Bivy/tarp and critters

[Jarrod Renaud]

I'm going to be picking up some type of tarp/tipi system here soon. Going to check out Seek Outside in Grand Junction this weekend but am also eying Jimmy Tarp systems. My #1 question is how many of you that use an open floor system also use some type of bug net or minimal bivy?

I can usually find a spot away from mosquitoes but I'm thinking more along the lines of spiders and mice that might find comfort under my quilt or am I just being baby?

 

[Jarrod Renaud]

Or better yet. Let's hear stories of nighttime company...

 

[charvey9]

I do use a bivy, but have never had any problems with critters or insects. Usually, unless weather is really cold or lots of mosquitoes out, I sleep with my head outside the bivy anyway and no problems.

 

[jtw]

Ive used a bivy for about a year now. Never had visitors. Used to sleep under a tarp w/o a bivy in arizona and never had an issue there either.

 

[muleman]

When it comes to rodents. I have seen more problems with floored shelters than with floorless. If they wanted in in a floored shelter they would just chew through. As for mosquitoes or biting flies, it depends on how bad they are. If they are bad a bug net, nest, or bivy with mesh face hole can be a sanity saver.

 

[dreamingbig]

Where we elk hunt in Washington you would have mice visiting you without a floor. We have never had one chew through a floor in the 13 years I have been camping there. A few floorless nights has led to mice running over and around the sleeping bag.

 

[BroodBuster]

I always use a bivy sack under a tarp. The only places I've run into mice are in what I call horse camps which is basically any back country camp that is well established and bare dirt. I've never had any issues once on a ridge top or off the beaten path.

 

[muleman]

The rodents I speak of, are a mutant breed of tent ventilating and pack lightening rock squirrel. These bandits were so brazen that they would move in and start chewing as soon as you moved off a few feet. At one point, we set our packs down at our feet, to our amazement a squirrel runs up and starts munching on one of our packs. In camp they would chew holes in tents to get in and another to get out, but would run under the fly of the floorless shelter and come back out without chewing. I've also had a racoon get into food and seen the damage a racoon or porcuping did to a food cache.

The rock squirrels were in a very popular and heavily used area. In the remote backcounty I don't recall having a rodent issue with a shelter, floored or floorless.

 

[204guy]

For quite a few years prior I had just put my pad on a piece of tyvek for protection. Last year I started using a katabatic bivy in floorless shelters. Also picked up a borah for my wife. Both weigh something like 7 oz and are designed to be used in a shelter not as a stand alone. I found that I prefer to use a bivy though their not necessary. I no longer take the tyvek, just use the bivy bottom as protection for my pad. The biggest advantage I found is that when using a quilt in a floorless shelter it "contains" everything in the bivy and the excess quilt or your foot isn't on the wet or dirty ground. I also have my dogs with in the summer and it provides protection to the top of my bag from wet dogs and toe nails. I also like the wind barrier it provides. I guess it helps with bugs too.

 

[Jarrod Renaud]

For quite a few years prior I had just put my pad on a piece of tyvek for protection. Last year I started using a katabatic bivy in floorless shelters. Also picked up a borah for my wife. Both weigh something like 7 oz and are designed to be used in a shelter not as a stand alone. I found that I prefer to use a bivy though their not necessary. I no longer take the tyvek, just use the bivy bottom as protection for my pad. The biggest advantage I found is that when using a quilt in a floorless shelter it "contains" everything in the bivy and the excess quilt or your foot isn't on the wet or dirty ground. I also have my dogs with in the summer and it provides protection to the top of my bag from wet dogs and toe nails. I also like the wind barrier it provides. I guess it helps with bugs too.

Thanks for the input guys! Im liking the looks of the Borah bivy, something I can use if I need to and also the thought of keeping my quilt off the ground sounds pretty good. Hmm. some things to think about.

 

[Aron Snyder]

I run a RAB Alpine bivy. Made of eVent and crazy durable.

 

[chindits]

I only use a bug net when accompanied by the GF and then I have the SMD Haven Tarp. When I am solo I don't use a net or a bivy and run a MLD Duomid. My x-therm is on the ground and I have a quilt or a WM bag on top of my pad when it is colder. I have had a mouse run over me, once or twice but so what. I tried a bivy in -12 to -15 weather under a tarp and I had frozen condensation issues inside the bivy. I have also gone no tarp and no bivy in that UT/CO border country with no problems.

 

[jb79]

I used the tyvek last year and was always off my pad and out from under my quilt so I have s Borah Bivy coming haven't had any bug or small animals problems, but did have the wife's cat come through in the middle of the night when testing it out! Scared the crap out of me!! I now have a jimmy tarp for scouting trips and s megatarp for hunting and plan in runnning the Bivy in both

 

[LostArra]

I'm sure you guys are all younger and more limber than I am but if your bivy purchase has a side zipper option I would highly suggest including it. Entering and exiting a bivy for nightly watering calls can be challenging when you turn 50 and darn near impossible at 60. It makes for a better sleep knowing you can exit when nature calls without pulling a muscle or breaking a sweat. Also cuts down the claustrophobia-ness of a bivy.
I usually leave the bivy in the stuff sack unless flies or mosquitos are bad.

 

[airlocksniffer]

I have an OR bug bivy for mosquito season. Otherwise not too many issues with critters except one time backpacking in the Mission Mountains. Hiked into a cedar grove and my wife and I slept under my OR alpine awning. Multiple times throughout the night we were visited by a packrat, who proceeded to chew off the straps of my trekking poles, the nose pads off of my eyeglasses and even a hole in the foot of my sleeping bag. I'd periodically open my eyes, see it lurking, scare it off, rinse/repeat. I think the little bastard was after the salt from my sweat.

 

[Take-a-knee]

The rock squirrels were in a very popular and heavily used area. In the remote backcounty I don't recall having a rodent issue with a shelter, floored or floorless.

Squirrels near the AT shelters know how far away from a tree they can jump so even a food bag hung PCT style if its a little close to the trunk a tree rat will leap for it, hang on and chew through the bag and eat what he can and drop to the ground. Many use a bag called a ratsack for food, sort of a lighter Ursack.

 

[Take-a-knee]

I'm sure you guys are all younger and more limber than I am but if your bivy purchase has a side zipper option I would highly suggest including it. Entering and exiting a bivy for nightly watering calls can be challenging when you turn 50 and darn near impossible at 60. It makes for a better sleep knowing you can exit when nature calls without pulling a muscle or breaking a sweat. Also cuts down the claustrophobia-ness of a bivy.
I usually leave the bivy in the stuff sack unless flies or mosquitos are bad.

Second the zipper. I added one to my old Early Winters bivy. Z-Packs makes one with a center zipper. A Sea-to-Summit headnet stays in my Kit Bag year round. I've slept in AK and been "lulled" to sleep by the whine of the Alaskan State Birds perched on my headnet, about an inch from my face.

 

[Jarrod Renaud]

great input guys! Thanks a lot, i feel like my decision is getting easier

 

[gustafsj]

I also have a RAB Alpine Bivy and a Titanium Goat Raven XL. The RAB is Event material and is for sleeping out under the stars. The TG is water resistant and more breathable and is better for under a tarp. I find it overkill to have a waterproof bag under a tarp. It's heavier and you get more condensation build up inside the bag.

 

[Jarrod Renaud]

Yeah Im feeling if I have a solid shelter than the only use for a bivy would be to keep bugs out and/or keep my quilt all tidy around me and my pad on the colder nights rather than having it be a double shelter. A bivy thats super light and mesh only seems to make sense.