7 Survival Uses Of Pantyhose That You Didn’t Know

OK, so it may be a bit weird for you guys in the crowd to buy pantyhose, but if you don’t have a gal-pal to do it for you, suck it up. After all, we’re talking survival preparedness, and this is not time to be shy.

Pantyhose have awesome potential as a multi-purpose tool and deserve a place in your survival kit. There are a million sites all over the web that tell you the “normal” uses, but today we’re going to go out on a limb and discuss some unusual survival uses for pantyhose.

Let me start by saying that for some of these uses, traditional, cheap pantyhose may not be tough enough to do the job, so I’d suggest picking up a few pairs of leggings, which are essentially pantyhose with a tighter weave.

They’re stronger and won’t be as prone to tearing, but still have the stretchy, sieve-like properties that make pantyhose so useful.

You can get them for a buck or two at thrift stores.

Keep Deer Out of Your Garden

Food may be scarce enough without feeding half of your garden to the local wildlife. Cheap, used pantyhose will work just fine for this task. Fill up a few pantyhose sacks with some hair clippings and tie them around the perimeter of the garden. Human hair is good, but dog hair is even better. Just put a few clippings in a short length of pantyhose and tie them around.

Keep Warm and Prevent Bug Bites and Chiggers

Wearing a pair of pantyhose or leggings is a great way to add a layer of warmth while keeping the bugs from eating you alive. No directions necessary here! They work well to keep off leeches or other water bugs as well if you’re going to be traveling through infested waters, though those are uncommon in most of the states.

Prevent Blisters When You Walk

Because pantyhose are slippery, wearing them under your sock will help keep shoes from rubbing blisters on your feet if you have to walk any distance. Preventing blisters will help keep you free of infection as well as make you much more comfortable when traveling. Just wear a pair under your socks. You can actually get the “footie” pantyhose for this in boxes that contain several pairs.

Use Them as a Bait Net

You won’t be able to catch larger fish probably, but if you stretch hose over a forked stick then skim it through the water, you may be able to catch some bait fish that you can use to catch bigger ones. You can also use a length of hose to hold your bait if you have nothing else. They may get gill-caught in the netting but at least they won’t get away. Just keep the hose hanging in the water and use the bait as you need it.

Use Pantyhose as a Dust Mask

They’re not perfect and won’t keep out toxins but if you have to walk through an area with heavy ash or dust in the air, putting pantyhose over your face bank robber-style will help keep out the larger debris so that you’re not sucking all of that stuff into your lungs. You can put them over your air filter in your car to keep it from sucking ash or dust into the motor, too.

Use Them to Sprout Seeds

Your seeds are going to be valuable and you don’t want to lose them to wind, etc.You also don’t want to waste dirt or containers on seeds that don’t sprout.

Just put several seeds in the toe of a pair of pantyhose and wet it twice daily, then hang them up.

Your seeds will sprout in a few days and you can remove them and transplant them.

Use Them as a Crab Net

Crabs make an excellent meal but are difficult to catch if you don’t have your traditional crabbing gear. Just put chicken skins or other food that crabs like in the toe of the hose and dangle it in the water so that it’s sitting on the bottom. Crab will get stuck in the netting and you can just lift the hose up and remove the crabs.

Other Traditional Survival Uses for Pantyhose

• Filtering debris from water,
• Tying up plants to keep them off the ground,
• Bungee cords,
• Mosquito netting,
• Works great as an emergency fan belt if yours breaks.
• Place it in the bottom of your planters to allow water to drain without losing your dirt.
• Keeping your soap clean – just hang your soap in a length of pantyhose and hang beside the water source.
• Drying food – tie your peppers, onions, herbs, or other food that you want to dry up in a leg of pantyhose and hang in the sun.

Because they’re stretchy and allow liquids to pass through easily, pantyhose are great multi-purpose survival tools and we recommend keeping a few pair in your bug-out bag and even more in your stockpile.

They don’t cost much, if anything, especially if there’s a lady of the house that wears them first. Finally, they take up very little space and are practically weightless, so make sure that you have a few pair handy!

If you have other survival uses for pantyhose, please share with us in the comments section below!

This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia.