Learn Bushcraft skills by videos
watch the best bushcrafters explain techniques and skills

Fire Saw, Wilderness Water, Tripod Withies, Personal Daily Camp Routines | #AskPaulKirtley 63

Description

Welcome to Episode 63 of #AskPaulKirtley, where I answer questions about water purification in wilderness areas with mostly clean water, withies for camp tripods, personal camp routines, compass bubbles, fire saw with bamboo, edible ant larvae

TIMESTAMPS:

01:17 Water and Withies

12:50 Camp routines

25:55 Compass bubbles

29:57 Fire saw with bamboo

33:53 Edible ant larvae

LINKS:

Brown Filter Bags: http://shop.frontierbushcraft.com/Brown-Bag-Filter-Bag-p/bwnbagsml.htm

Kirtley Kettles: http://shop.frontierbushcraft.com/Kirtley-Kettles-s/1838.htm

French River Five Mile Rapids Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GQgSHVdZrc

Frontier Bushcraft Team Sleeping Tips Blog: http://frontierbushcraft.com/2017/03/30/how-get-good-sleep-woods/

WHAT IS #ASKPAULKIRTLEY?

#askpaulkirtley is your chance to ask Paul Kirtley questions about wilderness bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life.

Ask Paul Kirtley is a regular Q&A show (also available as a podcast) with leading bushcraft instructor Paul Kirtley, founder of Frontier Bushcraft and author of Paul Kirtley's Blog.

ASK PAUL A QUESTION:

Ask a question here: http://paulkirtley.co.uk/ask-paul-kirtley/

Or tweet your questions with hashtag #askpaulkirtley to @pkirt

SHOW NOTES & PREVIOUS EPISODES:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/Topics/askpaulkirtley/

LET'S CONNECT:

You can also connect with me on social media:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/paulkirtley/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pkirt

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulKirtleysBlog

GET MORE WILDERNESS SKILLS ADVICE & INFO:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/free-tips-and-advice/

Tags: bushcraft,survival,wilderness,camping,hiking,outdoors,question and answer,advice,questions,answers,bushcrafting,nature,self reliance,self sufficiency,outdoor skills,outdoor knowledge,Paul Kirtley,askpaulkirtley

Video Transcription

in this episode of a sport curtly we are going to talk about water and with ease camp routines compass bubbles fire soar with bamboo and our ant larvae edible [Music]

welcome welcome to episode 63 of a sport curtly um it's pretty cold where I am here recording this and you might be able to see in the background everything's covered in a in a coating of frost and I'm down in this nice little Valley little stream Valley Little River Valley I've I've recorded a few a sport Kirklees here before there's a nice fallen tree for me to sit on so it's a good break on my hike but it's cold down here today so I will keep it as brief as I possibly can do because I want to keep things moving and let's have a look right washing with ease this is from Max Gousse Tom bushcraft hey Paul hope you well since I enjoy your a sport curly episodes I'd like to participate with two different questions

one if you were travelling in an area where it says that the water from the lakes and streams etc is mostly so clean it can be drunken directly from it would you still filter boil sterilize it or what kind of water protocol would you take place on your journeys especially if you're out with several people second is there a special technique or not apart from a clove hitch that takes place when setting up a tripod from three canoe puddles with a witty thank you for considering my questions kind regards from Germany max MIT Freund licken grosse and max excellent good so um I think you always have to go back to first principles on some of these questions max and it depends on what the what's the worst-case scenario what is it that might be in the water that you might not remove if you treat it as as safe that's a question that you need to ask now it could be the case possible I know the type of trips that you do it could be that you're talking about Sweden and mostly the water is there it's clean to drink there but if you were presented with a muddy bog that work with stagnant water that smelled bad you probably would have the sense not to drink that where is a nice clear stream or river or lake if you know generally the waters clean they're probably referring to that stuff that the former where it's just full of mud and decaying materials and leaves and you know that type of stuff that's not going to do your stomach any good so it's really what's the worst case to know it asks some locals as well it's like what is what is it that people are worried about here it might be in some areas there is some pollution from farming that could be various animal pollutants you know animals feces and that type of thing I don't know I'm trying to generalize you've got a specific thing in mind in general but I would go back to first principles what is the worst-case scenario what can happen what would what would be the worst-case scenario if you did drink something that should have been boiled and then the other first principle is really if you don't know it's safe to drink you should treat it as unsafe to drink that's really the primary rule with water and particularly in areas that you don't know and the locals might be drinking the water with impunity but you might still get an upset stomach because you're not used to the bacteria that are in the water for example so you always need to be a little bit careful just from that perspective of getting some local information they might be fine it might make you ill anyway and if you don't know for sure that it's clean really going back to first principles should tell you you need to treat it as suspect you need to boil it or what have you and but equally a lot of people will go way too far you know they'll they'll filter they'll put things that put clear water through a Milbank bag then they'll boil eight and then I put chemicals in it and it's like no that's overkill yeah that's that you don't need to do that because time and effort and energy is important on the trip and you also need to drink enough and all of those processes take a while an efficient process you shouldn't take too long you should go to get plenty of water and you know even on for example on our expedition canoeing skills course we have ten students plus myself and Ray Goodwin and sometimes an assistant on that course and we put all of our water through a Milbank bag or a brown bag and boil it in ten liter Kirtley kettles and and that's all the water that we use for everything for drinking for cooking for washing for the whole week we produce that way and as long as you've got an efficient system it's perfectly possible to possible to produce plenty of water and as long as everyone knows what the system is of course so those are my thoughts on that second question was about with ease and I'm not a huge fan of making tripods for fires out of my canoe paddles I know you see it a lot in Paul cane sketches and you see Ray Mears doing it on northern wilderness and various people posting photos on Instagram and what have you but my paddles were quite expensive sticks and they've got nice finishes on them varnish I want to keep them in good condition for paddling I don't like putting them near fires particularly not when gotta the people with me who maybe are not quite as familiar with fires as I am and then of course you've got issues around well what if a wind gets up I mean the French River video that I put up a little while ago is mainly about paddling down the five-mile Rapids section and the French River we had a rock camp a nice rock down were camped up on top of it at the end of the day it's right at the end of that little video and and when we set that camp up there was a little bit of a breeze not much there was thunder clouds in the distance and at some point after dark as you often get before a storm comes in the wind got very quickly and it was blowing flame out sideways from the fire and you know lightweight pieces of equipment like even kneeling mats was starting to move around and and we had to we had to tie a few things there and put rocks on top of them or just put them into the tent vestibule and in the end of storm didn't come in but that wind came up for about 30 minutes that was really blowing make a blast furnace through the bottom of the fire

it would have been scorching paddles if they've been in the wrong place at a tripod so I don't like doing that personally I would rather just use some sticks if you were using it to hang a Milbank bag for example for a water system yeah sure that would work fine just make sure and again one thing I don't like happening with my paddles on some of those situations where you need a tripod you're often on hard rock that's why you're using a tripod and not some of the pot hanger or some other suspension method you need something that's freestanding that will sit on top of a hard surface what I don't want are my paddles falling over onto rock because what can then happen is that it's the handle part that you're holding in your hand gets a dent in it or a chip that then is somewhere that is gonna maybe cause you a blister when you're paddling our saw point on a hot or a hot spot on your hand and it can be really difficult to get rid of so again I don't want the chance of it being kicked over of it being falling falling over when it's been loaded with whatever it's being loaded with or being assembled or it being blown over with with the wind so I don't tend to like to use my paddles but I know why you're asking this question because paddles tend to be quite smooth on the shaft and therefore binding them together into a tripod can be quite tricky because they tend to slip at the binding particularly when you weight them and I suspect that's why you're asking me the question and with these in general if you don't know what a witty is it's something like a piece of hazel

a piece of a willow a long straight wand that you can twist up and the fiber start moving around against each other but you still got the structural integrity the strength lengthways and so you've got a flexible strong binding material that can be used and it's great for bindings it's great for building natural shelters it's great for binding bundles of firewood up you could people have made log rafts binding and them together with widdy's fences all sorts of things are parts of basket making lots and lots of uses for with these and one is binding a tripod together and of course if you're clever about it you can Wiggy up the top of something that's got a side branch on it and that's your hook you can hang a kettle or a pot over the fire and then all you need to do is attach it around the three legs of the tripod above and then you can hang down and you can bring the legs in or out and you can raise it or lower it over the fire and we do that with sticks in it all the time I don't do it with my paddles for the reasons I've already talked about and again the other thing is if you've got a 10 liter kettle hanging on a chain or a piece of cord or a with E and that's been supported by three paddles the end of your paddles is on that rock and it's been moved around it's been moved in and out it's going to damage the end you know those lovely wooden paddles that you avoid bashing onto rocks while you're in the river if you can you don't want to be scraping and moving that around on the rocks and so again I don't like doing that you know a decent paddle from somebody like Jude that down Creek paddle is gonna cost you you know over a hundred pounds easy 150 pounds for a nice wooden paddle a good quality grey owl paddle is quite expensive

you know Redwing paddles they're all quite expensive they've got nice finishes on them the wooden paddles you don't wanna be scraping around on rocks so I wouldn't be doing that and in particular with E trying to bind three of them together with a witty is going to be difficult because there's very very little grip between them you're better off using some green sticks near to a fire anyway rather than dead wood green sticks near to the fire they've got the strength as well and not going to snap for a relatively small diameter green hazel willow birch whatever you can find and then when you brine that with the

it bites into the outer bark and the inland sand compresses the inner bark and and you get some grip on it and equally if you can get a couple of those sticks to have a fork in them so that they can sit together then you've got a more stable tripod anyway so that's what I would be going for to answer your specific question clove hitch is about as good as you can do with a witty I mean a better knot would be a constrictor knot but you're not going to get that done with it with a witty I don't think very easily and a trick with with ease though is once you've got your clove hitch in take the the witty over the top and back down again and that locks it all in and you need a longer with e to start off with but that will then lock it all together it'll pull the clove hitch tighter it will bind everything together

and I think that's probably the answer that you're looking for I will be using green sticks you make it with a clove hitch around and then have a length of witty left and then for that too the whole lot to go over and down again and lock the whole thing together and that's the way that we do it and it works it works well so I said this would be quick and I spent quite a lot of time answering that question camp routine this is from Mike Taylor might be good to hear from you Mike and April as threatened a question on routines I remember this conversation back on the on the wood crafted cause Mikey one of the things that I've appreciated as I've increased my time camping is the benefit of daily routines morning and evening what are yours I'm thinking along the following lines morning Sleeping Bear I could shake on ridge line when wouldn't you hang it out as you might might as it might make it worse clothes slept in personal hygiene face arms hair shave crack and sack foot care anything else evening where do you put clothes in a bag where do you put shoes slugs in your shoes in the morning do you put them in a bag on a stick tick checks quick delve into the more moist places hem or mirror and more info than you'd otherwise like personal hygiene any camp checks wood for breakfast fire Cheers Mikey PS any idea when the tracking course will be on the website and the tracking course is on the website and the nature track in a nature awareness course and I believe you've booked on it already so that's probably a redundant part of the question there's a lot of other questions in there the short answer is it depends it depends on where I am both in terms of the environment what I'm doing and what type of activities and I'll come back to why what the likely issues are in that environment you talked about ticks you talked about slugs you know you've got to take that into consideration I don't think there's a blanket answer to all of those things and hygiene is always important whether you're in cold or hot environments and then bed gear sleeping gear clothing etc I'm not limited to get through I mean there's like 17 separate blog posts there Mike but in the UK if I'm working on a course which I is often a reason that I'm camping in the UK or I'm just out for a few days on a canoe trip or what have you what I tend to do let's start with the evening I hang a try and hang socks up under my tarp or inside my tent and so after I take my shoes off if my that's when your socks are going to be warmest when you've just taken your shoes off if you can just keep them on your feet open to the air for a little bit to let the heat of your feet and the heat of the sock drive out any moisture that's a good way just to just to kick-start the moisture removal process to sweat removal process from socks socks these days I tend to like to wear a thin liner sock and a thicker sock over the over the top whether that thicker sock is a waterproof sock or whether it's just through a warmer sock or just a more protective sock and I'll often keep the thin sock on in bed because that helps really dry out and it also helps protect the sleeping bag from smelly feet if if you're not using a sleeping bag liner but I put a I put the socks underneath my tarp or inside my tank just as a general thing after that I just sat there letting them evaporate for a little while that's important keeping your feet in good nick is important if I'm gonna wash my feet I'll sometimes do that at the end of a day of hiking are more often wash my feet in the morning and when I'm having a wash generally heat a bit of water up on the campfire have a bit of a wash wash feet last dry them off maybe a fresh pair of socks on depending on what day is and if you're wearing a liner sock you can use you can carry more fresh liner socks with you and you can if you're just wearing a single sock so you might be able to use the outer sock for a number of days without them getting too nasty but then you can change the inner socks more regularly and because they're thinner you can wash them and then you stand the chance have been able to dry them as well whereas a thick sock if you get that wet in it and then it's not really super warm then you're unlikely to be able to dry it so that I like that combination foot hygiene is important some people like to use a bit of foot powder and medicated foot powder can be good to keep things like athlete's foot at bay and but generally just washing them with a bit of soap and then drying them off before you put the socks on so they go away dry is a really good starting point for continued foot hygiene and keep allowing your boots to dry as much as possible overnight so you talked about putting them in a bag I don't tend to put my boots in a bag I want to try what I do is I pull the ends if I'm talking about hiking boots if I'm just out and about in the woods I'm on a hike as opposed to a canoeing trip for example when I'll have two sets of footwear one wet foot set and one dry set and I've got one set I want to get the the insoles out and sitting just in my in the boot like a little chimney that will help the insole dry out much more it will help any condensation as under the inn's I'll get out of the boot and if there's a slug get I've I rarely get slugs in my in my boot I tend to get slugs more I sort of to get into the a rucksack and and places but I'm not so worried about that clearly if you're in electrical places where things can get into your boots that you don't want to be putting your feet into you need routines for dealing with that but if we're just talking about more benign environments where I think we've met and therefore you're asking about getting the getting the shoes as dry as possible is generally the an aired as possible overnight and that makes a difference to your foot comfort the next day it makes a difference to whether or not your skin gets soft and you get blisters and all of those sorts of things so getting them your boots as dry as possible on the inside dry feet dry socks although that's important I tend to wear merino wool boxer shorts which don't get too smelly so I tend to wear them for a number of days and then change them and normally change them when I'm having a good proper wash on a canoe trip you tend to be able to have a wash quite easily because you can get in you're always in there water you can get into the water you've got access to plenty water for good wash on our hike it can be harder because you might be way further away from water you've got a limited amount that you can carry it's always good to have some antibacterial wet wipes because they keep the bacterial flora at bay if you're if you're wiping yourself down your nether regions with those every day and that helps prevent sores particularly if you're hiking and that's important and you know people can get you urinary tract infections just from not keeping their private parts clean so that's important you know but again stand-up wash with soap and water is as good as anything and carrying a small collapsible wash bowl with you so you can put some hot water in it that brings us onto morning routine in terms of fire always get your kindling and your fire lighting materials ready the night before you don't know what it's going to do overnight it might be pouring with rain in the morning it's good to be prepared get that under a tarp get it away where it's dry get things up off the ground get enough firewood in makes got enough water prepared for drinking and if you need to go and collect water from a distance for boiling in the morning you maybe have done that already but just make sure people know it's not boiled already and then whoever's up first lights the fire gets the kettle on and try and get some cooking pots in the side of the fire as well if you've got those to heat some water up then if you're if you're in a group you've got enough for drinks for cereals granola whatever you're doing you might boil some eggs you know whatever you're doing try and do all of that together using the heat of the fire so it's efficient and then there be also some hot water for having the wash refer to my previous comments and that kind of that's kind of it and then you're kind of after breakfast brush teeth good to go I like to make sure I use a bit of lip salve if I'm out for a while gotten a little Robin wandering around here if you see me distracted it's because of all the bird life and that comes in often you know on the on the trees and the bushes around here it's quite quite dense in width you've got alder and Ed Sycamore here that's fallen but you've got the got the Hawthorn there as well so it's quite so shrubbery and and low in this area here and all the Robins and the tips and the little thing she's like to come in so anyway so yeah that's kind of it good good you know just the sort of stuff you do at home you mean I spend a lot of time outdoors whether it's teaching courses do my own trips doing trips with clients and you just you know if I didn't brush my teeth properly every day and all of those things you should do at home I'd have no teeth so you have to maintain those normal routines and get all of that done before the day starts before you start doing whatever you doing before your journey starts before your teaching starts before your course starts or whatever it is that you're doing and then get it out of the way and then as I say end of the day you asked about clothes as well it depends sometimes they need drying out and hanging up and Aronoff other times they need they don't need that I tend to use the war

Leia's for pillow they might go into a dry bag to keep them together for a pillow

sometimes I'll wear a t-shirt normally have a sleeping bag liner allowing really cold conditions I don't because I'll be wearing marina will underwear long johns and a top so I don't tend and also just the extra faff of a sleeping bag liner and really if your being out in really cold conditions it does add a bit of warmth but I'd rather just have the merino and have the simplicity of getting in and out efficiently rather than messing around and talking about it being out at minus 30 Celsius and but generally if it's warmer than that I I may well be using a sleeping bag liner in which case I don't mind if I'm sleeping naked if I'm sleeping just in Underpants because you've got a layer between you if I'm not using a sleeping bag liner I like to have at least a t-shirt on so I'm not making my sleeping bag too greasy too quickly from from oils on the body if it's colder and unexpectedly I've always got a thin merino base layer with me so I might be wearing that just for extra warmth and it depends what what I'm wearing in bed putting a hat on to keep warm we've got a lot of stuff on these tips and tricks of having a comfortable night out on the frontier bushcraft we did a team blog on that a little while ago by the way so have a look on the frontier bushcraft blog frontier bushcraft calm thoughts like blog and some good stuff on there from the frontier bushcraft team myself included which is separate to my personal blog called curly code at UK sleeping bag generally I will hang it up again like the socks while it's still warm in the morning that's when it's going to have most impetus to to evaporate moisture off hang it up and I tend not unless it's an absolutely clear blue sky bit of a breeze coming through no sign of any rain and I'm not gonna be far away I don't hand my sleeping bag up outside I'll always hang it up underneath my tarp because then I can not have to remember put it in if it starts raining I know you should you probably should but the number of times I've seen students and colleagues come a cropper with that where there's been a some spits of rain they've not thought about it until later and they're sleeping bags got damp because they're left it hanging out hang it that hanging line that you're hanging your socks on overnight and other bits and pieces hang your sleeping bag underneath it during the day breeze blowing underneath and we'll take a lot of the moisture away and that's generally what I do I think that's as much as I've got time for now Mikey but and those are things that I pretty much always try and do wherever I am foot hygiene you know personal hygiene having a good breakfast making sure the fire stuff is ready the night before airing the sleeping bag out in the morning that's all regular stuff cooling off here and it's getting darker next question compass bubbles this is from Andrew his question is how many pennies many thanks for your informative sessions in episode 59 of a sport curtly you answered a question about sorting sorry apologize about storing compasses and mentioned bubbles I have had a silver compass for a number of years and recently a bubble about a quarter of an inch wide that that's quite big actually formed in it is this a problem and is there anything I can do to get rid of it also if the compass needs replacing how can I avoid the same thing happening again I really enjoy your videos and benefit from them keep up the good work regards Andrew Buchanan well Andrew yeah that the main issue with bubbles in the liquid encompasses is that the surface tension of the bubble can basically hold the compass needle at an angle that it wouldn't otherwise be sitting at if it was allowed to move freely and that's that surface tension effect is what allows pond skaters say to just skate around on it on the top of on the surface of a liquid has a has a [Applause]

surface tension that means that it's a little bit harder to penetrate it also means that things stick to it might wide droplets of water stick to things and and so it's going to hold you potentially hold your compass needle off line a little bit so yes it can be an issue and that sounds like quite a large bubble that means that air has got into it somehow and which means it's not sealed that may have happened due to a change in pressure that could be air pressure and just atmospheric air pressure but then it would have to have had a crack or something or it could be more forced pressure if you've traveled on a on an aeroplane or something so it could be any of those things it's hard to know how to prevent that exactly as I've said try if you're travelling try to take your compass in the the house together there I'm going in the cabin with you not in the hold because the pressure is more likely to be one more likely to be stable in there in the cabin I know a lot of holds our pressurised these days as well but some of them aren't and it's always good to have that with you anyway you know the way that large bags are thrown around on luggage conveyors and airports on and off trucks and things you don't want your compass or your binoculars or other sensitive equipment in there any way you want them in your carry-on luggage with you in the cabin where you can look after them that that's that really and if you haven't had the compass for very long maybe speak to silver about it you know silver a good manufacturer I don't know their details of their warranty off the top of my head but it might be worth if you think nothing has happened on towards to it to it it's unexplained it could be that though it's not sealed properly and I would potentially have a chat with the manufacturer about it if you haven't had it for very long that's what I would do in terms of preventing it again as I say the main thing is those changes in pressure particularly for travel on planes it's unlike you know with most compasses it's unlikely to have to just happen and therefore unless somehow it becomes unsealed and there and that and that's not likely to happen and therefore I wouldn't worry about it too much it's probably an isolated relatively isolated incident to get that amount of air in for no real reason without knowing more of the specifics I can't give you a more specific answer to that but hopefully that's helpful I'd have a chat with silver about it right fire sort with bamboo this is Instagram this is from Andrew Casey nice photo of a bit of bamboo there his question is hypo curtly and I hope this finds you well in the full swing of the course season so this was from a little while ago I found some bamboo in my shed which has got me thinking could you explain the fire saw method of fire by friction please thank you right okay the piece that you have there okay so you need to take a section of that maybe about 12 to 18 inches long and you split it down the middle so you've got two semicircular piece and then in the middle of that length you need to cut a notch in not very wide maybe centimeter width at most at the top and then coming down to very narrow aperture at the bottom so it's just gone through and doesn't have to but you can do it just that just so the not just penetrates and through like a v-notch one so you've got your like piece of eye upturned guttering if you like and then you cut a v-notch

in it that way so that the knotch goes across the guttering is that way the curvature of it is that way the notch is there and then what you need to do is take another piece and find a sharp edge on it and you might need to you might need to change that a little bit and then what you're going to be doing is rubbing your piece of guttering up and down the sharp edge if you like to create the friction and you can keep that bit with a sharp edge quite long if you want so you can hold it and stabilize it hold it between your knees perhaps against your so Holtz and hold it between your knees up against an in you can rub on the on the lower part perhaps I'll find some other position that works depending on the length that you've got left and then what you need to do is put some tinder material like the sort of thing that you would blow a hand drill or a bow-drill ember to flame with in behind that notch that you've created now you can hold that with your hand although some people use another thin strip of material that's wedged between the inner cavity separators that you get in in in bamboo you can put a piece across a bit under a bit of tension and that will hold down some of that tinder that sits behind the knotch and then you basically you're rubbing that on the edge of that sharp piece and you get get it to the heat where your tinder is started to to ignite you need you don't want stuff like Bracken you want stuff that's relatively dense you could try working with some fluffy seed down with you know things like kapok work well I've not tried cattails for example because you don't tend to get cattails and bamboo together at least not in places I've been fibrous materials coconut husk that type of stuff in behind it have an experiment with those having an experiment with those materials and also I seem to recall seeing quite I've never made a video on it I seem to recall seeing quite a good video by an ex us survival instructor I think he was on YouTube somewhere who had think he'd served in the taught in the Philippines or somewhere in Southeast Asia and it was quite a good quick demonstration of the technique and the way that you do it the way that you work it to get it to work maybe have a look on YouTube for that but you've certainly got enough in the right in the right consistency there to have a good right I'm getting a little bit cold it's getting a little bit dark last question this is from Twitter this is from Chris Reeves and his question is hi P Kurt which is my twitter handle came across a black ants nest under a slab of slate there were a good few handfuls of lava are they edible yes is the quick answer the classic thing to do in the woods with ant larvae is to find a wood ants nest because they're big and they're easily accessible lay down a tarp or a jacket and put some sticks around the edges fold the edges over so there's like little air is a shadow around the edge and then what you do is the ants nest which you've put this tarp down next to is you delve into it and you got to do this quickly because the ants will try and bite you and with their pincers and inserts and formic acid which stings grab handfuls of this inner part of the ants nest which is the stable temperature part of the ants nest where the larvae are going to be grab the contents and just chuck it onto this tarp and it sounds quite destructive and it would be if you did it every week but if you do it once and every now and again I mean remember ants would answer nest gets raided by Badgers they get ready by ground feeding woodpeckers green woodpeckers various creatures go in there for food anyway and so we're no different in that respect go in there get the materials chuck it onto the top and then what the ants do is they take the larvae out of the Sun out of the direct sunlight into the shadow around the edges and so they're separating out the larvae for for you from all of the other detritus the pine needles and bits of wood chip and what have you this and the earthly material that's in the middle of that and they'll separate and then you can collect them up and yeah you can eat them raw if you want to you can slightly just lightly fry them off in the bottom of a metal mug and with a little bit of oil and they're kind of a little bit like shrimps they're little kind of that kind of consistency and the wood ants a little bit bigger so they lava a little bit bigger and then take the materials and the the ants and what's left on your top and and put that back into what you've dug out and leave it as well as you can and and that's it so yes the I rideable some people really like them answer edible as well some people like to pick an ant up and and bite the abdomen off and it is has quite a lemony tang again because of the acid in there it's got that sharpness to it and I think it's a bit cruel but I guess eating the lavas a bit cruel as well and I have known of people get an ant pinched onto their tongue as well if they do it wrong so that's always at least the ant gets the chance to get its own back that way but that's it that is the end of this episode which was episode 63 of a sport currently thank you goodnight

[Music]

[Music]

About the Author

Paul Kirtley

Paul Kirtley

Bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor safety with professional instructor Paul Kirtley.

More articles from this author