This is all good until you swap out the standard issue lace with 550 paracord. Some folks perform this exchange as an emergency preparedness measure, giving them wearable multi-use cordage. Five-fifty paracord has a different texture that is a little stiff and slick, causing it to occasionally slip out of a standard knot, even if double tied.

I swapped out the laces on several pairs of my shoes and experienced the slippage problem of the 550 paracord and tried the double knot approach but found that it didn’t work for me, so I experimented with a different method that does work. I began tying the standard knot but wound the “pulled through” loop around a second time. This binds the initial loop with much more friction and “stays put”. It still allows you to pull a single lace to untie it. Check the video above to see how it’s done.

If you have 550 paracord laces, give this a try and see if it will work as well for you.

On previous exercises it was not uncommon to find literally a couple of hundred ticks and chigger bites on each soldiers body, mostly from the waist down. So, my friend and the members of his squad decided to follow the Gunnery Sergent’s advice and bought panty hose in a color they would affectionately call “desert brown”. Competing squads scoffed at them as they set out on maneuvers, knowing that his squad was wearing hosiery under their fatigues.

Miraculously, at the end of each day as they inspected their bodies for these prevalent pests, NONE were found from the waist down! This fine-mesh undergarment had blocked all ticks and chiggers! Not only did the hosiery prevent bites, it also reduced “hot spots” and blisters on their feet.

Many folks may chuckle at the thought of Marines out in the field wearing hosiery , but if you consider the motto “adapt and overcome”, this great “out of the box” thinking achieved superior results. So, you’ve got to ask yourself, on your next foray into tick and chigger infested country, are you man enough to wear panty hose?