• How can you use a battery to quickly start a fire?
How can a condom safe your life in the wild?
From natural bug repellents to a totally reasonable excuse to stick a bra in your face, here are
15 survival hacks you should probably know… just in case.
15 – Dorito Kindling • Okay, so you’re out in the woods, and
you need to start a campfire, but it just rained, and everything is wet.
• You need something dry… and for whatever reason, you just so happen to have a bag of
Doritos.
• Well, light those things up.
They’ll do just as well as dry grass, as long as you have enough food to not worry
about burning some.
14 – Coffee canister toilet paper holder • Speaking of prepping for rain, here’s
a way to keep your toilet paper dry.
• Because wet toilet paper is basically the worst thing in the world, wash out a coffee
can and keep a roll in there.
• If you’re really ambitious, you can even cut a slot in the side to make it an
actual dispenser, rather than just a holder.
13 – Crayon candle • Hey, you know how candles are made of
wax?
• Well, crayons are also made of wax, and they’re even shaped like really skinny candles.
They will generally burn for about 15-30 minutes if you find yourself without a candle.
• Bonus: You also get rid of those gross yellow-green colors nobody likes.
12 – Wild mosquito repellent • You’re outside getting eaten alive by
mosquitos, and you left your bug spray at home.
• If you can identify the right wild plant, you can crush up the leaves and rub them on
your skin to make a natural bug repellent.
• In North America, look for sagebrush, vanilla leaf, or pineapple weed – and no,
that last one isn’t a drug thing.
• In Europe, peppermint will work, and in Australia, you want tea tree leaves.
• Most of these will also produce bug-repelling smoke if you dry and burn them.
11 – Floss fishing line • Dental floss has many uses.
It’s apparently a good replacement for fishing line in a pinch.
• Some fishermen actually tie dental floss onto their existing fishing lines to create
a floatier line.
• Also, like Doritos, you can use waxed dental floss as kindling.
10 – Super glue stitches • When things get really serious, and you
need to stop a cut from bleeding, Super Glue might be a better option that trying makeshift
stiches.
• If you have a clean, straight cut that won’t stop bleeding, make sure you clean
it as well as you can with what you have, and then you can literally super glue it shut.
• It can work even better than bandages – but don’t drown the thing in glue.
Only use what you need.
9 – 9-volt fire starter • There’s a lot of survival tips based
around starting fires, but that’s because fires keep you warm, let you cook food, and
can even help you purify water.
• So it’s kind of important.
• And this allows you to start a fire even if the steel wool is wet.
Certain kinds of steel wool will go incandescent and ignite within a few seconds of being touched
with the contacts of a 9-volt battery.
• Good to know in a survival situation, but also a good thing to avoid if you have
those things sitting around your house.
8 – Cloth water filter • It’s a simple enough thing, but it can
be incredibly useful in a pinch.
• A water filter lets liquid go through, but catches things like dirt, sticks, leaves,
and whatever else might be in dirty water.
• So basically any piece of cloth over a jar or container will filter dirty water in
the same way.
• But don’t assume it’s potable, just because you filtered the dirt out of it.
Bacteria and other bad stuff might still be in that water.
Boil it just in case, unless you got it from a river or trusted water source.
7 – Foil battery adapter • The difference between double-A and triple-A
batteries is one thing and one thing only: size.
• So what happens if you need a double-A battery and only have triple-A?
• Just wad up some tin foil, shove it between the negative end of the battery and the battery
slot, and you should complete the circuit.
• It’ll work for a little while, like if your flashlight batteries die or something.
6 – Self-Heimlich • Sometimes you need a survival tip for
the woods.
Sometimes you need it just while at home eating a hot dog.
• If that’s the case, you may need to know how to Heimlich yourself, in case you
forget you can’t swallow and inhale at the same time.
• The short version is that you take both hands and punch yourself in the diaphragm.
That might be an oversimplification, but it gets the basic idea.
5 – Leaf rope • Leaf rope or grass rope, when braided
correctly, is as strong as any rope you can possibly find.
• People have towed cars with grass ropes before.
Now, you’ll have to look up yourself how to actually make the rope, because it’s
a bit too long of a process to describe here.
• But if you find yourself in need of rope for some reason, you probably have everything
you need around you.
4 – Tin can stove • IF you need to make yourself a stove about
the size of a tin can, you can try an actual tin can.
• By stuffing the inside with cardboard and coating it with melted candle wax, you
can make a portable stove that you can take with you anywhere.
• All you need now is a tiny little frying pan.
3 – Improvised Compass • If you have a magnet, a needle, a cork
and some water, you have a compass.
• Magnetize the needle, stick it through the cork, and put it in a glass of water.
Eventually, the needle will spin to point north and south.
• Then again, if you’re truly lost, it might be better to simply look at the location
of the sun in the sky.
2 – Condom Canteen • When you think of a canteen, you probably
have a certain type of image in mind.
It’s something round, with a screw-on cap at the top, right?
• Maybe it’s made of leather?
The image in your head is probably not made of latex.
• But if you need it to, a condom can hold a couple of quarts of water.
They are, after all, specifically made to NOT break.
• If you’re going to go this route, it’s probably best to go with the non-lubricated
varieties.
Or you could just buy a regular canteen. 1 – Bra Breathing Mask
• There is a bra that doubles as a gas mask.
Like, it’s specifically made for that.
• But maybe there’s just a lot of pollen and dust in the air, and you just want to
filter it out?
No problem.
• Bra cups can be used as a makeshift dust mask to filter out dust and pollen.
Just make sure it’s a bra with an actual solid cup.
• The sexy, lacy stuff isn’t going to stop anything, no matter how much you might
like putting it on your face.