Mikweed - a plant that can keep you warm

[Wise Old Owl]

Check this article out

http://www.survival-spot.com/survival-blog/how-to-use-milkweed-fluff-as-warm-insulation/



Thoughts?

[madmax]

A big steaming pile of.... Go try and collect, process, and stuff enough of that stuff in whatever while you're boiling water and scavenging for food. Build a fire.

[natertot]

I'm sure it works. Homeless use news paper waded up.

[LowKey]

Parts of it have merit. Parts do not.
I have some milkweed pods drying in paper bags out in the garage. Not many. The goal originally was to make candlewicks. We'll see if that happens... Last year the mice found the bags. What a mess.

If you put about 2- 3 dozen pods in a paper grocery bag, let em sit til they puff, without opening the bag, shake it vigorously to break off the seeds. Make a hole in the bottom corner and pour out the seeds and pods. The trick with the foof, if you want to use it for down fill is to get it into a tubular container. Stuff a paper towel into the end of a paper towel tube or gift wrap tube. Enlarge the hole in the bag to get three fingerfulls of foof at a time and stuff that tube full. To store it, just put another paper towel in the open end.
To use, open one end, put the tube deep into the sewn pocket of whatever article of clothing/bedding you are making/filling and using a stick, push the paper towel through the tube to push the foof into the pocket. Think sausage stuffing.

I can't take credit for that. Mom used to make a lot of our clothing and one year she tackled the Altra down vest kits you could buy for a fraction of the cost of a new down coat. The feathers always came in plastic tubes that you turned inside out inside the jacket tunnels using a yardstick. Was fun. There are always escapees though and feathers were floating down from the sewing loft for days. LOL.

[hunter63]

I think the article is a little optimistic in the use of milk weed fluff as a "Long term survival insulation"....sound like sales pitch.

It takes a LOT of fluff to amount to any thing.....and a LOT of time to open, pull and clean the seeds....So you would need a field of it.
She also mention drying the pods in a green house or boiler room....not a normal part of your survival gear?

Not to discount it.....as I have used rolled up balls of dried fluff as a spark catching media for flint and steel....an anything else that you would use cotton balls.

The pod has a center ovum... that I have heard to use as a fire starter.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaLptVmu4Zw

I have about 20 plants in my front yard....much to the chagrin of the neighbors......flowers smell like a funnel home.....but it does bring in the bees and Monarchs...like crazy...

They are there because I planted them.....LOL
So when reminded that milkweed is a WEED.....I just ask what they have against butterfly's?

Actually need to go cut them as they are about ready to open and spread the "wealth"....LOL
I just put them upside down in a paper shopping bag with slits in it....then put up in the rafters of the garage.
(Hummm should still be last years batch......)

I'm sure with some effort a long list of uses can be compiled.

[Rick]

I would be willing to guess that I have enough jackets, coats, parkas, liners, sweatshirts and blankets to last for decades beyond my expiration date. I won't have a need to gather seed pods, chickens, packing peanuts or anything else to keep warm. And if I'm wrong? Well, there's always freezing to death.

[crashdive123]

Now he tells me. If I had only planted milkweed.


https://scottystarnes.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/shiningjackbevroren-300x300.jpg

[kyratshooter]

The thought crosses my mind that if you have nothing to insulate your self other than milkweed fluff you probably already starved to death before winter took hold well!

If you are snaring rabbits, squirrels, skunks, birds or killing large game, in a loooong term survival situation, you should have much better insulators available than milkweed fluff.