The little bulbs of garlic you buy at the grocery store are actually some of the most powerful survival foods around.
Which means if you’ve got any amount of space to grow extra food you really ought to consider garlic.
It’s been used over the centuries for its health boosting properties, and additional research in the past century has confirmed garlic is even more powerful than we originally thought.
And one of the best parts about the use of garlic is you can grow it very easily in a tiny amount of space.
Curious what makes garlic a preferred survival food?
Take a look below.
15 Survival Uses For Garlic You Can Use In Disaster
1 – Use it to repel mosquitos:
The old myth that garlic can be used to ward off vampires is actually true. It’s just the vampires you’d be concerned with aren’t the kind that sleep in caskets and can’t stand the sunlight.
Garlic can be used instead of potentially harmful bug sprays containing DEET. Here’s how you make this work. Take a few minced cloves of garlic and then let them soak in mineral oil for approximately 24 hours. Then mix the garlic with 2 cups of water and about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and put it in a spray bottle and you’ve got an environmentally friendly and effective bug spray.
Keep in mind you’re going to reek, but that’s kind of the point.
2 – Use it to fight infection:
This is probably one of the most exciting uses of garlic as well as one of the most powerful.
Garlic has known antibacterial properties, ones that have been proven through extensive medical research. That means if you’ve managed to sustain a superficial wound and want to fight off infection you can use a garlic salve top place at the wound site to prevent bacterial proliferation. You can also ingest it for an inside out solution.
3 – Use it to fight invasive bugs:
Garlic is a powerful pesticide that doesn’t come with all the risks associated with chemical based pesticides.
For an effective pesticide you’ll use a similar solution as the one in point 1. Mix three minced garlic cloves with 2 teaspoons of oil and allow the mixture to rest for 24 hours. Then take the cloves of garlic out and add the oil to a pint of water with a teaspoon of non-scented dish soap.
This can be safely sprayed on any of your garden plants and is especially effective against cabbage loopers, aphids, whiteflies, and squash bugs.
4 – Use it to catch fish:
While garlic might strongly repel insects it’s a rare treat that drives fish wild. Tons of fishermen swear by garlic as an odd way to get fish on their hooks. Some of the recipes for garlic as an excellent fish lure include “Marshmallows or dough balls made from a mixture of crackers and cat food are coated with crushed or powdered garlic and placed on a hook to lure the fish with its scent.”
5 – Use it on cold sores:
While cold sores aren’t necessarily a life threatener in a crisis situation they’re still unpleasant and painful. A little bit of raw garlic has been shown to help them disappear at a quicker rate than many other remedies. All you want to do is cut a garlic clove in half and place it on the cold sore for a few minutes several times during the day. This will help boost your body’s immune response against the cold sore. You can also ingest raw garlic to increase the healing effects.
6 – Use it to repair cracked glass:
If you’ve ever cut garlic you know it’s a bit on the sticky side. This means it can be used to help treat cracked glass. Bear in mind it won’t mend a shattered piece of glass but it’ll definitely help smaller pieces of glass with hairline cracks. Just crush up a raw clove of garlic and take the “juice” and rub it in the crack and wipe away the extra. This will help extend the life of the glass and can prevent it from cracking further.
7 – Use it to remove a splinter:
I wrote an article about baking soda’s ability to help remove splinters, turns out garlic can be used in a similar fashion. For this use you’ll want to cut a relatively thin slice of garlic and then place it over the splinter. Secure it with a bandage and after a few hours or so remove and the splinter should have worked its way towards the surface of the skin.
8 – Use it to kill parasites:
Parasites that live in the gut can pose a huge problem for your health, both in non-survival and survival situations. Raw garlic has been used for centuries to treat parasites. Taken internally raw anywhere from 2 to 4 cloves of raw garlic as part of a daily regimen can help banish these painful organisms from the body.
9 – Use it to fight a cold:
Since garlic has known antibacterial and antiviral properties there’s plenty of evidence to support the idea that taking it internally at the first sign of a cold will help your body resist the onset of a severe cold. The reason it’s so effective is because an enzyme known as allicin has the ability to fight the agents causing sickness. At the first sign of sickness down anywhere from 3 to 4 crushed cloves of raw garlic at different times during the day for maximum effect.
10 – Use it to fight a cough:
Let’s say you do come down with a cold, if you happen to develop an annoying or uncomfortable cough then garlic can help ease the irritation and the severity of your cough.
Garlic is a natural anti-inflammatory and can help soothe an irritated throat as well as helping clear out the buildup of mucous and phlegm. This solution involves ingesting garlic in a tea, or a syrup. Take minced, raw garlic and then let it steep in boiling water for five minutes. Drink when it’s cool enough. For added potency mix it with other powerful natural cold fighters like ginger and honey.
11 – Use it to fight yeast infections:
This is a solution that’s been used for centuries and it’s proven to work. Garlic is known to kill yeast so at the first sign of an infection garlic applied locally can help prevent the spread of the infection. The way to make this work is to take a raw clove of garlic and attach it to a piece of cheesecloth and use it with a tampon applicator. A day or two of this treatment can kill yeast in its place.
12 – Use it to help fight intestinal gas:
This use depends on several things. One is a person’s sensitivity to gas producing sulfur (which garlic is high in) and the other is the frequency with which they take garlic.
The thing is some people say regular consumption of garlic actually prevents them from having uncomfortable gas. The key they note is to take garlic with frequency in order for their body to build up a tolerance. We do know garlic can help kill harmful gut bacteria so if you’re not overly sensitive to sulfur garlic, taken regularly can help keep those gas causing microbes from forming in your gut.
13 – Use it to treat an ear infection:
Because garlic is antibacterial it’s a great natural therapy for painful ear infections. This method for treating ear infections has been used for centuries and research supports its use in such application.
For this treatment you’ll take a crushed clove of garlic in warm olive oil and allow to set for a few minutes. Assuring the oil is still quite warm (not hot enough to burn the skin though) strain the garlic and then allow a few drops to rest in the ear canal. Allow to rest for a few minutes and then continue on with your day making sure to clean excess oil with a clean cloth.
14 – Use it to treat psoriasis:
Psoriasis can be quite painful and difficult to deal with in daily life, imagine how much worse it would be in a crisis.
The treatment involves taking garlic oil (which you can make by distilling it in a healthy oil like olive oil or coconut oil) and then rubbing it gently over the affected area. The reason it’s so effective is garlic interacts with one of the fats found in the skin of psoriasis suffers known as arachidonic acid. Applications of twice daily have been shown to help provide relief.
15 – Use it to fight athletes foot:
Athletes foot isn’t life threatening, but in a survival situation it could seriously bother you. The good news is using garlic on the affected area can give you prompt relief.
Adding a few crushed cloves to warm water and allowing your feet to soak in the mixture for half an hour can help to fight the fungus that causes athlete’s foot.
So, How Do You Grow Garlic At Home?
It’s actually quite easy.
Here are two pretty cool videos showing you how to grow garlic indoors or outdoors.
In addition to garlic there are quite a few other useful herbs and spices you can grow both indoors and outdoors. While there are numerous survival uses for garlic there also tons of other survival uses for other foods.