Among millions of things I don’t know,
Will scent penetrate through and airtight metal can? I sort of think not, since helium and oxygen are compressed and stored in metal containers, albeit sturdier than a food product can. Whatever molecules carry the scent are almost certainly much much larger than helium or oxygen, two elements on the single-digit end of the atomic scale, that is, they are small atoms.
No matter how sensitive sense of smell an animal has, it can only smell what gets into the air and is carried to its nostrils. So if you can keep the smell inside the can, you should avoid attracting animals. What happens when the sleepy camper awakes and ingests the goodies in the can? Mint on the breath may be a greater danger than what escapes the can.
I’d really like to know the answer to the smelling through metal question. Please post if you know. I’ve read about dogs smelling drugs inside scuba tanks. I always figured the smell was on the outside of the tanks, the logic being the same as above, oxygen and nitrogen are small atoms, and drug molecules are huge and unlikely to pass through the walls of a container meant to house small atoms. As to the tube of toothpaste in the car trunk, it’s probably not a valid comparison. We don’t know what was previously stored in that trunk, and whether the outside of the toothpaste container was surgically clean.
This is way of OP’s original topic, sorry to digress, but I have always wondered if the gas escapes through metal like helium does through a kids balloon.
Some links about canned food
"Even canned foods must be removed from your car."
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bears.htm
“you are required to store ALL food, including canned food and beverages”
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/flathead/wildlife/grizzly_bears_index.shtml
“Bears can even smell canned food kept inside the trunk of a vehicle.”
http://faculty.deanza.edu/donahuemary/stories/storyReader$310
Well, I doubt those quotes meet the level of proof you’re looking for. I offer that the labels on canned food might be impregnated with odors from the food factory.
Looking for those links and reading about bears sure spooked me. Glad I don’t live in grizzly country. Some things we don’t usually think about as we’re hanging our food, that bears are interested in:
– The clothes you were wearing while making supper.
– Sweaty clothing
– Leather boots
– The backpack you were carrying food in
– Your tent that was packed next to the food
– Your dinner in your stomach??? Seriously, if a bear can smell bacon cooking inside a house, why wouldn’t he be able to smell it in your tummy as you sleep in your tent?
– Anything with an odor that you applied to yourself late in the day: sunscreen, soap, lip balm, toothpaste
Found one story about a guy who didn’t wash his face after dinner and was awakened by a bear licking his face.
Wow, there’s a lot to get paranoid about when it comes to bears. Since they can smell minute quantities of everything, maybe it’s a question of minimizing the odors so the bear figures, “Aw heck, there’s not enough there to make a meal.”
I’ve never considered it necessary to change my clothes after food preparation and hang the smelly clothes in the food bag. Not in the Northeast. Do people actually do that in the East?
subtlety?
Just a thought Tommy: Mints or what ever you need in a small jar, that put in a larger jar with aCamphour balls or some other chemical that would over whelm the smell of taht mints.
aI recall some one who used an old chemical container as a dry box and found the smell discouraged the critters. It might have been a bleech container from a pool, if I am accurate in mmy recollection…
What attracts bears?
Hmmmm…makes me wonder if Beano would be a good thing to carry in bear country…when we went camping when I was growing up, you could smell my brother’s farts a lot farther than 40 miles…
And I thought that was bear repellant
No beano. Bears don’t like methane/sulpher any more than we do (I hope!)
I have this totally irrational theory that snoring keeps the bears away. Since the many of guys I trip with, including me snore pretty hard we all have our own tent’s. I find the late night snorefest strangely comforting.
Since my bearphobia is largely irrational that actually makes sense.
Its bear hunting season in Maine
and mints are not in the list of bear bait ingredients. Natural food is most attractive to bears.
Any bear thinking of self survival is hiding and won't go near humans.
Apply this thinking to out West and the reasoning goes right out the window. Bears there are plain curious.
Did you read about Yellow Yellow? For that reason ( I paddle in the ADKS but havent hiked in the High Peaks for a few years) I have a Counter Assault container.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/nyregion/25bear.html
Bear Season
We saw the signs that folks were bear hunting while we were up there.
I was wondering how aware the bears are of that and if they indeed might lay low until the season was through?
Chuck has a Bear Vault and it looked pretty good to me but if one bear has learned to get in others can’t be too far behind.