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Porcupines Chewing Car Parts

Discussion

5 replies
Posted by Rod Hanna on July 8, 2011 at 3:03 PM
Jim Talaric and I were doing some photography around the Aspen area earlier this week and I decided to car camp at the Silver Bell campground on the way to the Bells. Turns out there's some porcupines there that like to chew on the underside of cars so I was able to use some abandoned chicken wire I found there to wrap around all sides of my 4-runner. The little #%*&^$@#@#'s kept me awake half the night with the noise of their trying to get through the chicken wire. Turns out this is not unusual---they like the mineral content or salt they find especially on brake lines, etc. I googled this subject when I got home and there was 142,000 results.
Posted by Brent Doerzman on July 8, 2011 at 3:59 PM
Rod, definitely not unusual, sadly! :eek: In fact, I've had that happen, exact same campground, except for me it was a huge porcupine. Made for an interesting night. Chased him away three times. I've had same deal with marmots numerous times while back on some higher 4wd roads. I've seen talk about this on several hiking websites, and solutions range from the chicken wire like you mentioned, to those moth ball hangers for closets, to coyote urine! DOH!

14ers.com- Chewing Marmots
Posted by Kalin Wilson on July 8, 2011 at 5:10 PM
In my experience, coyotes are hard to 'milk' - makes 'em 'ornery!
Posted by Michael Hackett on July 8, 2011 at 5:58 PM
I would go with a small electric fence around the perimeter
Posted by Richard Olsen on July 8, 2011 at 9:38 PM
An electric fence around a car....puts a vision in my mind of what it might do to somone's dog who wants to claim your tire as his property!!
Posted by CAZ on July 9, 2011 at 4:05 AM
Since Brent D turned this porcupine thread into a marmot thread, check out this video clip from Steve Sieren. "Hey, uh, I've got a marmot in my engine here..."