Pepper as an animal deterrent

I was thinking about the movie “Cool Hand Luke”, the scene where the escapee spreads pepper across his path to thwart the tracking dogs when it hit me. Could pepper be used as an animal deterrent for hikers? I’m thinking of sprinkling a little pepper on a pack to help keep mice away, or maybe some on a food canister to help keep bears at bay. At least it might provide a negative experience to associate with the canister.

Is anyone aware of black pepper being used as an animal deterrent? Or are the animals immune to the sneeze and merely consider it a spice?

From what I have read, spreading pepper would attract, not deter, bears. Apparently the even odor of bear spray will attract bears, even though it is indeed effective is repelling them when used properly. So, if you have used bear spray to repel a curious bear, you probably want to move on down the trail, because the lingering smell will attract his cousins.

I have no idea as to whether pepper will repel mice, but since it would attract bears, that doesn't seem like a very good deal. Is the scene in the movie realistic? - I doubt it. Most flicks are not training films...

No... pepper is food. it's no a deterrent.

Unless you can figure a way to rub it into the animals eyes, it is not going to be very effective anyway. Black and white pepper doesn't have enough of the right stuff anyway(if it has any). Which would you rather rub on your face; ground black pepper, or diced habinaros?

Hounds do suck up a lot of stuff into their sniffer, so I suppose there is just enough plausibility to make that work in the movie. Besides, it IS cool hand Luke.

Nope, pepper is food and is so aromatic the scent wafts for miles. Some animals don't experience the hot sensation like humans. My towns animal control officers found that pepper spray doesn't work on some dogs and don't carry it anymore.
Tasers and guns do work.
The "Cool Hand Luke" thing is a myth. Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters both had episodes on it. A dog will find you if it wants to bad enough.

Noise and light might scare off your critters....lay a trip line to an alarm/strobe around your camp?

I rarely sleep in a shelter when on the ground in the desert and get a kick out of the kangaroo rats sneaking in at night.
Flashlight runs them off, but they are right back in seconds,
and fun to watch. Never had a real problem with any critter
checking me out, big or small.

To deal with mice, remove everything from the pack and open all zippers and velcro, let them scope it out and leave without issue. Or hang it, or sleep with it.

In some places a frisbee with a hole in it strung over the top of the food bag is needed to keep the small critters sliding down the rope out of a hung bag. They can't chew through it.

Even pepper spray will attract a bear - you have to get the stuff in the softer membranes of the face where it becomes an irritant for it to repel them.

I friend of mine came back from a trip to Yosemite where a bear ate all his food, including his black pepper.

He said the bear popped the lid off with his teeth, spit it out, dumped the pepper in his mouth, licked and chewed a bit, then went on to the next item. Said the bear ate everything. He showed me a little metal canister he had filled with a super concentrated powdered orange drink mix that had a hole in it that the bear had punched through with a tooth. Said that stuff would make your mouth pucker like nothing he ever tasted, but the bear didn't mind it a bit.

So, while I haven't seen it myself, I have no doubt that the eyewitness account I heard is true.

For what it's worth, an old timer here says that many animals are attracted by most any unusual scent. While hunters were going to great lengths to become "Scentless", he went out and bought a bottle of the loudest cheap perfume he could find and splashed it all over himself before climbing into his tree stand, and he always got his deer.

That's a nice image, bill. Thanks. I'll be chuckling my way through dinner....