Have You Stocked Your Quarantine and Bio-Hazard Signs Yet?

I was recently asked via email if I knew where to get good deals on authentic quarantine and bio-hazard signs. Although I’ve seen people mention them in the past, I’d never actually looked for them on my own.

After all, I wondered why I would ever need such a sign unless there was a real reason for them? After some correspondence, the emailer suggested that they would be good deterrents to looters and other bad guys should the need ever arise, such as in a post-collapse world.

I pondered that thought for a bit and began to agree, for the most part. You see, I would think that the use of warning signs for such purposes must result from a reasonable assumption of use. For example, a radiation warning sign makes no sense to put up in a residence unless it were near a nuclear reactor that melted (such as near Fukushima). On the other hand, a quarantine warning sign may be a very useful deterrent to looters if a pandemic had occurred in the area.

So, the questions arises: exactly which warning signs would be useful to keep around for such purposes? For starters, you need to think about what’s around your location. Like I mentioned before, if there’s a nuclear reactor nearby then maybe a radiation danger sign is a possibility… maybe. If there’s a research lab that focuses on biological contaminants then perhaps a bio-hazards sign is useful. Again, a quarantine sign may prove useful in some scenarios as well.

Whatever you choose to purchase, I wouldn’t bother with more than one or two signs at the most. Such a sign should be prominently displayed on the front and rear of your dwelling as if it were an official act. If you’re interested, these sites seem to provide authentic signs to consider: SmartSign.com and Seton.com. Don’t skimp and buy obviously childlike signs.

Perhaps a better option would be to understand how a CERT team would mark a dwelling [PDF File] as having been searched and, more importantly, how to indicate that it is dangerous to enter. Personally, I would think that this strategy would be a more useful deterrent than a quarantine or bio-hazard sign. But, since you never know what works then it can’t hurt to have the option of putting up warning signs.

Regardless of post-collapse signage options, other signs that may prove useful without waiting for a SHTF scenario could include beware of dog, no trespassing, will be shot on sight, or whatever sounds deterring enough for your tastes. Ensure that these signs are as authentic as possible too.

There’s just something about a warning sign that gives pause to most people. At the very least such signs may make others hesitate just enough for you to react to their presence and maybe even drive them away without any “encouragement” from you.