It's been mentioned here a couple of times that dryer fabric softener sheets do a great job of keeping ants out of our coaches while parked if they're placed around the tires.
Well, tonite I discovered a new use for them - removing gum from inside a clothes dryer. (Left in a kid's pocket, naturally!)
Moisten in a bowl of water, apply to the gum, let sit for 10 -15 minutes. After sitting, wipe off the gum w/ the sheet. May have to use a little bit of elbow grease and a thumbnail on any thick spots, but most will simply wipe off.
When finished, wipe down dryer drum with an old wet hand towel, rinsing frequently.
Wash/dry a load of old towels (or similar) so as not to get any residual that might have been missed on good clothes.
Tip came from my daughter, a mother of six, all under 12.
Who knew, eh?
FWIW & HTH. . .
;)
RJ, down here in FL we use to remove those pesky love bugs from the front of our vehicles. Just moisten and remove. No elbow grease needed!
At work we have a problem with tree squirrels (the cute-looking ones that everyone likes to feed . . .) chewing on vehicle wiring. Several cars have had their wiring damaged recently, not helped by some car companies now using soy-based insulation for vehicle wiring harneses - "Hey, I can sharpen my teeth, and it tastes good as well. Life doesn't get any better than this!" Because tree squirrels are classified by the State of CA as game mammals, there's essentially nothing we can do against them. Dryer sheets have proven to be an effective remedy against the little buggers, so next time you're parked in tree squirrel country you may want to put a few sheets around your car's engine wiring. This may also work if parked in the desert. where rats chew wiring unless you leave the car's hood open.
John
Quote from: Iceni John on August 30, 2011, 08:09:09 AM
Because tree squirrels are classified by the State of CA as game mammals, there's essentially nothing we can do against them. John
One day while driving and talking to my daughter about rules and laws, she said something about laws stop people from doing things. So I moved over into the oncoming lane and drove down the wrong side of the road for a ways (road was empty). I asked her if the law stopped me from doing that.
What the state dont know, wont hurt them. If you cant think of any other way to rid them from your property else, buy a German Shoirthair. Those dogs absolutely love killing squirrels, sniping them off the ground unaware, tossing them into the air, snatching them on the way down, and tossing again. We had one that must have killed over a dozen in a single afternoon. Our property was squirreless for months.
Quote from: artvonne on August 30, 2011, 08:19:02 AMWhat the state dont know, wont hurt them. If you cant think of any other way to rid them from your property else, buy a German Shoirthair.
Where I work
is a State of CA facility! I agree with you - anywhere else one could surreptitiously encourage dogs to have their way with the squirrels, but not where I work! Being typically blinkered bureaucrats, most folk there want to abide by the rules, however absurd and counter-productive they may be. If I do anything too blatant against any of the cute little pests we have there, the animal-rights loonies will start screaming. Even applying Fumitoxin every year against the ground squirrels is an exercise in cunning and guile, as we try to make it look like we're doing something else to avoid attracting their wrath. Hell hath no fury like a PETArd who hears of a squirrel dying at the hands of man.
Back to the subject of buses, I once had a stray tomcat inside my bus's luggage bay, which wasn't bad except for the urine he left behind; it took weeks for that smell to dissapate. Maybe I should have used dryer sheets or mothballs or something there.
John
RJ,
Dryer fabric softener sheets keep mice out also. I picked up that idea from this board six years ago when I first got the 4104 and mice really liked it also!
You do have to add fresh sheets once in a while.