Community Forums

Gadget Man · 07-04-2008, 07:45 AM

A friend sent me one of those "informational" emails, offering suggestions on how to deal with some of life's everyday annoyances. Several of them could potentially help an RVer. I cut & pasted those below. I haven't tried these and Snopes had nothing in their data base, so you tell me.....Fact or Myth?

No More Mosquitoes?: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away: To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Hate Foggy Windshields?: Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog up, rub it with the eraser! Works better than a cloth.

Hate Fruit Flies?: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it half way with Apple Cider Vinegar, add 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants: Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home", can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Gadget Man · 07-04-2008, 07:45 AM

A friend sent me one of those "informational" emails, offering suggestions on how to deal with some of life's everyday annoyances. Several of them could potentially help an RVer. I cut & pasted those below. I haven't tried these and Snopes had nothing in their data base, so you tell me.....Fact or Myth?

No More Mosquitoes?: Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away: To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Hate Foggy Windshields?: Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog up, rub it with the eraser! Works better than a cloth.

Hate Fruit Flies?: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it half way with Apple Cider Vinegar, add 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants: Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home", can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Hitchhiker · 07-04-2008, 10:31 AM

Snopes.com says the one about the mosquitoes is false.

John Harrelson · 07-04-2008, 10:43 AM

Dryer sheets keeping mosquitoes away is indeed false... and dryer sheets will not keep mice away either...

BUT.... BUT......

Dryer sheets will keep pink elephants away..

Every since I have started carrying dryer sheets in my wallet, I have not seen a single pink elephant ..

I highly recommend carrying several dryer sheets in your wallet or purse...

John

RedneckExpress · 07-04-2008, 10:57 AM

I'd wager the cornmeal one is false as well. Ants will eat just about anything.

Rainbow · 07-04-2008, 11:01 AM

dryer sheets may not keep mosquitos away, but used dryer sheet wetted with water are great to remove bugs from windshield and front of motorhome.

AuntSmurf · 07-04-2008, 11:59 AM

The Chalkboard Eraser tip is a good one. The eraser works so much easier than a paper towel or cloth. Also a good one is the pepper tip. I have a friend who has used this one for years. She grows the peppers every year, dries them out and grinds them up. Then makes a spray and sprays it on her plants. It works for more than just squirrels. Only problem is that you have to re-apply after a rain.

Every Miles A Memory · 07-05-2008, 04:55 AM

What we did was use a couple of dryer sheets to try this myth while out hiking one day.

Once we found out it didnt work, we used the dryer sheets to spray our 100% DEET on. It says you're not supposed to spray it on your skin or clothing.

My wife then tied the dryer sheet in her pony tail and I tied the sheet to my hat. Kept the bugs away great.

Now we've found OFF Wipes. We keep a package of them and spray the deet on them instead.

THe Apple Cider Vinegar works great for fruit flies. So does red wine or Old Grand Dad Whiskey. We used to own a bar and when the spring hatch would be particuallry bad, some years it was horendous, we would leave a glass of red wine on the bar at night when we'd go home.

In the morning, the glass would be full of drunk fruit flies that had drowned themselves in the pungent wine.

Found out about the Old Grand Dad from another bar owner who said he went to pull the bottle off the shelf and found it filled with dead fruit flies that had crawled into the bottle through the pourer.

I dont like to waste alcohol, so we use Apple Cider Vinegar instead.

For Ants, just use AJAX Powder. They hate it and will go elsewhere if you sprinkle it around their next

LindaH · 07-05-2008, 06:59 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John Harrelson:
Every since I have started carrying dryer sheets in my wallet, I have not seen a single pink elephant </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
And how many pink elephants did you see *before* you started carrying dryer sheets in your wallet?

Alan_Hepburn · 07-09-2008, 11:20 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John Harrelson:
Dryer sheets keeping mosquitoes away is indeed false... and dryer sheets will not keep mice away either...
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Here's another thing that dryer sheets are good for:

If you bake a casserole, or use your crock pot, and are left with that ugly, impossible to remove, ring just fill the dish with really hot water and put a dryer sheet into the water. Let it sit until the water cools down and you'll be able to wipe away that ring with almost no effort at all...

Ray,IN · 07-09-2008, 05:25 PM

Alan, should one use a new or used dryer sheet in the dish?

georgetown350 · 07-09-2008, 05:31 PM

I tried the dryer sheets to keep away the pink elephants but they didnt work.

Alan_Hepburn · 07-10-2008, 11:20 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ray,IN:
Alan, should one use a new or used dryer sheet in the dish?

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've always used a new sheet - don't know if a used one would work or not...