I recently found one that had been visited by a large number of people. Many of which were not geocachers. This cach had a tone of candy and snacks in it. I left it there but as I was driving home I thought it may invite trouble. What are some opinions on this. ------------------ Quote Link to comment
Guest Hawk-eye Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 OK ... here's my 2 cents ... REMOVE IT ... PLEASE! Really, one of my caches was "eaten" by a critter in PA ... Hawk 3 ... I think .... because of mint flavored dental floss! Go figure ... if it's food or smells like food ... please don't place in cache container ... mine was well hidden under a piece of slate so it was probably a large critter with a soft spot for mint! On a side note ... a couple of cachers from the area college found the remains of my cache and emailed me ... I've shipped a replacement cache to them and they have vol. to replace it ... great bunch of people playing this game of ours! Quote Link to comment
Guest Hawk-eye Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 OK ... here's my 2 cents ... REMOVE IT ... PLEASE! Really, one of my caches was "eaten" by a critter in PA ... Hawk 3 ... I think .... because of mint flavored dental floss! Go figure ... if it's food or smells like food ... please don't place in cache container ... mine was well hidden under a piece of slate so it was probably a large critter with a soft spot for mint! On a side note ... a couple of cachers from the area college found the remains of my cache and emailed me ... I've shipped a replacement cache to them and they have vol. to replace it ... great bunch of people playing this game of ours! Quote Link to comment
Guest ClayJar Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 Food!?! YIPE! I guess I'll put it this way: if you ever find food-ish items in any of my caches, I hereby give you both the authority and a mandate to remove it immediately. (I've got "Loch Lock Locker" ready for placement as soon as my boat comes in, and it'd be a shame if the one bit of pottery-ish stuff I had gets shattered by a semi-aquatic bear.) Quote Link to comment
Guest jeremy Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 Remove the food. 'Nuff said. The only exception I can see is MRE items. They aren't classified as "food" Jeremy Quote Link to comment
Guest Rootbeer Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 quote:Originally posted by BLEdwardsJ:Is it OK to remove food from a cache The only kinds of food or drink that I think would be acceptable in most wilderness caches would be either a canteen of plain water or a factory-sealed soft drink can or bottle (and only if you can be sure that it won't become frozen and burst). It won't necessarily be ice-cold, but it could still be refreshing and appreciated. If a cache in a sturdy metal container is secure from racoons and other small mammals, it might also be possible to include some fully-wrapped candy or gum. Not chocolate, or anything else which may melt, though. And nothing that an exploring ant might find. So there's not much that qualifies, but your environment may allow exceptions. I was discussing recently the idea of a cache floating in a body of water, anchored at the coordinates. If the cache container is strong and completely waterproof, as it would need to be, this could be a cache which could contain some non-perishable food. Of course, this is an exceptional case! In general (and you'll have to use some judgment in borderline cases), I think most people here would generally approve of the finder immediately removing and disposing of anything which shouldn't be in the cache in the first place: most foods, drinks, drugs, pornography, N'Sync CDs, explosives, or ammunition. Quote Link to comment
Guest Craig Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 I had a bottle of bubbles in my cache when I put it out. The the bear loved chewing on it. Thire was no food in it. But the cache was in a cookie tin. Thire was teeth marks in the top of the tin. i found a beer at one cache, and I did the right thing, I drunk it. I did not want a minner to find it:-) Quote Link to comment
Guest navdog Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 og biscuits are food too! Not that I have a favorite brand. But folks that leave biscuits for other dog owners in rubbermaid type containers are inviting trouble. ------------------ "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be." -Douglas Adams navdog Quote Link to comment
Guest T-storm Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 Some have mentioned also it might be best to use a container that has never been used for food storage as the food smell might be enticing to an animal's more sensitive smeller where it went unnoticed by ours. I prefer not to see food items even in metal containers like ammo cans because I've got to wonder if an animal sniffs it out, couldn't they still dig it out into the open and move it trying to get into it? So I prefer to see no foods at all placed into our caches. We've removed the only such items that got traded into our caches, and have traded food items out of others' caches because of our concerns. T-storm ------------------ http://www.cordianet.com/geocaching Quote Link to comment
Guest web-ling Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 Food in cache...cache leaks......geocacher eats food...geocacher gets sick and dies...geocaching in national headlines... Remove the food (but eat at your own risk...) Web-ling Quote Link to comment
Guest Latitude11 Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 I like the idea of people getting their dogs involved with the sport, and I would do the same thing if I had a pooch. However, I have worried as well about dog biscuits left in caches. I personally think that beef or chicken flavored *anything* would be a serious invitation for trouble from animals. We found one cache that had two dog biscuits and two bags of peanuts in it. We took the peanuts, and left the dog biscuits.. what to do, what to do? Quote Link to comment
Guest glenn95630 Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 Do you think Lip Balm belongs in the food or non-food category? Quote Link to comment
Guest jeremy Posted October 30, 2001 Share Posted October 30, 2001 quote:Originally posted by glenn95630:Do you think Lip Balm belongs in the food or non-food category? I feel that anything that is ingested or applied topically, unless well-sealed in its original packaging, is a bit suspect. Even dog bones are suspect, and not for the more paranoid reasons, but for the ingredients and its exposure to the elements. Not to mention the attraction of animals and insects to the cache. There are umpteen gazillion items to put in a cache that don't need to be ingested or applied. So why not stick with them? If you want to supply a gift certificate at Cinnabon (or Krispy Kreme), feel free. Otherwise, why tempt fate? I can't even count the number of "Just logged the cache. The logbook is a bit sticky, however, because the candy disintegrated from moisture" or "Looks like an animal got into the cache. The contents were strewn about the area." Stop the insanity! Jeremy Quote Link to comment
Guest Rich in NEPA Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 quote:Originally posted by jeremy: I feel that anything that is ingested or applied topically, unless well-sealed in its original packaging, is a bit suspect. Even dog bones are suspect, and not for the more paranoid reasons, but for the ingredients and its exposure to the elements. Not to mention the attraction of animals and insects to the cache. Animals have an extremely keen sense of smell, so even if an item is well sealed there are probably enough scent molecules on the package to attract a hungry animal. It is said that police and rescue dogs can track a person just from the random dead cells that flake off from that person's skin and fall to the ground. Along the same topic, it's been nearly 3 months since the following cache was discovered. I had hoped that the owners would have seen my cache log on the Website and restored it by now. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=1852 Since there's been no indication that they are even aware of the cache's demise, I recently e-mailed them (via Geocaching.com) about the condition of their cache, but so far I've gotten no response. Jeremy, at this point perhaps it would be best if you attempted to deal with it in an official manner? It's a real shame if this cache has to be archived due to a lack of interest by the original hiders, because the location and the setting are ideal. I don't live close enough to the area to take over its maintenance myself. Thanks for checking into this situation. ~Rich in NEPA~ ==================================================================== ? A man with a GPS receiver knows where he is; a man with two GPS receivers is never sure. ? ==================================================================== [This message has been edited by Rich in NEPA (edited 31 October 2001).] Quote Link to comment
Guest Hawk-eye Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 quote:Originally posted by jeremy: ...Otherwise, why tempt fate? I can't even count the number of "Just logged the cache. The logbook is a bit sticky, however, because the candy disintegrated from moisture" or "Looks like an animal got into the cache. The contents were strewn about the area." Stop the insanity! Jeremy Amen brother Jeremy .... tell it like it is ... if it can be eaten or smells like it might could be eaten ... fu-getta-aboutit! Quote Link to comment
Guest Cape Cod Cache Posted October 31, 2001 Share Posted October 31, 2001 A few thoughts... Critters like to chew on plastics. I just brought in 2 chairs from my backyard and woodchucks had gnawed on them all summer. Also a plain, un-scented candle was chewed on as well. Then it struck me, plastics are processed with types of waxes called poly-olefins. Plastics like poly-ethylene use alot. It smells rather sweet when being molded. Quote Link to comment
Guest joshuabrand Posted November 1, 2001 Share Posted November 1, 2001 I've done alot of backpacking in the wilderness and there are a few general rules that should apply to geocaching too. Anything that is edible, sealed or not, and anything that has ever contained food is a smellable. You never leave this stuff out for the critters to get, they can create more mischief, and often times damage, than you think. Even unused batteries can be a smellable, although they only create a problem in extreme wilderness areas. Just be sensible about it. If it smells, like food, animals, or even poop, don't put it in! All personal hygene products also fall under this category. Quote Link to comment
Guest Snowtrail Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 I remove food when I find it. Chapstick is not really a good idea, it melts. If you haven't seen the mess it makes, you're not from the south. Quote Link to comment
Guest badbitbucket Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 quote:Originally posted by jeremy: Stop the insanity! Jeremy Idea for Jeremy: Schedule a canned message to a getting started topic answering this question automatically. It's not a stupid question, but a glance at the guidelines for hunting and hiding caches should be all that is necessary to answer it. it's spelled out pretty clearly I think. 2 more Lincolns from BBB [This message has been edited by badbitbucket (edited 02 November 2001).] [This message has been edited by badbitbucket (edited 02 November 2001).] Quote Link to comment
Guest Lou C Posted November 2, 2001 Share Posted November 2, 2001 Like several others have said, I also vote for NO FOOD in any cache. The most trashed cache I have seen contained scented candles, car fresheners, soap, and shampoo. I think in general do not put anything in a cache containing any scent. Even metal containers can either leak odors or can have some odor on the outside. These cans can be dragged by 'coons or other animals causing the cache to be off coodinates. In a cache, "Scents don't make sense." Lou Quote Link to comment
+rusty_tlc Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Removing food from caches sounds like a good idea to me. Quote Link to comment
+Doggiewoggie Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Why are you bumping these old threads up? Quote Link to comment
+rusty_tlc Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Why are you bumping these old threads up? Why is it a problem? Quote Link to comment
+El Diablo Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Why are you bumping these old threads up? Maybe to show people in the other 5 threads that are going on right now what is proper? El Diablo Quote Link to comment
+Doggiewoggie Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 I GET IT! Zombie is into reviving the dead. Quote Link to comment
Blue Contrails Posted October 9, 2004 Share Posted October 9, 2004 If it's a nice quarterpounder I'd take it. Otherwise it's going in the CITO. Unless it has some cheese on then I'd definitely take it. On a side note, if anyone needs me I'll be in the kitchen. Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.