This topic contains 29 replies, has 18 voices, and was last updated by 
Lacknothing 10 years, 10 months ago.
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My very first travel bug (wimpy kid) disappeared out of the first cache I put it in. I got a few more at the West Bend cache bash that are still with the original person. I have spent many hours thinking about travel bugs and have theories on the different types of cachers.
I am a big fan of travel bugs. I read the mission and try to help. I mailed one to Oregon to get it home. I take pictures often and try to do fun stuff. I recently had one that wanted to go into space so I launched it in a model rocket. Good times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2AmAjjFJ0I
I think that we are in the minority on good travel bug etiquette. How many caches do you see that have a TB listed just to find it went missing years ago.
A lot of cachers aren’t that into this and don’t have a lot of finds. They pick up a TB and it’s gone. Some cachers have way to many caches(owned) and/or travel bugs that they can’t keep track of all of them. Some cachers are putting up McDonald’s numbers and only want the stats.
I could go on and on.. In the end, I think this all ads to the excitement. The biggest favor I try to do for travel bugs is leave them in a premium member only cache.
We had one we wanted to get to Swaziland.
We released it in Straight Lake SP, it got into MN and stalled. So I wrote the person holding it, who put it into a cache they owned. The cache was lost shortly thereafter.
GrrThe best sig is no sig.
@beccaday wrote:
Just make sure that your bug isn’t marked as being collectible. If you look on the official rules from groundspeak, it says that people can take bugs marked as collectible and add them to their own collection. I was pretty disappointed when Bad Robot, my bug that won last year’s travel bug race, was taken out of play by someone who decided to collect it. They won’t budge, it’s part of the rules and they say they have every right to do it.
This makes me sad.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
I have a Flat Stanley TB that I am totally pumped about moving. My favorite kind of TB to move is one that belongs to a kid!
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
Travel Bugs let loose in the wild are a gamble at best. I’ve tried everything mentioned to improve the odds and in my small collection out there I’ve had very limited success.
The one thing that has always intrigued me is the Bugs that have gone missing or become frozen with someone who won’t or can’t move it is that there’s individuals watching them. Is it the mission I stated on the insert, is it a former mover hopeful to see it’s next move, makes me wonder. 😕
The ones that have moved recently aren’t watched.
I watch if the goal interests me or if it wants to go somewhere I would have wanted to go
The best sig is no sig.
I’ve never watched one but I have some that I’ve passed along or simply logged as “discovered” that I’ll go into them through my profile once in a while and check up on them.
@beccaday wrote:
Just make sure that your bug isn’t marked as being collectible. If you look on the official rules from groundspeak, it says that people can take bugs marked as collectible and add them to their own collection. I was pretty disappointed when Bad Robot, my bug that won last year’s travel bug race, was taken out of play by someone who decided to collect it. They won’t budge, it’s part of the rules and they say they have every right to do it.
they need to realize that adding them to their collection does not mean that they own the bug. in the GC forums, they akin collecting to loaning to a museum. they can hold on to it to show it around but it never becomes their property. the “collection” appears to be a way to not have those TBs show on their inventory so it is easier when moving things from cache to cache and logging, but I don’t believe it ever meant they can keep a bug that is not adopted over to them. Until Groundspeak makes this clear, there will be those who feel they are entitled to keeping any “collectable” bug they find.
Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
I really appreciate it when the printout and TB/GC are in a bag with the code written on the bag (ala AuntieNae). Then I can take it or leave it, depending on the mission.
@ckayda wrote:
I’ve never watched one but I have some that I’ve passed along or simply logged as “discovered” that I’ll go into them through my profile once in a while and check up on them.
I have a couple cool ones I am watching. My personal favorite is
TB27B3R, which I found in Madison and took around the area for a while.Trekkin’ was antsy to get out this afternoon so we went and found a local cache. I retrieved a TB which has been traveling around since 2007, one year after we officially started playing this game. Nice to see that sometimes still happens!
When I release a trackable I don’t expect it to ever come back or go anywhere. I let it loose, it’s already gone.
What I do is if they go missing, I let them stay missing for a certain amount of time and then re-release a copy of the coin or bug. My wait time is normally around a year after the last log.
@beccaday wrote:
Just make sure that your bug isn’t marked as being collectible. If you look on the official rules from groundspeak, it says that people can take bugs marked as collectible and add them to their own collection. I was pretty disappointed when Bad Robot, my bug that won last year’s travel bug race, was taken out of play by someone who decided to collect it. They won’t budge, it’s part of the rules and they say they have every right to do it.
I’m a bit late on responding to this, but this is entirely incorrect. The rules state:
“Trackables in a collection can only be discovered, they cannot be grabbed, dropped or dipped (visit a geocache). You can allow another geocacher to collect a trackable that you own.”“Can” does not mean “must”.
Turn off the “collectable” check box and email them back and tell them to move it.
Similar to RJ, when I release a trackable, I expect it to go missing; it’s only a matter of time. If it doesn’t go missing, then it’s exceeded my expectations and I’m glad. If it does disappear, I’m disappointed somewhat but life goes on, and I’ll still release more trackables.
I have found however two proven techniques to make them last much longer. 1. For travel bugs, I have learned to NOT use a super cute or desirable object. That way there’s less temptation for some kid to take and keep it. 2. For TB’s and geocoins, I now use a geocoin buddy or travelbug buddy tag in addition to the normal tag. It’s a stark reminder for the recipient to move the trackable and not keep it.
I am in the midst of a (so far) 3 year experiment with trackables. In 2011 I released a series of 9 geocoins, each a different color and tracking number but otherwise the same. In 2013 I released 9 more, identical to the first 9 but with different tracking numbers, and, most importantly, this time with geocoin buddy tags attached that ask to not keep the coins. See picture below.
So far, 8 of the 9 coins without the extra tag vanished within two years, but only one of the 9 coins with the extra tag has disappeared in 2014 (15 months so far).
Tentative conclusion – the “don’t keep me” geocoin buddy tags are helping to prolong the longevity of trackables in the wild.
Next time I send out TB’s they will likely get the “don’t keep me” extra tags too. That won’t prevent those who want to steal them from taking them, but it will likely be helpful for those times when someone might have innocently kept it because they didn’t understand what travel bugs/geocoins were all about.
@hack1of2 wrote:
Similar to RJ, when I release a trackable, I expect it to go missing; it’s only a matter of time. If it doesn’t go missing, then it’s exceeded my expectations and I’m glad. If it does disappear, I’m disappointed somewhat but life goes on, and I’ll still release more trackables.
I have found however two proven techniques to make them last much longer. 1. For travel bugs, I have learned to NOT use a super cute or desirable object. That way there’s less temptation for some kid to take and keep it. 2. For TB’s and geocoins, I now use a geocoin buddy or travelbug buddy tag in addition to the normal tag. It’s a stark reminder for the recipient to move the trackable and not keep it.
I am in the midst of a (so far) 3 year experiment with trackables. In 2011 I released a series of 9 geocoins, each a different color and tracking number but otherwise the same. In 2013 I released 9 more, identical to the first 9 but with different tracking numbers, and, most importantly, this time with geocoin buddy tags attached that ask to not keep the coins. See picture below.
So far, 8 of the 9 coins without the extra tag vanished within two years, but only one of the 9 coins with the extra tag has disappeared in 2014 (15 months so far).
Tentative conclusion – the “don’t keep me” geocoin buddy tags are helping to prolong the longevity of trackables in the wild.
Next time I send out TB’s they will likely get the “don’t keep me” extra tags too. That won’t prevent those who want to steal them from taking them, but it will likely be helpful for those times when someone might have innocently kept it because they didn’t understand what travel bugs/geocoins were all about.
Excellent data John!
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
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