I think Creek Stewart said it best: In the survivalist community we hear lots about carrying tampons to plug bullet holes. They actually have other uses. Following is a great article on the uses and because practice, practice, practice is a motto, I tried some of these uses (pictures included). I have highlighted some things in the article that I think are important. This is an article from Creek Stewart that was published on his Willowhaven site plus here- Yes, That’s a Tampon in My Mouth: The Swiss Army Survival Tampon — 10 Survival Uses | The Art of Manliness (Please note Art of Manliness is a great site for survival articles). Yes, That’s a Tampon in My Mouth: The Swiss Army Survival Tampon — 10 Survival Uses | The Art of Manliness Tampons as bandages. In the image in the article the tampon used looks huge. I rolled one out and here is the measurement I got- Tampons as tinder. Best stuff I have tried. Works amazing but it burns real fast. IMO if you are using this for tinder have leaves, twigs or needles on top because from my experience it burned almost too quick. I didn't even need to use the shavings from my fire starter. Tampons as a filter. Now this took some trial and error. What I learned- hold onto the string! Here are some images of filtering water. I put some dirt in a bottle, probably too much dirt but it worked. I had to filter the water twice thru the bottle and it gave me a murky water. Then I put all thoughts aside and tried it out as a filter/straw. It wasn't bad. It does work. It basically tasted like water sucked thru a cotton ball. I will continue to experiment and learn how to use tampons as survival tools. For these experiments I used super sized tampons. ** drinking water thru a tampon in front of your teen, the look on their face is priceless!
The fish bobber was my favorite. =) ty @Motomom34 I needed a good laugh It's interesting that he uses the plastic tube kind instead of the one's without tubes. Many more uses.
The straw filter idea is not wise. He noted a tampon won't filter microbial contamination and that is what makes you sick, so why do it? The better approach is the bottle filter to clear the turbidity of the water and then lay a full clear plastic bottle in direct sunlight for a day and UV purify it.
I think the straw filter is for desperate times. I was quite impressed by how well the tampon cleaned the water and I think if I had ran it through a 3rd time it would have been much better. ** I will confess I have never purified water other then on the stove a few times in my life. The rest I would just drink straight from the source. I guess luck of the Irish.
Tampons have saved my life many times, especially after a VERY fast trip to the store... just ask my wife...
Nice post, @Motomom34. For fire starting, add something else that you may have with you to the tampon cotton. Like chapstick, lipstick, hand cleaner... Then the cotton will be the wick and burn much longer. Maybe even long enough to boil the water you filtered, depending on how much stuff you put on it. Or you don't have to use the whole tampon to start one fire. The fire chief that did our first aid certification even told a story of how he used one for a sucking chest wound. Worked great and gave them time to get the guy to the hospital breathing.
Hi, I'm new here apologize for hijacking this thread, but this site is very hard for me to navigate. My question is Does anyone know if they still manufacture Survival Cards? They were five waterproof cards loaded with survival info and I think they were intended to be included in personal survival kits? Thanks for any answers.
Start a new thread. Click on the Survival Monkey logo at the top of the page, scroll down to Gerneral Surival, click on it, and neear the top of the page on the left(?) should be a New Thread button of some sort. It's Post New on the right side a short ways down!
Over all comment to the replies thus far; The tampon is only good to filter the pond trash from clogging your filter. I slip them over my foam pre-filter in the water. Works great. Tampons do nothing to filter, protozoa, bacteria, viruses, chemicals, heavy metals or radioactive contaminates. Tampon for gun shot wound / sucking chest wound. NEVER EVER DO THAT. You do damage going in to the wound and after you put the tampon in the wound it expands you cause even more damage when removing it. Ask a ER Doctor/Surgeon about it. Seen it done and saw the damage. As far as a sucking chest wound- a tampon can not create a seal to stop the air coming in or leaving the chest cavity. The tampon is way to porous the way the tampon is designed and the materials used to make it. My 2cents, RangerRick
I appreciate your 2 cents. This is one of the prepper things you cannot practice, so we have to rely on what we read. I have seen the debate both ways but you are the actual first I have read that has actually seen a tampon used it this way. I actually read an article about tampons and it wasn't good news. I swear everything is contaminated- Tampons, sterile cotton, sanitary pads contaminated with glyphosate - study — RT USA