Sagefox

That is true, a guy slipped on the upper falls ledge and went over to his death very close to the time you visited this cache. He was not a geocacher.

I have tried to chase down at least 10 tb's, mine and others, by going to the cache and looking for written logs. You have found a common pattern, low finder or non web-page logger takes bug and it is never heard from again. I guess that is one reason why in countries with high infant mortality rates there is a corresponding high birth rate. One solution to this problem is to send out more bugs.

The very last sentence on the Travel bug FAQ page says: "Cache owners also have the ability to move the travel bug listed on their cache page to an unknown location." http://www.geocaching.com/track/faq.aspx Is this feature not yet available?

This is done all the time. You can do it and you don't have to contact the TB owner. If you felt that it was needed when you picked it up then it was probably needed. Later on, if you find one cluttered with junk pages and it doesn't look like it needs to be in a ziplock you can liberate it and toss the junk. I personally don't like bugs in bags but I have added laminated instruction tags to some bugs. I make a note to that effect on the bug page. I've never asked permission to add a tag and have only received thank you notes from bug owners when I've done this. You can report your action to the bug page, or not, and if the owner wants it back out of the bag and the bug pages tossed they can post a request note to the bug page. As pointed out consistently on these pages, once you release a TB it is out of your control. There are other and worse things that WILL happen to your TB's. To get worked up over ziplocks and bug pages will wear you down prematurely.

The last week has opened my eyes to this newer element in travel bug trading. Didn't know it was happening. With certain exceptions I now find TB hunting to be just as valid as any other items hunted. Another area to set and accomplish goals and have them posted on the profile page. I have a new-found respect for TB hunters who's bug-find to cache-find ratio is several times higher than one would expect. Greatest respect goes to those who actually find bugs in a cache and then place them in a different cache. Some aspects of TB trading still strongly bother me but those are my opinions (and that is what grains of salt were created for). Won't go into that here. So congratulations to Centris for at least 615 travel bug finds, maybe more.

From the Travel Bug FAQ page, the very last line on that page says: "Cache owners also have the ability to move the travel bug listed on their cache page to an unknown location." http://www.geocaching.com/track/faq.aspx I haven't tried this yet and maybe it doesn't work. Markwell might be correct.

I believe I read somewhere in the last few days that the owner of the cache can report a tb as missing. I believe I read it on a gc.com instruction page but I won't admit that in public.

Four months is o.k.?

Its name is Cash Bug but I could change it to Burning Cash.

To quote my earlier statement, "I agree with the comments that rules posted on the page will not achieve the results I want and I don't really want to place restrictions on tb's, or geocaches either." Two years ago travel bugs were much more rare, especially in rural areas. I once drove 182 miles, one way, to get a tb. We used to follow the progress of all the bugs we found and look for photos people would add. It was fun then. It is not fun to see my tb caught in a trading web for five months and not available to the geocaching community at-large. That bug is not going anywhere interesting or spontaneous. Other bugs of ours have been lost in tb hotels, muggled caches and taken by low finders who left the sport. I've spent hours writing emails to people who were holding our bugs AND those of several other owners to give a gentle push get the bugs back into a cache. It was fun while it lasted but I'm now ready to let go of this part of the game.

Thought about that a month ago and already decided that I didn't care if the bug disappears. Actually expected it to once I deleted a few finds. Certainly, my actions would not solve the problem but at least I did get to make a small statement as the bug dives into the pit of hell.

The feature is in a different location than you are expecting it to be. Go to your bug page and click on "add a log entry". From there you can grab it. Good luck and may your bug come back to life soon.

You grab your bug if you have not already done so and then post a note to the TB Graveyard cache page. Before you actually post the note you select your bug from the pull down list at the bottom of that log page just as you would if you were placing any bug in a cache. Problem with the Graveyard cache is that it adds a lot of miles to your bug that it didn't travel. Some bugs do come back from the dead and then you have additional miles added when the finder places the bug. Plus it is hard to deal with that page because there are so many bugs in it. The new "Unknown Location" category appears to be the perfect thing to do with lost bugs. It is easy and doesn't add miles.

Be nice now, this is simply a yes or no question.

At first I thought travel bug hotels were an interesting idea and could be fun. But the first one I attempted had created its own exit off one of the busiest freeway intersections in Oregon: I-5 merges with I 205. "take the dirt road between the reflector posts" Yea right! At 65 mph. GC.com could have been sued to its demise over that had there been an accident prior to the cache archive due to road crews dumping deer carcasses nearby. Then I started seeing the tb minimum limits and take one leave one rules. This is a blatant abuse of travel bugs. Only the travel bug owner can make rules for a tb! Period! Of course, what happens to anything left in a cache is up to the finder and a tb hotel owner has no legitimate gripe coming if someone picks up any or all tb's from that cache and leaves none.

I checked out the link to this cacher. This is definately TB abuse. Hard to be in Vienna, Mexico, California, the Pacific Ocean and the mid west all in one day. And I only checked out 5 of the 22 finds. This should be reported to gc.com. Anyone know how that is done?

I figured out the best, quickest and least negative way to solve "my" problem with my travel bugs. Can they be deactivated? This is not a "grab my marbles and go home" action. It is a way to eliminate the only negative part of geocaching for me with the least negative effect on others. I'm a happy cacher, as always. Just don't want no more travel bugs!

I've been around the block on this subject now, reading as many current related topics as I can find, receiving emails from my bug's captors wondering why I might be upset and spending five months wondering what strange powers have held my tb captive. I agree with the comments that rules posted on the page will not achieve the results I want and I don't really want to place restrictions on tb's, or geocaches either. Two conditions are apparent to me: 1. Finders have complete control over the fate of a tb and can do what they want with it, and, 2. The power to delete bug "grabs" was given to us by our creator. Travel bug hotels and bug-find frenzies along with low finders leaving the sport and taking bugs with them have truly taken the fun out of this aspect of geocaching for me.

This sounds like the same group. Utah is where my bug has been stuck.

Yeah, I know that is true and it would be unfair to add all that emotionally charged stuff. Basically I'm throwing out the concept here for discussion. I don't have time or energy to email 8 or 10 people, or more, to try to understand what they are doing when they think what they are doing is o.k. What I know is that it is highly unnatural that one bug would fall into the hands of that many people consecutively, with more bug finds than cache finds. The odds of that happening are extremely low. These bugs should be interwoven into the general caching population to do with as they please which would most likely result in a bug leaving the area before five months have passed.

I'm considering posting some basic ground rules to my travel bug pages. Haven't decided yet so I thought I'd throw them out on the forum floor and see what others think. The rule would state something like: "This travel bug is not to be traded multiple times for the purpose of increasing bug-find counts. It should be 'found' in a cache and then 'placed' in a different cache. Multiple logging in and out of a single cache will be regarded as suspicious behavior as will individual cacher bug-find counts when the total bug-find is greater than 50 and exceeds 25% of the cache-find count. I retain the option of deleting any 'grabs' that appear suspicious and deletion will reduce the individual's bug-find count." "Anyone who's 'find' is deleted can plead their case and we can negotiate a new 'grab' if it is deemed an appropriate find. If I make multiple deletions at least one cacher and possibly two should be awarded a 'grab' because someone physically 'found' the bug and someone physically 'placed' the bug after the trading frenzy was completed." "Passing a bug directly into the hands of another cacher to advance the bug's goal is always o.k. Occasionally passing this bug to another cacher just for fun or at a cache event should be o.k. as long as that immediate cacher places it in a new cache. Logging this tb in and out of a cache without leaving it in that cache, to record its miles traveled is usually o.k. There might be other activities that are also o.k. I do understand that from time to time bugs need to be 'grabbed' out of order due to awkward logging by previous finders." - - - Not sure this is ethical but I am having a strong reaction to a bug of ours that has been stuck in a Utah bug-find loop since September with multiple logs from people who have more bug-finds than cache-finds. It appears that several other bugs are caught in that same web and are thus prevented from travelling freely. I don't like this activity and want our bug to become available to the general caching community again. I am a firm (and experienced) believer that what happens to our tb's once I release them is out of my control. But then I discovered that I have a nifty little tool at my disposal to use to combat this activity. I have thought about the potential logistical nightmare in getting the bug back into appropriate hands once deletions commence but we often work things out on the fly in geocaching. The final line in the rules section might read "and the geo-gods will hang you by the neck, then tie you down, hack off your limbs and draw out your vital organs if you destroy this travel bug in retaliation." Or… Perhaps someone can convince me that tb trading outside of the norm is actually o.k.

It is ALWAYS up to the finder to decide what to do with ANYTHING found in a cache container. There are two NICE things you can do while geocaching: 1. Leave equal or better items for the gifts you take. (After you place and maintain several caches you will find that this is the exception and not the rule) 2. Help travel bugs toward their intended goal. While you are new to geocaching you might as well take all the tb's you find to get experience with them and just have some fun. After a while you might become more selective. Only trouble I can see with taking multiple bugs is then you have to sort out what their goals are and hopefully help them on their way toward that goal. I am also in the "Travel Bug Is Not A Trade Item" camp. You can't keep it for yourself so you don't need to leave anything for it. That said, mostly I leave something when I find a bug. Notable exceptions are while in TNLN (Took Nothing, Left Nothing) mode and don't have anything with me to leave or my item won't fit in the container. But occasionally I just don't. You can also take a travel bug if you don't intend to or can't directly move it toward its goal. Often times you won't know what the goal is ahead of time because the bug was placed after you did your cache search and there might not be an instruction tag on the bug. It is not the end of the world if the tb goes the wrong way once in a while. The next finder often will get it back on track. Remember though that when people move your tb the wrong direction you might become upset with them. Problems I have with tb finder's actions: new geocachers that quit the game and keep a tb; people placing tb's in caches that are clearly vulnerable to vandalism; trading tb's multiple times within a group of people just to boost tb find counts. In my opinion I believe tb's should be "found" in a cache and then "placed" in a different cache but passing a bug directly into the hands of another cacher to advance the bug's goal is always o.k. Occasionally passing bugs to other cachers because it is a fun bug is o.k. Trading bugs at an event seems to be popular but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of several people logging a single bug at an event. Logging a tb in and out of a cache without leaving it in that cache, to record its miles traveled, is something I do when I bring home a bug from a long distance and don't intend to leave it in a local cache. This, I'm sure, is way more information than you wanted, but that seems to be how I opperate.

I hope the answer to this question is that there is an easy mechanism to stop auto payments on an individual basis. I wouldn't want this topic to lead to a move to stop automatic renewal altogether. I want auto renewal because I hate paying bills.

As far as my experience goes I find the "missing" option to be far superior to the TB Graveyard. The graveyard cache adds awkard mileage to your bug and it is a very difficult page to work with because there are too many bugs in it. By using the missing option your bug page will show the bug location as "Unknown". I usually "grab" my bugs first and then report them as missing but that is probably an unneeded step. We now have 6 "unknown" bugs out of 12 originals sent out into the world.

Yes. I might be unclear about the terminology you used but the way to log a travel bug into any cache you have previously recorded as a find or for one of your own caches is to: Log a "note" entry to that cache. In that log entry write a note about placing the bug but DO NOT post the tb dog tag number. (You never should post the a tb's dog tag number in any of your log entries) Just before you log the entry go to the bottom of the page and there you will find a pull-down menu that shows all the tb's in your possession. Click on the one you are dropping off and then click to log the entry. If you don't see the tb listed there then you might not have "grabbed" it when you found the bug.