Olive oil lantern will it attract bearsJust

[Mark Ries]

<li style=”text-align: center;”>Just made a olive oil lantern as winter tent warmer and light I know that I will have to warm the oil to keep it liquid works great. A friend just brought up that the olive oil could impregnate the tent and attract bears porcupines etc when not in hibernation. What do you all think?

[Mark Ries]

I’m using a 9×9 floorless pyramid FYI.

[Jerry Adams]

I eat olive oil.  I would think bears would like to eat it to.

Olive oil can leak.  A candle lantern might be better.

[Mark Ries]

Ya that’s what he said. Going to porkies in January No worry on bears here in Iowa so it’s not always a thought. I’m using a 5/8” flat wick and it makes such a nice big flame very little smoke lots of heat and it’s odorless to ME. I asked my dog if she can smell it she just rolls her eyes. I’ve got other options, candle and oil lanterns just trying for cheaper and warmer and above all lightest weight per BTU

[Bonzo]

Maybe add a fragrance to the oil that isn’t pleasant to bears, or that covers the oil smell?  Cedar or pine oil, perhaps?  I recall something about pine-based cleaners being rather off-putting to bears, but don’t quote me on that if you try it and end up as a midnight snack.

[Mark Ries]

In some of the reading I’ve done it says that olive oil burns odorless but odorless to me and a bear maybe two different things. I wonder if citronella  oil added would work does it attract bears

[Bonzo]

In some of the reading I’ve done it says that olive oil burns odorless but odorless to me and a bear maybe two different things

By a ridiculous margin, yes.  The National Institute of Environmental Health says that a bear’s sense of smell is about 2,100 times as capable as our own.  The following link from the NPS lays out an equally strong case.

https://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/bear-series-part-one-a-bears-sense-of-smell.htm

[Mark Ries]

Citronella attracts bears

[MJ H]

Don’t replace with a tallow candle.

[Michael Sirofchuck]

Olive oil in a tent, even a floorless mid, seems like a bad idea to me.  Any kind of spill on sleeping bag, etc., would not be a good thing. As would a container leaking in your pack or even in an external pocket.

With all the LED options available, it seems a battery powered lantern of some sort would be a safer, wiser choice.

[Kevin Babione]

I think, like everything else, it’s might smell “interesting” to a bear.  Even in bear country their diet would not include olive oil so their initial reaction would not be FOOD!  I’d say it’s no different than putting on bug repellant or sunscreen in bear country.

Because you’re burning it, any lingering smells (assuming you don’t spill it) will be of burnt olive oil – and anything burnt is a smell most animals avoid in my experience.

[Michael B]

An LED will not provide warmth to the tent as the OP suggested was one of the features he wanted.  Maybe one of those zippo hand warmers could be employed in conjuction with an LED headlamp to get both functions out of a couple small items?

[jscott]

Add some fresh garlic. That will add a soupcon of Italian for the bear when he eats you.

 

Ranger: no food or food smells in your tent.

camper: well, a small piece of chocolate under my pillow for when it’s cold later in the night can’t hurt…

I take the ‘no food in your tent’ rule to include, you know, food.

[Bonzo]

Ranger: no food or food smells in your tent.

camper: well, a small piece of chocolate under my pillow for when it’s cold later in the night can’t hurt…

Or for when you’re trying to manage low blood sugar with a small snack every few hours.  That makes for not-so-fun late-night trips to a bear bag just to get a couple of crackers or a handful of peanuts.

[David Thomas]

If you’re not trying to multi-purpose the olive oil as a food stuff, just use the mineral oil sold for lamps.

Or an unscented, non-beeswax candle.

OTOH, the Inupiaq (not all of them, but enough of them) survived for thousands of years using seal-oil lamps in polar-bear country.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

My old CANDOIL lanterns burn scented (pine, etc.) lamp oil. Thay will burn 6 hours on medium flame with one filling.

CANDOIL lanterns are long out of production. (sniff!)

[Matt]

Wouldn’t the smell of the olive oil just be one more smell among the hundred you already have in your pack that any self-respecting bear could detect?

[Bonzo]

Wouldn’t the smell of the olive oil just be one more smell among the hundred you already have in your pack that any self-respecting bear could detect?

I’ve been reading up on bear noses (and watching hilarious videos of them finding and trying to open bear canisters) and the simple answer is “yes.”  It’s unreal, how well they can smell; they use their noses like we use our eyes.  The olfactory epithelium in the nose itself is massively larger then our own, and the olfactory bulb itself – sort of the CPU for smell-processing – is about five times larger than ours.  A professorial acquaintance of mine told me just this morning that there are theories about the bear’s sense of smell being in some way linked to their visual cortex…but that there are actually very few scientific studies on bear-noses because we simply don’t have the equipment or knowledge to be able to test them.  That part surprised me because we have very sophisticated chemical testers that can find infinitesimal traces of faint odors on just about anything, but I’m sure there’s a difference between detecting particles of chemicals and actually measuring the processing those particles in a working animal brain.  Regardless, bear noses are incredible…so not only would they notice the smell of the olive oil in your pack, but they would probably notice it several hours later, after you were miles and miles from wherever they crossed your track.  Fascinating.

[Luke Schmidt]

I don’t think a burning smell would necessarily be off putting to a bear.

Here in Alaska a common tactic (where legal) is to burn bacon grease to attract a bear. Of course olive oil is a bit less “meaty ” then bacon. Bacon is nat natural but the bears seem to know it’s got fat (important). Black bears also love marshmallows FYI.

I would not do it in grizzly country. You and a dog in black bear country, I’d say HYOH. Some risk but I’m not the kind of guy who reads safety labels either.

[Erica R]

Long ago we camped at Short Sands Beach in Oregon.

We were “sleeping” under the stars, and were troubled by noises in the brush.

We put some burning oil candles over where the scary noises were coming from.

Whatever they were blew out the candles and drank the oil!

[Bruce Tolley]

“Here in Alaska a common tactic (where legal) is to burn bacon grease to attract a bear.”

When legal, is it consider a good hunting practice?  Seems a bit unsportsmanlike.

[Luke Schmidt]

Bruce I’ll let others argue that. But it happens. Now to make things complicated

• One person I know had a bait with lots of scents on it (bacon grease, etc). One small bear was spotted the entire spring.
• I know another bow hunter who simply puts out dog food and sees tons of bears.

The general idea seems to be that bears can smell food a long ways off. Whether a bear actually shows up might depend on whether the bear is comfortable in that area and whether the bear has something else it likes better

 

[DAN-Y/FANCEE FEEST]

I’ve got other options, candle and oil lanterns just trying for cheaper and warmer and above all lightest weight per BTU

Go with your other options

[Bruce Tolley]

I was not trying to start an argument, just curious but I can see in this forum such a topic could turn into yet another long thread.

 

[Mark Ries]

Ya I love starting crap

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