A good survivalist can recognize the difference between saving everything that can be repurposed and flat-out hoarding. My pack rat tendencies tend to come and go, but the one thing I can never get rid of is old candles.

Do you really need vitamin and mineral supplements in your survival gear?

I think the answer is a resounding yes, if that survival gear is stocking a cabin, a Bug Out Bag, or a long-term survival kit. The reason is simple. Over several months’ time, you could be at risk from several malnutrition diseases if you became cut off from our normal diverse food supply.

Vitamins, minerals and malnutrition diseases
In a short-term survival situation, vitamins and minerals shouldn’t be any concern at all. There’s no reasonable place for vitamin pills in a small survival kit. You’re certainly not going to die of osteoporosis from missing your calcium pills for 72 hours.

Have you ever had that dessert called “worms and dirt”? Generally, it’s some kind of chocolate and gummy worms. But how about the real thing? Something has usually gone wrong if you are thinking about eating actual bugs. But for argument’s sake, let’s suppose you did run out of food and required some protein sustenance. Which bugs would be the safest choices for you to eat? Here are three groups of creatures for the adventurous diner.

Earthworms
There are many different species of worms throughout North America. All are considered safe for human consumption, but they should be purged of the dirt that fills them before you try to eat them. An easy way to clean them out is to place them in a container of damp grass. After a few hours, the critters will be void of the dirt and sand they normally hold. Like all animal foods, worms should be cooked before you eat them. I recommend frying. The good news is that fried worms taste a little like jerky. The bad news, average sized worms provide only about 1 calorie per gram (not counting the fat from frying).

Char cloth is one of the easiest fire-building materials to light, whether you are working with a magnifying lens, a modern spark rod, or old-fashioned flint and steel. On top of that, you can make char cloth yourself and it is a renewable resource in the field, which is great if you run out of char in middle of the wilderness.

So what is char cloth, you ask?

The char cloth is some form of blackened, plant-based material for catching and feeding a spark. Scraps of cotton and linen cloth were traditional American frontier char materials. Most flammable plant fibers, tinder, some shelf fungi, and punky rotten wood can also be turned into “char cloth."