Sanitizing hands without soap in the wild?

[Sgt Nambu]

I always have small bottles of antiseptic hand sanitizer near by! I can rationalize the weight because it is an excellent fire starting component.
Or,
Wilderness Antiseptics: Indispensable First Aid Knowledge

As a last resort, since my poo don't stink, I could just ignore it and power on!

This,

17 Natural Antibiotics Our Grandparents Used Instead Of Pills - Bio Prepper

 

[ArgentineSteel]

Dang . I've been using a 1/4 tab of Viagra daily so I wont pizz on my feet. JK. Actually today I went to Costco and bought a $20.00 / 900 ct box of baby wipes to stash.

When I went on the trail I would take the baby wipes. All purpose cleaning, disposable, flammable. And a small trowel
The only rag I take is the bandanna I use on my neck and head.

Now that assumes you know your head from your rear, but with training most can learn.

 

[DunRanull]

So let's say you run out of soap or didn't carry soap to save weight. How do you disinfect your hands now?

I ask because I was watching a channel the other day where the guy suggested using wash cloths to wipe your butt instead of toilet paper since they last longer. But one thing interesting to note is that he had no soap, and even if he did, it would not last as long as his wash rags. Nothing like eating some squirrel with your hands after rinsing the poop out of the wash rags with your bare hands.

Apparently rinsing with just plain water will get rid of MOST bacteria, but not all. So what is the sage thing to do for improvised soap? Ash and fat? Does that disinfect though?

Ash, fat and hot water will make a primitive soap but it isnt particularly anti-bacterial, as good as regular ivory, I would guess.. I remember my Irish Grandma (God rest her!) making soap from lamb tallow and boiling stove ash on the kitchen stove. They lived mighty rural and raised much of what they ate. Very little went to waste.
I try to harvest a bit of mutton/lamb grease to make tallow, every Easter/passover. This involves roasting the meat WITHOUT salt or other spices cuz you don't want salt etc in the tallow. This tallow is good for soap but even better for greasing muzzle-loading patches.
Beef tallow can be used to make candles but unless it's mixed with other wax it's pretty messy, the candles gutter, and it does smell. I guess they used beeswax back when. In my own experience, most wild game has little fat to harvest, coons and bear excepted, IMOE.
There are probably several recipes on the net for both soap and candles...

 

[Lazyfaire]

Sanitation would differ according to your site. Are you moving or saying in place? Dry Boraxo hand soap (in laundry aisle) is great at cleaning hands of ground in dirt and grime, greases included. Comes in a shaker can. Dampen hands, shake and scrub, rinse. Does not sanitize, just clean. Baby wipes are OK but will run out quickly. They're soft and flammable. Finding the individually wrapped sanitary wipes (think KFC) would be ideal. Store forever, not waste except foil and can be packed in a pack or a pocket.

 

[Misteramax]

Yeah, bring some booze or sanitizer. I have sanitizer in my first aid kit and truck.

As for sanitizing an object...boil it. If you have a large enough pot, depending on what needs to be sanitized.

No fire or fresnel lense but need to sanitize objects? In theory, you should be able to take cold water and dump a heep ton of items like blackberries, tree needles, the roots of sword ferns, anything in nature that will leave too much of a concentration of tannins, polyphenols, and other goodies in the water for any microbe to live.

 

[Lazyfaire]

Yeah, bring some booze or sanitizer. I have sanitizer in my first aid kit and truck.

As for sanitizing an object...boil it. If you have a large enough pot, depending on what needs to be sanitized.

No fire or fresnel lense but need to sanitize objects? In theory, you should be able to take cold water and dump a heep ton of items like blackberries, tree needles, the roots of sword ferns, anything in nature that will leave too much of a concentration of tannins, polyphenols, and other goodies in the water for any microbe to live.

I believe you in all of this but am pondering the aftermath of a blackberry water boil...

 

[Lazyfaire]

Yeah, bring some booze or sanitizer. I have sanitizer in my first aid kit and truck.

As for sanitizing an object...boil it. If you have a large enough pot, depending on what needs to be sanitized.

No fire or fresnel lense but need to sanitize objects? In theory, you should be able to take cold water and dump a heep ton of items like blackberries, tree needles, the roots of sword ferns, anything in nature that will leave too much of a concentration of tannins, polyphenols, and other goodies in the water for any microbe to live.

Did anyone notice that he never mentioned the booze again? An anesthetic maybe?

 

[Misteramax]

I believe you in all of this but am pondering the aftermath of a blackberry water boil...

No boiling. You will stain stuff, for sure. You can use the leafs for tea though. Warm, not hot though. Hot water in tea is bad. Destroys a lot of what you're trying to extract. The leafs are very high in a polyphenol that makes viruses and bacteria malfunction.


With my luck I'd be picking berries and leafs and bump into that one black bear.

 

[Lazyfaire]

No boiling. You will stain stuff, for sure. You can use the leafs for tea though. Warm, not hot though. Hot water in tea is bad. Destroys a lot of what you're trying to extract. The leafs are very high in a polyphenol that makes viruses and bacteria malfunction.


With my luck I'd be picking berries and leafs and bump into that one black bear.

Bears are the original preppers!
Bberry leaves to create a 'tea' would be a good thing"? Lord knows the PNW is covered in blackberry bushes

 

[Misteramax]

Bears are the original preppers!
Bberry leaves to create a 'tea' would be a good thing"? Lord knows the PNW is covered in blackberry bushes

Yes! I promise you results. For example...shtf... you're in the woods, got the best medicine kit money could buy, but you get a stomach virus. Flu, a bug from bad water, in general you can't keep food down.

Not many people prep for infection in the wild how something like a stomach flu could kill us. You make your bb tea and consume whatever amount you need, you will stop puking.

 

[RVTECH]

Pizz on your hands. Look it up.

And use the remainder to wash something else if you think you had a 'bad encounter'

 

[DirectDrive]

Just don't mess with Rocky...

 

[mjbskwim]

Y'all girls are still talking about a nothing ?
I very seldom,like once a year,worry about sanatizing ANYTHING.
Hey you don't have to eat here,lol
If you worry about 'sanatization' too much,if S really does HTF you have screwed you're self. Are you really going to purchase a large supply of sanitizer?
You will definitely get sick the day it runs out. It will be physical and mentality that it happens. You will convince yourself that you will die without it.
And you will be right.....because you didn't get your body used to being in contact with germs.
Do yourself a favor and go work on a farm for a while so you are in contact with lots of germs and your body will know how to fight them off.
No quit worrying about some little germ.
Ka ryst oh my tee

 

[Velzey]

My SHTF plan is to not sanitize my hands or wipe my butt! I will also offer to work on your teeth...

 

[DirectDrive]

Y'all girls are still talking about a nothing ?
I very seldom,like once a year,worry about sanatizing ANYTHING.
Hey you don't have to eat here,lol
If you worry about 'sanatization' too much,if S really does HTF you have screwed you're self. Are you really going to purchase a large supply of sanitizer?
You will definitely get sick the day it runs out. It will be physical and mentality that it happens. You will convince yourself that you will die without it.
And you will be right.....because you didn't get your body used to being in contact with germs.
Do yourself a favor and go work on a farm for a while so you are in contact with lots of germs and your body will know how to fight them off.
No quit worrying about some little germ.
Ka ryst oh my tee

Not a germaphobe by any means, but I just Googled and found the Seven That Can Kill You...

• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Klebsiella
• E. Coli
• Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE)
• Drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
• Aspergillus
• Acinetobacter baumannii

If yer resistant to all of those, good on ya !

 

[mjbskwim]

Not a germaphobe by any means, but I just Googled and found the Seven That Can Kill You...

• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Klebsiella
• E. Coli
• Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE)
• Drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
• Aspergillus
• Acinetobacter baumannii

If yer resistant to all of those, good on ya !

Haven't had a problem in 59 years

 

[Misteramax]

Haven't had a problem in 59 years

People can't predict when it happens. Hopefully it never does. Most of my time on a farm and zero problems with any of the ground germs that can cause meningitis. However I have known people, one on the same farm who did. I think his was viral so probably from lunch meat or not washing his hands.

If it happens...these germs in a shtf situation are no joke.

 

[Misteramax]

My SHTF plan is to not sanitize my hands or wipe my butt! I will also offer to work on your teeth...
View attachment 368618

You are totally my go to medicine man. Plays with poopies will be your tribal name.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Back in the old days the Vikings would have a trained squirrel, see.. this is where the term "lickety split" comes from.
true story

 

[Member 34319]

You can't put your hands into boiling water, but you could pasteurize them. Which is just a fancy word for putting them in fairly hot water for a longer period of time.