+the hermit crabs Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 (edited) Our 54 bugs that have been released to the wild have been in a combined total of about 550 caches. I took a look at their history today, wondering if there were any US states that none of them had been to. I was surprised to see that there were nine unvisited states: Illinois Indiana Kentucky Louisiana Montana New Mexico North Dakota Oklahoma West Virginia I was thinking there'd be one or maybe two at most. I definitely wasn't expecting nine. I wasn't surprised to see North Dakota on the list, but Illinois really surprised me. Do these states tend to have lower-than-average bug activity? Or are there different "bug currents" without a lot of crossover -- do bugs from the northeast tend to flow to the same few areas, while bugs from other places flow in different (but perhaps equally active) "currents"? After circulating around New England, quite a few of ours end up in California and Utah. And yet, even with thousands of people traveling between Boston and Chicago every day, not a single one of ours has ever ended up in Illinois. Or maybe my sample size is too small to mean anything. Edited January 6, 2006 by the hermit crabs Quote Link to comment
+ScoutingWV Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Sounds like a neat experiment ... just wondering what the cache of origin was for the bugs and what their goals were? Were they all released from the same general area around the same time of year? Some folks do tend to take bugs with them on vacations or business trips so the release timing might make a difference in their direction. I think there may be something to your "bug current" idea. I don't think the bug activity in WV is necessarily low compared to the number of available caches (under 3000). We probably have a proportionately low geocacher density since we only have about 1.8 million residents. And while there's no way to tell what percentage of the residents are geocachers, we do get a LOT of folks coming into the state to visit. This is a pretty rural state so the bugs with the most activity here probably stay closer to the interstates and I would estimate that many travel right on through without even stopping on their way. I won't help someone log virtuals, but if anyone has a bug or bugs they would like logged in WV, I'd be happy to do so by taking them to a local travel-bug-motel-style cache if you can get them here. Hopefully they could get here by moving cache-to-cache, but we could arrange to have them sent here if you want. Everyone should cache WV at least once - you'll love it!! Quote Link to comment
+the hermit crabs Posted January 6, 2006 Author Share Posted January 6, 2006 Sounds like a neat experiment ... just wondering what the cache of origin was for the bugs and what their goals were? Were they all released from the same general area around the same time of year? Some folks do tend to take bugs with them on vacations or business trips so the release timing might make a difference in their direction. I think there may be something to your "bug current" idea. All interesting points. Release locations: nearly all of them were released within 30 miles of our home in central Massachusetts. A few we took with us on vacation to New York and Iowa and released there (in fact, Iowa would be on the unvisited list if we hadn't brough a couple of our own bugs there). Release times: One or two every month or so between May 2004 and the present. Bug goals: almost none are geographical. There's one that stays in central Mass, one that wants to bounce back and forth between Mass and Seattle, and two that are in a cross-country race. And one that wants to stay in New Zealand. All of the others have goals that are action-oriented rather than geographical. Everyone should cache WV at least once - you'll love it!! I'll add it to our to-do list Quote Link to comment
+Elde Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Our 54 bugs that have been released to the wild have been in a combined total of about 550 caches. I took a look at their history today, wondering if there were any US states that none of them had been to. I was surprised to see that there were nine unvisited states: Just pondering in the wee hours - the January wallpaper shows the density of caches across the globe, and there is a broad empty NS stripe.... How many of the unvisited fall into or adjacent to this stripe? Quote Link to comment
+Rich the Bushwhacker Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 From January to May of 2005, I put out 24 bugs with a goal of visiting the 50 states. They were released either in Rhode Island or on a trip to Arizona. To date, my bugs have visited all but 7. Arkansas Delaware Iowa Oklahoma Montana Nebraska South Dakota I found the ones I put out here wandered around the New England area a bit, then jetted off to a tourist destination. None went to the midwest, south or northwest. The ones that made it out to the corn belt or northwest were brought back by vacationers returning home. Quote Link to comment
+Neos 1 Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 I guess that Indiana isn't the crossroads of American TBs! Funny, I have moved many TBs out of Indiana and into Kentucky, many of them from Illinois. Quote Link to comment
+the hermit crabs Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 I wasn't surprised to see North Dakota on the list, but Illinois really surprised me. Whaddaya know, ten days after I posted this, one of our bugs ("Meals on Wheels") lands in Illinois! It's one of the bugs in the 2005 Cannonball Race (and it's actually in the lead!) Quote Link to comment
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