Survival Myths That Could Get You Killed

lost in the Amazon rainforest without any supplies in the Sahara Desert feeling the chill out in The Frigid Arctic I'm sure you've got plenty of ideas of how to take care of yourself right well forget them they're probably completely wrong in fact they're more likely to leave you as a pile of bones in a ditch somewhere so from peeing on a jellyfish sting to drinking that pee to stay hydrated here are some survival myths that could get you killed and what you should really do to [Music] survive frostbite first aid if you ever find yourself

stuck outside in a cold climate one of the biggest risks to your safety is frostbite you've probably heard of it but what exactly is it well it's when a person's skin and the tissue underneath winds up freezing it'll start out like a painful red patch but if left untreated will progress and your skin will stiffen numb and go a sickly gray in the very worst cases it can even lead to tissue necrosis which is where your skin literally dies ew so if you've gotten cold enough to catch frostbite you'll want to warm up Pronto now

if your hands are a little cold you rub them together right despite your first instinct though never rub anywhere you suspect might be catching frostbite this will only make things worse a lot worse yeah rubbing frostbite scan will just cause more tissue damage it needs to be treated gently and given the chance to heal okay so if we have the tools how about starting a nice warm fire instead nope frostbit skin is super sensitive and could easily be burnt by open Flames damn so what can you do well the best approach is to submerge any

affected areas in warm water and drink warm liquids not hot this will warm you up gently and avoid Burns but but if you're still out in the cold your priority should really be finding some shelter otherwise no matter what you do your skin will just refreeze anyway preferably that shelter will be somewhere with Netflix and room service Cactus cocktails okay let's say you're in the desert and you're desperately hot dehydration is setting in and you need some water fast you may have seen some old western movies where the cowboy chops open a cactus and takes

a drink from inside don't don't try this it's not actually water inside the prickly plant it's a noxious fluid that will cause vomiting diarrhea and stomach pain if you're already dehydrated the last thing you need is to be losing precious Water by puking and pooping it all up if you're very unlucky The Forbidden smoothie could even cause paralysis oh man there is a single exception to this Rule The Fish Hook Barrel cactus's juices can be ingested though only in tiny quanti ities and only ever in an extreme emergency this Cactus is less likely to cause

those unpleasant side effects but it's still not worth the risk a better option is the fruit of a cactus named The Prickly Pear it's full of water and can be safely ingested providing you remove all those spines unlike Cactus goop this cactus fruit is unlikely to lead to a weakend to top the porcelain Throne so the choice should be obvious if you like some Primo entertainment to watch while sat on your own porcelain Throne look no further hit those like And subscribe buttons to make sure you never miss another great video like this one it

could save your life don't believe this anybody that's ever Disturbed a nest of bees will know how terrifying The Experience can be I just wanted a little honey bees and wasp are Relentless and if they see you as a threat then they'll make sure you know it dealing with one isn't much of a problem but trying to swat a whole swarm good luck with that the only thing to do is run and try and find somewhere safe to hide whatever you do though if you see a Ponder River don't jump into it Anonymous frosters claiming

to be survival experts are adamant that because neither bees nor wasp like water jumping into a lake or river and hiding beneath the surface will make them give up and buzz off in reality that's not the case at all these stripey Stingers are aggressive and super protective of their homes if you've angered them why would the short time you can hold your breath for be enough to dissuade them they'll simply wait above the water for you okay waiting for you is a bit dramatic they won't literally hover and watch the spot where you went under

but they'll continue to search the area for you until you inevitably have to resurface and when you do it'll be beat down time once again only you'll have the added disadvantage of you know being in water so if you're ever chased by wasper bees stay on Dryland and try and find shelter better yet don't annoy them enough to chase you fire before shelter you know how in movies you always get those scenes of people lost in the wilderness sleeping around a huge fire it makes for a nice looking scene sure but in the real world

a fire shouldn't be anyone's priority shelter is much more important for one all it'll take is is a spot of rain or some strong winds and then that fire you put so much effort into is kaput plus fires need fueling and maintaining with wood which will use a lot of your precious energy shelter on the other hand is effective from the moment it's set up and provides a safe place to sleep when you eventually collapse from exhaustion and trust me you will but what exactly should you be looking to build well you need some form

of bed above all else I'm not saying you need a king-sized mattress and a heated blank it you just need to make sure you're off the ground it gets very very cold at night and you could easily freeze if you're lying on it without protection a simple makeshift mattress can be built by laying long branches out on the floor than insulating your Creation with lots of leaves or grass if you got any tools to hand you could even attach branches together and suspend your bed between two trees like a true survivalist only once you've got

a place to sleep should you focus on anything else like a roof and after the Roof then you can try and get around to that swimming pool you've always dreamed of the quick sand question growing up I thought that quicksand would be a much bigger threat in my life than it actually ended up being thanks Andy outside of the movies it's unlikely to swallow you in seconds if you accidentally touch it with your little toe however it can still trap you if you're not careful which could be extremely dangerous if you don't know how to

react but what actually is it essentially quicksand is loose sand or grit that's become so saturated with water that it behaves more like a liquid than a solid and can no longer hold weight very well so here's the big question if you get caught in it do you think you should stay still or try to free yourself I'm waiting okay if you said stay still wrong pop culture has taught us that the best thing to do is avoid struggling and wait for someone to reach out with a handy stick outside of tensel town though this

just isn't good advice if you stay motionless you'll never get free especially if you don't have a friend with you to dramatically save you that being said don't flail around like a maniac either what you should do is lean backwards to distribute your weight evenly and make slow back and forth movements with your body to loosen the sticky Sand's hold on you it'll take a fair while but it'll get you out of there alive eventually human see human don't if you're lost out in the wilderness and your tummy starts rumbling it could be very difficult

to figure out what you can and can't eat choose correctly and your chances of surviving increase significantly but choose in correctly and you could be in for a really bad time so how do we tell if you said take a look at what other animals are eating and copy them then congratulations you aren't surviving yep there's a common belief that if you see an animal eating something it's safe for human consumption too this should set off Al arm bells for any sensible person humans and animals have completely different diets chocolate is deadly to a dog

while it's my favorite tree so any berries or plants that you might see a deer or bird chowing down on could be lethal to you there is a definitive method to find out if something is safe to eat however the universal edibility test in simple terms it involves taking the plant or Berry in question and gradually exposing your body to it to check for adverse reactions first first you check if it smells okay pear or almond or sense to avoid as they could be a sign of cyanide then you rub it on the inside of

your elbow and wait 15 minutes if it itches or hurts throw the plant away if not pop a small part of it in your mouth and chew it for a few minutes you're looking for bitterness soapiness or general tinglin and pain if you get any of those spit it out if not eat a little bit and wait 8 hours yes 8 hours but if you want to be sure it's safe you're going to have to be patient if finally after that there are no side effects you can eat the plant or at least the part

of it you tested just because you can eat the leaf doesn't mean you can eat the stem jeez that sounds exhausting right but it's better to be exhausted than dead boiling bad food is important but it's actually possible to survive for months without it water however after just 3 days you'll be sleep sleeping with the fishes who incidentally are plenty hydrated so you'll want to find yourself some sweet H2O you should prioritize running water as it's less likely to be home to a load of Critters than stagnant water unfortunately even then most water you come

across in the wild will be undrinkable it's unclean and full of bacteria as well as catching diseases from it it can also cause diarrhea which ironically will make you lose more water than you gain so what should you do well it's fairly common knowledge that boiling dirty water can remove impurities and make it safe to drink in an extreme scenario however you aren't likely to have a kettle and a power outlet to hand you'll have to start a fire and boil your water in any container that you can rustle up here's the catch though although

boiling will kill harmful bacteria it won't remove any dangerous chemicals or sediments that are lurking in there so it still might not be enough to save you you should actually filter the water before boiling it wherever possible the best way to filter is to cover a container with a shirt or cloth and then Place some crushed charcoal from your fire on top pour the water through the cloth into the container and the charcoal will catch nasty contaminants while improving the taste as a little bonus sounds weird but don't knock it till you've tried it before

even that though try and find the source of the water you're looking to drink if you find that there's a bunch of dead rats in it or something it may be best to look elsewhere unless you enjoy that delicious rat-like zest following Wing we've already established just how important water is for you I mean us humans seeking out a good source of water is a priority in any survival situation but what's the best way to do it enter our next myth many claim that you can locate a water source by simply following birds in Flight

the logic is that the Airborne avens will be traveling to water themselves so all you need to do is tag along and they'll lead you to it and while some aquatic Birds rarely leave the water's edge others fly all over the place for a wide variety of reasons for all you know those birds could be migrating to foreign lands or flying home to bed so instead of looking up keep an eyee out for animals on the ground they'll regularly travel to water and won't wander nearly as far as Our Feathered Friends it takes a Keen

Eye and some patience but as long as you don't spook every animal in the area with your addition of I'm a Survivor it should pay off a jellyfish joke jellyfish suck their long flowing tentacles give nasty stings that cause searing pain may leave barbs full of Venom stuck inside you and can even be fatal but what if you do get stung well I can tell you what not to do somewhere somehow a rumor emerged that taking a whiz on a jellyfish sting would help with the immense pain what I wish I was kidding now I'm

not so sorry to break it to you but this simply doesn't work taking a leak on a sting can actually cause stinging cells to release even more Venom and make the pain worse not better see the whole reason this crazy myth even came into being was because people thought the ammonia in our urine could neutralize the Venom of the sting in reality it does nothing at all and can in fact activate the stinging cells but why well jellyfish live in the sea which is composed of salt water if the stinging cells are exposed to any

change in the balance of salty solution they're used to they're set off urine does not have the same salt content as salt water or at least it shouldn't so it activates the stingers and makes the pain worse the same goes for freshwat experts agree that the correct thing to do is remove any barbs in the affected area and then wash it thoroughly with salt water long story short peeing on either yourself or your stung pow won't provide any pain relief try saying that three times fast beat the heat when you're on vacation showing some skin

can be a good way of building a nice tan and staying a little cooler but if you're stranded in an oppressively hot place like a desert the last thing you want to do is shed the layers unless you're wearing wildly inappropriate and heavy clothing a good garment will keep you cool first and most obviously clothes reduce the amount of direct sunlight hitting your skin minimizing any overheating and potential sunburn second as you get hot you sweat and water leaves your body in an attempt to cool you down without clothes it evaporates and leaves you dehydrated

wi them the sweat is trapped and creates a cool layer on your skin that also hydrates it slightly nice people living in areas like the Middle East have worn long light flowing clothing for thousands of years for these exact reasons these clothes are also traditionally white the color that reflects the most sunlight so there you go they aren't just snazzy fashion statements and you're better off covering up than stripping off in the hot sun in fact you're better off covering up wherever you are I don't want to see it sorry whiskey warmth from partying to

Drowning your Sorrows there are lots of good and not so good reasons people drink alcohol one good reason not to drink it however is to warm yourself up if you're dangerously Cold Yet people have believed it works for absolutely ages St Bernard dogs are often pictured with small barrels of meat around their neck for this very reason back in the 1800s the heroic doggos would be sent out into snowstorms to rescue lost Travelers and urban legends say they brought booze with them to warm the Frozen people alcohol does create a warm feeling in the body

so it's somewhat understandable that this myth became so widespread but what's really happening well when you drink alcohol it causes your blood vessels to dilate which gives you that warm Buzz as blood rushes to your skin the problem is in cold environments your body's main defense is to push less blood to your skin and instead keep your core warm with it so despite what it feels like alcohol actually makes you colder and that's not all booze also reduces shivering another of your body's warming techniques when you shiver your muscles contract rapidly creating energy that warms

you up without this you're going to get colder faster if that wasn't already enough reason to avoid a Martini in a snowstorm alcohol also causes you to sweat considering sweating is literally designed to cool you down it's the last thing you want to be doing if you're already freezing so yeah avoid the beer and concentrate on getting out of the cold as quickly as possible then feel free to have a cocktail or three don't bring the heat right so you're lost in the wilderness but you've manage to stumble across a cave for shelter let's say

that this cave isn't home to a hungry bear and is as Prime real estate to ensure your survival whatever you do do not start a fire you may have seen campfires and caves in every movie and TV show Under the Sun but it can actually be an incredibly dangerous thing to do fire produces heat duh which is great for your chili toes but not so great for the cave that's because heat causes Rock to expand so a fire could cause the rocks in the ceiling to change shape just enough that the structure becomes unstable causing

a cave in is hardly a useful survival technique even if your fire doesn't cause your cave to collapse it'll soon fill up with smoke an important Outdoorsman tip known only to experts is that you need to breathe to stay alive polluting a confined space with smoke will make this super difficult if you need a fire for any reason your best bet is probably to start one just outside the cave that way you avoid these dangers but still have your camp near shelter oh and don't build that fire near anything try fire flammable either fire hot

h fire dangerous tough guy Tonic If heaven forbid the worst happens and you find yourself wounded while out in the middle of nowhere you've got to take care of it fast in an ideal situation rubbing alcohol or surgical Spirit should be used to clean around a wound and prevent infection but it shouldn't enter the wound itself you probably won't have any of that though so how about ordinary alcohol in Hollywood tough guy Heroes will often pour whiskey into a recent wound to clean it it looks bad ass sure but it's not a good idea in

a real survival scenario strong drinking alcohol will disinfect a wound but it's also likely to kill healthy cells and delay healing and you'll want any wound to heal as quickly and smoothly as possible in an emergency where every second counts ideally you want to apply pressure to the cut and use clean water water to wash it with if that's not possible booze can be used but only as a last resort seems like a waste of some perfectly good booze to me but sometimes sacrifices must be made camel logic to drink or not to drink that

is the question when stranded in a desert or any other hot location water is a precious commodity do you drink that bottle in your backpack or do you save it for later you probably think the sensible thing to do is to hold on to it and eek it out as much as possible you'd actually be wrong there's absolutely no reason to save water if you're lost in the wilderness wait what hear me out if you're thirsty you need water extreme thirst can sap your strength and cognitive abilities two things you'll need to use to stay

alive and the best place to store your water is in your body not your backpack it could give you the Boost you need to find shelter more water or even rescue so instead of rationing your water concentrate on reducing your body's water loss avoid strenuous activity during the hardest part of the day breathe through your nose rather than your mouth and keep as much of your skin covered as possible be like a camel move slowly and store water in your hum jono picture the scene you're on an adventure trekking through foreign lands when suddenly a

mighty Beast jumps out of a patch of trees inserts coming at you naturally you run away as fast as you can but what if you realize you're running straight towards the edge of a cliff Jeepers you've probably seen videos of daredevils or scenes in action movies of people leaping from incredible Heights into water they're always fine right so maybe you'd take the plunge rather than face the Beast I'm here to slap some sense into you that is a terrible idea after falling from a high place at high speed the water surface may as well be

concrete when when you land jeez jumping from just 20 ft will cause you to slam into the water at around 25 mph at this speed the water molecules at the surface won't be able to displace themselves fast enough to cushion you causing the water to act more like a solid think about it normally if you place your hand gently into water there's barely any resistance that's because the molecules have enough time to spread throughout the rest of the water pushing minimal Force back at you the quicker you hit those molecules how however the less time

they have to move and the more resistance you're met with that's why you could break bones from falling into water too fast cliff divers are specially trained to land in the water properly and even then are often surrounded by Medics or emergency Personnel just in case something goes wrong even if you land in the water with the perfect form the impact can still be strong enough to compress your spine basically don't jump off cliffs it's probably a worse idea than facing whatever beasty may be after you shark bait we've established jumping into water from up

high isn't such a good idea but sometimes the fall isn't the biggest danger sharks are the apex predators of the Seas strong fast and with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth they're capable of really ruining your day but is there anything you can do if you find yourself on the wrong side of these ferocious fish well many people reckon you can defend yourself from a shark attack by punching the predator in the nose this sounds a lot easier than it is though if you're facing off against the shark you're going to be in water

have you ever tried throwing a punch underwater it's not easy water puts up so much resistance that you're highly unlikely to be able to put enough oomph behind a blow to do any damage on top of that you'd be placing your hand dangerously close to the shark's mouth remember those knife-like teeth yeah you'd basically be giving the guy a free lunch want a better idea poke the predator in the eye instead you don't need much force to damage such a sensitive area if that fails attack the gills it's how the Beast breathes so digging your

fingers in them will make things very uncomfortable for your attacker and if you can try to use a weapon anything you have to hand a surfboard a stick whatever it'll do more damage and minimize the risk of getting nibbled that being said these techniques should be Last Resorts sharks rarely attack humans and can usually be avoided or deterred so if you spy one of these aquatic animals your first move should be to swim calmly away it's difficult for me because I look like such a snack but if I can manage it you can too Moss

taken nowadays practically everybody has a GPS in their pocket in the form of a smartphone but that wasn't always the case believe it or not there was a time when humans had to actually use their wits to get from a to be a persistent myth claims that if you end up lost in the woods Moss can be used as a sort of compass because it only grows on the north side of trees so all you'd need to do to orient yourself is find a tree with some Moss check what side it's on and Bingo except

uh that's a downright lie Moss does mostly grow on the North facing side of trees and rocks but only in the northern hemisphere in the southern hemisphere it grows on the South Side more often that's because those sides get the least sunlight and it loves dark damp places even so it's never a guarantee that it'll grow on either side it could grow anywhere so don't rely on it to navigate all right now see if you can think of a witty Moss Ponda end this cuz I'm stumped bear knuckle let's be honest neither you nor I

could take a bear in a fight doesn't matter how buff you are and trust me I'm buff but the bear is buffer and they're everywhere from Alaska to Norway so you just might end up stumbling across one if you do you might have heard that playing dead is a Surefire way to get rid of the Burly Beast nope but it could be a Surefire way to get you killed okay sometimes playing dead is the right call but it's entirely dependent on the type of bear that's hassling you if you find yourself attacked by a black

bear don't even think about it these guys are scavengers so you'll just look like a free meal if you lay down you'll want to calmly escape to a secure place if possible if that's not possible make yourself look as big as you can by puffing your chest out and holding your arms up in the air the bear might overestimate you and leave if it doesn't you're going to have to hit it preferably on its face and muzzle make sure you don't try this on a Grizzly though they'll tear you to pieces indeed if a grizzly

bears down on you then you should play posum lay flat on your stomach and place your hands behind your neck to cover it after that you've just got to pray that that Fierce furball loses interest not ideal I know but if you really want the best chance of surviving a bear attack make sure you have bear pepper spray on hand or just stay out of bear territory altogether you're unlikely to get a sing song about The Bear Necessities out of them snow benefit water water everywhere and not a drop to drink when dehydration sets in

you need to act fast but if you're somewhere snowy surely you could just eat the snow right after all it's frozen water bingo well that's exactly the problem it's frozen water the body needs to put in a heck of a lot of work in order to heat and melt that snow to make it usable organs wind up in overdrive and extra energy is used leaving you more dehydrated than you were before on top of that ingesting a lot of freezing cold snow could easily lead to hypothermia if you're already cold not fun snow can be

used to hydrate yourself but you'd need to melt the snow first then drink the water don't let your organs do all the work they do so much for you already as it is oh and one last thing for Pete's sake don't melt and drink yellow snow do I really need to say why Venom slurp admit it we all believ this next one at some point if your pal is unfortunate enough to be bitten by a seriously venomous snake you're supposed to suck the Venom from the wound right ha I wouldn't recommend it this myth has

been propagated in books movies TV shows whatever the medium somebody's chugged a snake venom smooth out of someone else's bite the reality is you'll never be able to suck out all the Venom you'll only end up adding bacteria from your mouth to the wound on top of that if you had any open wounds in your mouth or throat for the Venom to enter you'd wind up with some of it in your own bloodstream too if either you or your pal do find yourselves full of serpentine nastiness the best thing to do is head straight to

a hospital in the US most snake antivenom is universal so you shouldn't have to waste time trying to snag a photo of the the offending animal unfortunately there's no Crazy Life Hack that can help with a scenario like this your only option is to get that anti-venom administered as quickly as possible if you do waste time trying to suck the venom out well somebody is likely to end up popping their clogs so leave the straws at home people forbidden lemonade let's say you've been separated from your mom at the mall how long do you have

no food no resources at what point will you need to start drinking your own pee to survive okay okay you're probably not going to be at the mall if you're seriously contemplating this let's say you're in the middle of the desert the Temptation would be there I know but I'm sorry to say drinking your own special Brew will not hydrate you at all eh but it's a liquid right yeah but think about it if you're dehydrated it means you don't have enough water in your system to begin with so the vast majority of what comes

out of Junior down there won't be water it'll be waste products like to toxins pollutants and salts the very opposite of the things you want if you're dehydrated and as your system battles with the toxic juice you just swallowed you'll dehydrate even further strangely survival experts like Bear Grills have promoted riding the yellow wave for years well guess what it doesn't matter if you saw it on TV it's a load of hoey anybody that's drank their own urine survive and made it through did so in spite of drinking the smelly stuff not because of it

if you're really want to sample your own brand organize a tasting session in the comfort of your own home where you can have barf bags on standby and on that disgusting note that's all the survival myths I can tackle for one day which of these did you find the most surprising did you believe any of them yourself let me know down in the comments and until next time thanks for watching