Home Remedies for Chigger Bites

Chiggers are members of the arachnid family. They are extremely tiny, and my guess is you won’t even see them as they jump from the tall grass onto your skin and/or clothing. Adult chiggers are about 1/60 of an inch and have eight legs. The larvae are red, wingless, six-legged creatures that measure less than 1/150 of an inch. Because of their red color, you might be able to spot the larvae when they cluster together, especially on white clothing.

Where Can Chiggers Be Found?

Chiggers reside in tall weeds and grass, berry patches, and wooded areas. They could be in your backyard, by the lake, or your favorite hiking trail. They are most active on summer and fall afternoons – the warmest part of the day.

How Chiggers Bite

Only the larvae bite humans. They tend to choose warm, moist areas of the body. Chiggers have claws that help them grab onto your skin. The chigger then attaches its mouth to the skin and injects saliva. The saliva contains an enzyme that breaks skin cells down to liquid form. Your body responds by hardening skin cells around the saliva, creating a tube (stylostome) through which the chigger sucks the dissolved skin cells. Chiggers can stay attached and feeding for several days before falling off.

When the chigger falls off, you are left with reddish bumps. You may notice a bright red dot in the center — this is a remnant of the tube your skin formed in response to the chigger’s saliva. The bumps may look like welts, blisters, pimples, or hives. Bites generally appear in groups and get larger for several days to a week. While many insects bite exposed skin that’s easy to get to, chiggers like to bite in folds of skin as well as places where clothing fits tightly on the skin. Most chigger bites occur around the ankles, waist, armpits, crotch, or behind the knees.

Home Remedies for Chigger Bites

Just remember, that no matter what, DO NOT SCRATCH THE BITES! I know, easier said than done. But, breaking the skin on a chigger bite can lead to infection.

Here are 5 home remedies that will help with the itching and swelling.

1. Vicks Vapor Rub

Vicks Vapor Rub can put an end to itchy chigger bites immediately. It’s the cooling menthol in it that relieves itching by affecting itch receptors in the skin. It will even reduce the risk of blisters.

Steps:

• Take a hot shower (use antibacterial soap.) Pat dry your skin with a soft towel.
• Take a small amount of the vapor rub and add some table salt to it.
• Mix well and apply to the affected area.
• Repeat if the swelling continues (otherwise there is no need to repeat the process)

2. Cold Compress

A cold compress can help reduce the itching associated with chigger bites. Its numbing effect helps reduce the sensation of itchiness.

Steps:

• Wrap some ice cubes in a thin cloth.
• Apply the compress to the bites for 10 minutes. Repeat if needed to relieve itching.

3. Baking Soda

Baking soda is another effective remedy to reduce rashes as well as itchiness. It acts as a natural acid neutralizer that helps relieve itching. It even reduces the risk of infection.

Steps:

• Add 1 cup of baking soda to a bathtub filled with cool water.
• Stir well and soak in this water for 15 minutes and pat your skin with a soft ...

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DIY Eye Creams for Healthier Skin Around Your Eyes

Making your own eye serum is a great way to keep the skin around your eyes healthy, without depending on commercial skin care products. The majority of skin care products contain chemicals and additives, some of which you may never have heard of before. Instead of using products with strange ingredients, make your own products from fresh, natural ingredients.

The following eye serums should be able to help reduce the appearance of dark circles, tighten your skin to prevent wrinkles and crow’s feet, and improve the elasticity and health of your skin. If you want to keep the skin around your eyes healthy, then try using one of these eye serums.

Aloe Vera and Almond Oil Eye Serum

This particular eye serum is easy to make and only requires two ingredients. You do not need to measure anything or deal with a complicated recipe. Anyone can make this eye serum without any problems.

The only ingredients needed are almond oil and Aloe Vera gel. Both ingredients are incredibly beneficial to your skin – helping to hydrate your skin while attacking free radicals and promoting healthier skin. Whether you have dry, irritate skin or you want to reduce the signs of aging, try using this eye serum.

To make your miracle eye serum, combine equal parts Aloe Vera gel and almond oil. You can pour the mixture into a small bottle. Shake the mixture to combine the ingredients and shake before each application.

Variations and Adjustments

For more of a moisturizing effect, you can add a little more almond oil. If you think that it provides too much oil, you could add a little more Aloe Vera gel. If you suffer from nut allergies, you may want to substitute the almond oil with apricot kernel oil.

One of the great parts of making your own eye serum, or any other homemade skin care solution, is that you ...

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Advantages of Chicken Farming

Chicken farming is a very lucrative practice for both commercial and personal purposes. Technically, people who raise their own chickens enjoy a wide range of benefits.

Ever since men have developed the capacity to think, we have always thought of ways to further improve things or to emulate what others are doing. That’s why we see products naturally improving over time or are being copied from one country to the other.

On a smaller scale, food production also entails the same thing. People began to wonder how easier and cheaper it would be if they could grow their own food. Thus, came the advent of homesteading, defined as emulating a self-sufficient lifestyle.

Among the top homesteading practices is chicken farming. I’ll soon explain why.

Promotes Humane Chicken Treatment

If you’re like me, you probably buy your eggs or chickens at the grocery. It’s quicker, available in bulk, and less tedious than going into the process yourself.

What I found, however, is that the industrial farms that house these chickens are not at all very humane. In fact, the chickens’ quarters are said to be very tight that chickens can’t even socialize, walk around or even stretch their wings.

So here’s the catch. Chickens subjected to such treatment are said to suffer from psychological effects that sometimes affect the eggs they lay and the quality of meat they produce. That’s why I’ve decided to totally shy away from industrially raised chicken meat and eggs.

Fresh and Nutritious Eggs

On a similar note, eggs produced by chickens raised in friendly environments are shown to have as much as double or triple the omega-3 fatty acid content as well as a third of the cholesterol. Best of all, you know exactly what your chickens are exposed to and fed, which gives you the assurance that no chemical substances or feeds were used in any way.

Going back to the topic on commercially produced eggs, there is another thing bothering me about buying eggs at the store. The freshness is definitely not there anymore. After all, the eggs have been ...
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Keep Your House Cool When the Grid Goes Down

When most preppers imagine all the ways that a collapse of the power grid could hurt civilization, they usually think of our food distribution networks, water systems, financial networks, and the internet. But one thing that usually isn’t at the top of that list of concerns, is the heating and cooling of our homes.

That’s probably because we know that human beings have lived in extremely hot and cold climates for generations, and many of us just assume that if the grid goes down, we’ll find a way to deal with the temperature outside. This is no small matter however, especially when it comes to air conditioning. If it weren’t for the invention of AC, there would be tens of millions of people who never would have bothered moving to the Southern US or the Southwest. A city like Phoenix would never have 1.5 million people without affordable AC units in every home. If the grid went down now, a large swath of the American population would be living in a climate that they have no idea how to deal with.

And unlike heating, there really aren’t any comparable non-electric alternatives to cooling your home. If you lived in the northern climbs of the US, then you probably aren’t far from sources of firewood, but non-electric cooling methods never work as well as an AC unit. Swamp coolers work really well and use very little electricity, but that’s about as good as it gets. Plus, they only work well in low humidity environments.

While unpowered cooling methods simply can’t compete with AC units, there are still some methods of cooling your home that can take the edge off the heat. One of the newest methods involves ...

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How To Avoid Drowning

Each year, too many people drown in the United States just because they don’t understand the dangers of water. People have drowned in as little as 1 inch of water when they were knocked unconscious and landed face down in a mud puddle.

Drowning chokes and kills over 372,000 people each year, being the world’s 3^rdbiggest cause of unintended death. That’s 7% of all injury-related deaths due to something most take for granted, even if they don’t live near water. It takes 3,536 innocent US lives each year, with one in 5 being children.

Even if you’re lucky enough to survive, brain damage could leave you in a vegetative state.

However, most drownings occur in freshwater lakes, rivers, streams, backyard swimming pools, or at the beach. Learning all you can about how to recognize and avoid drowning is a first step to building a water survival plan that should include all of the elements that you will find below.

How Do you Know He / She is Drowning?

When a person begins to drown, a very small amount of water enters the lungs. This tiny amount triggers a spasm in the trachea muscles, which then causes the throat to close. Once the airway seals up, there is no way for air or water to get through. This is why people who are drowning usually are unable to scream for help.

Here are the signs and symptoms of drowning and near drowning:

• Head low in the water with mouth at water level.
• Head tilted back with mouth open.
• Eyes glassy, empty, and unfocused.
• Eyes open with fear evident on the face.
• Hyperventilating or gasping for air.

Read more  https://www.patriotdirect.org/how-to-avoid-drowning/

Learn to Defend Yourself in a Mass Shooting

While gun crimes have gone down in the United States in recent years, the number of mass shootings has actually increased.

As we were reminded by recent events in the news, it’s now more important than ever to learn how to defend yourself in this kind of scenario.

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, 49 people were killed and 53 others were injured in a shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning in an Orlando nightclub.

Two days later, a gunman took a hostage in an Amarillo, Texas Walmart. (No one was killed or injured in this situation.) In both instances, law enforcement arrived on the scene and the perpetrator was killed. Unfortunately for the 100+ victims of the Orlando shooting, it was too little too late.

In the days and weeks following events like this, we always hear the same questions and soundbites floating around in the media.

Was it terrorism?

Was it a hate crime?

Was it mental illness?

The truth is, the cause of the attack does not matter. In the end, the result is the same — innocent lives are lost. So instead of asking ourselves these questions, what we should really be asking is:

What can I do to protect myself?

As survivalists, we do our best to make sure we are prepared for whatever comes our way. Of course, life is unpredictable. What happened in Orlando could happen at any time and any place. It’s impossible to predict, but it is very possible to prepare.

Here are a few things you can do to help keep yourself and others safe in the event of a mass shooting. Follow these tips, and you just might make it out alive.

1. Arm Yourself

Absolutely nothing is going to protect you against an armed gunman besides being armed yourself. This is your first line of defense. If you’re trained to handle firearms and it’s legal to carry them where you are, you should be carrying at all times.

The question then becomes “concealed carry or open carry?” Both are legal in some places, and there are ...

Read more https://www.patriotdirect.org/learn-defend-mass-shooting/

A Juice Which Will Raise you From the Dead

People use this homemade drink for centuries and it’s highly recommended for people who are fighting cancer. This amazing homemade drink also will help you boost your energy levels, improves the function of the immune system and it improves the blood count.

This drink is very easy to make and it’s made by easy available ingredients. The only down side is that drink is not too tasty. But the results are amazing so it’s definitely worth it.

We are talking about a beetroot and carrot drink, and if you feel sick just at the thought of a combo of these two ingredients in liquid form – then you are not alone. People use this drink for long time now, and it’s highly recommended for cancer patients who go to chemotherapy treatments. This is because this drink fights against all consequences from this conventional method of cancer treatment. Even though many people said that this drink tastes terrible, no one ever stopped drinking it – because the results are amazing!

This is why older people shat that this drink literally rises from the dead – and it’s not just for people who have health problems. Sometimes, if you feel exhausted, without energy and depressed – well, maybe it’s ...

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Camping Safety

Camping is a great way to spend time together with your friends and family, and also relax in the nature, in peace and quiet. Along with the incredible experience you can have, it’s also important to know a few camping safety tips and tricks. After all, you’re all in the wilderness and don’t have all the needed items and amenities you have at home, which is why you need to be more careful and cautious.

For example, to stay warm you may have to build a campfire. If you have children with you, you may have to be extra careful and instruct them not to approach the fire and to stay at a safe distance. This is just a small glimpse on all the advice we will offer you in this article.

Read on for more safety tips and how to stay safe and have a great time all together. You don’t want to ruin your camping adventure, just because you’re not sufficiently prepared for it. Follow the steps and tips we have collected for you to minimize the risk for injuries. And remember that everything you’re used to at home can be significantly more different while in the open.

Safety tips and advice for your camping trip

Before you commit to a trip, spend some time to learn the regulations and laws about starting a fire in the area you want to go camping. There are states and countries where starting a campfire may be partially or fully forbidden. If you don’t follow these regulations you may run the risk of heavy fines and even more serious penalties. To be sure you won’t experience this, prepare by learning more about your desired area for camping.

Don’t leave your house without the appropriate items that can help you orient and navigate the area you’ll be camping at. Since you’re out in the wilderness, it is tempting to go exploring the area but if you’re not aware of where you’re going you may lost your way back. This is why it always highly advisable that you first check the ...

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5 Easy, Low-Cost DIY Projects for Preppers

If you’re tired of buying survival gear and would like to work on your skills for a change by making some of it yourself, I’ve got some really easy DIY projects for you to get your feet wet. You’ll not only improve in one area where many people are lacking (i.e. survival skills), but you’ll also save a ton of money on yet another piece of equipment you already had.
Of course, you’re also going to need some tools in order to do these projects, but that’s the whole point: putting your gear to work. You need to start using it today, before SHTF, not after.  So let’s see what the projects are...

Primitive Bows and Arrows

Let’s start with something simple: a bow and some arrows. Making them is so easy that you can even get your kids involved, just like my grandpa taught me when I was a kid.
Now, if you’re going to use it for survival purposes, you need to do it right. You’ll need the right kind of wood (maple, oak and ash are all good choices), choose the right branch, and have the right ...

Read more https://www.patriotdirect.org/5-easy-low-cost-diy-projects-preppers/

How to Make A Bow String

Whether you use a bow and arrows for recreation or hunting, keeping it maintained is essential for an effective shot every single time. But buying the parts can be expensive, and it can feel like an accomplishment in and of itself to use your own materials.

That’s why the purpose of this article is to teach you how to make a bow string with items you may already have lying around your home. There are a variety of methods that have been used to make bow string, as well as an assortment of materials, so you can adapt whatever you have lying around in order to create a versatile bow string for when you need it.

How to make a flemish twist bow string

This is one of the simplest methods in making a bow string, but does require some additional tools that you’ll need to obtain.

One of the biggest things you’ll need is a string making jig. You can choose to buy one from the store, or if you’re skilled enough, you can make one yourself. To make your own, you’ll need the following materials:

• a 1×6 pine board that’s at least 28 inches long.
• 2 dozen 1-inch long finishing nails
• 1 10 penny common nail

Draw a line down the middle of your board. On one end, 2 inches away from the end of the board, start making a line of dots on either side of the middle for where your nails will be. Each row should be 1.25 inches away from the middle. Draw each dot at least .375 inches away from each other.

At the other end of the board should be two nails in line with the rows at the other end, again 2 inches from the end of the board and 1.25 inches away from the middle. Using a 5/32-inch drill bit drill 16 holes along the middle line of the board starting with one between the two nails.

The holes should be at least one inch apart from each other. These are for your 10 penny nail to be used as an adjustable peg. Starting at the fourth hole, write “48”, and then add increments of two ...

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