| Tomorrow is April Fool's Day! How to Make Prank Food Posted: April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool's day, is a great day to play practical jokes on your family and friends. Tricks with food (and drink) are almost always a real winner. Steps Food - If your family eats O-shaped cereal, thread them all onto a piece of string and put them back in the box.
- Make a fake 'fried egg'. Arrange a spoonful of natural yogurt in an oval on a plate. Pop an apricot half in the middle. Serve it up to your family with a rasher of real bacon.
- Put an empty eggshell upside down in an eggcup and surprise someone with a boiled egg that's got nothing inside.
- Scoop a small hole in an apple with the end of a spoon and insert a sweet gummy worm - yuck!
- Serve a scoop of mashed potato or vegetable shortening in an ice cream cone — tell your guests it's vanilla-flavoured ice cream.
- Swap the sugar and salt.
- Scrape the butter icing from the middle of a sandwich-style cookie (biscuit) and replace it with toothpaste. If toothpaste doesn't sound like a good idea to you, use ketchup or mustard instead.
Your victim peeled it, but you sliced it first. Looks disgusting, tastes fine. - If your salt shakers have a screw top, unscrew it and place a small piece of a paper napkin over the opening. Then replace the lid. They can shake all they want, but nothing will come out, and the reason will be invisible, hidden under the lid.
- Also with the salt or pepper shaker, unscrew the top and leave it just loose enough that it will dump salt or pepper all over the next time someone turns it over.
A whole egg, except for the shell part.
Drink - If your milk comes in cartons, turn it blue with a few drops of food colouring. Or substitute something entirely different, such as orange juice. No one will notice until they pour it out.
- Replace beer with apple juice.
- Add food coloring to water to make it look like a glass of juice or punch.
- Make some jelly (Jello) following the instructions on the packet. Before it sets, pour the jelly into glasses. Pop a straw into each one and put in the fridge. Wait until your jelly sets before you serve up your 'fruit juice'. Watch your guests try to drink it!
- With a pin, pierce several holes in a drinking straw, then pop it in a glass of juice.
- Tie a string around a Mentos mint, hang the mint just inside the mouth of a 2 liter soda (Diet Coke is best), screw the lid back on while holding the string. When the lid is tight again, cut off the leftover string so you can't see it. Ask an unsuspecting friend to get you a glass of soda. When they open the bottle, the Mentos drops in.
Warnings - Make sure the subject of your pranks can take a joke before you do any of this.
- When using the pin, be careful not to pierce your finger.
- Ingesting too much fluoride toothpaste can cause unpleasant gastric effects. Make sure the tooth paste you use doesn't contain fluoride. Many children die each year from fluoride poisoning. Don't use this "prank" on a small child or you'll find yourself in the emergency room with them!
- Flat beer is probably a bad idea for people under 21 (according to the United States Government). Also, an unsuspecting person probably wouldn't want to have beer without permission.
- Mentos and soda will create a huge mess, so be careful of who you play that trick on and where. You don't want to be the one cleaning up the huge mess, because that trick would be on you.
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| 7 Ways to Get Rid of Fleas Naturally Posted: You've noticed that you are getting more and more fleas around the house. You can't afford those drops or bombs that do work, because they cost a lot, or you don't want to put those chemicals on your pet or in your abode. Here are some ways to combat fleas that aren't as harsh, but should still be used with care. Steps - Start by cleaning everything. Send the pet(s) outside, or confine them to the bathroom, so that any fleas they're carrying would not jump onto the surface you just cleaned. Throw all of the pet bedding in the washing machine, or use a hot dryer for about 15 or 20 minutes to kill adults larvae and eggs. That includes anything that the pets like to regularly lie or sleep on, which isn't always intended to serve as pet bedding. Vacuum everywhere, especially areas that don't get much exposure to sunlight (fleas like humid and cool spots), anywhere that you find dried blood and feces (flea debris), and upholstered furniture (lift up those couch cushions).
- Before vacuuming the carpets, sprinkle salt, Borax, or baking soda throughout. Work it into the base of the carpet with a broom. Let it sit for a few hours; all of these powders will cause the flea eggs that are tucked deep into the carpet to dry out. Don't let your pets walk on the carpet during this time, since they might get some stuff on their paws and lick it off, causing them to get sick. If there's a chance the pet will walk on the carpet, use baking soda (probably the least harmful) and be thorough when working it into the base of the carpet (so it doesn't sit on the surface and get on your pet's paws).
- When the vacuum bag is full, seal it in a plastic trash bag and put it in a covered trash container, preferably outside. Otherwise, the little buggers can crawl out and make themselves cozy again.
- Clean any outdoor areas where your pet might hang out, too. Trim lawns and weeds, and expose any cool, moist dark spots (which fleas love) to sunlight, or keep your pet away from those spots.
- Consider spraying flea control nematodes.[1] These beneficial microbes work by killing them while in the developing stage, where they live in the soil. This disturbs their life cycle, lessening their numbers.
- Pennyroyal[2][3] discourages fleas. Plant it around your house. Do not do this if your pets are prone to eating plants or if you have children around. See Warnings below.
- Give your pet a bath. You can use a flea shampoo, but this article assumes you want to stay away from that kind of thing, so use any gentle shampoo. Wash the neck first so that the fleas don't jump up to the head during the bath. Be thorough; you'll probably see several fleas come off and float around in the water.
- Additionally, you can make your own herbal flea dip. Take two cups of fresh rosemary leaves and add them to two pints of water. Boil for thirty minutes. Strain the liquid, discard the leaves, and mix it with up to a gallon of warm water. Pour this over your pet until saturated. Do not rinse off, but allow your pet to air dry. This is something to do on a hot day only.
- After your pet is dry, use a flea comb (one that is specifically designed to remove fleas) to get rid of stubborn fleas that remain.
- Use yeast as a weapon. Supposedly, fleas don't like the taste of yeast. Although this has not been proven, many people swear by it. Buy some brewer's or nutritional yeast and rub it onto your pet's skin. You can also sprinkle a small amount onto their wet food and mix it in.
- Feeding your pet garlic is thought to have the same effect, but it can be irritating or even toxic to your pet, so use yeast instead.
- Make a citrus spray. Citrus oils allegedly repel fleas, but they may also repel your pets, and irritate them if they ingest them, so use this solution with care. Slice a lemon thinly, add to a pint of water and heat to the boiling point. Let it sit overnight and in the morning, spray it onto areas where you suspect fleas hang out (beware of staining) and rub it over your cat's fur. Don't soak but dampen the fur. Do this once a month to combat fleas. Do not use a lot at first, and keep an eye out for signs of digestive discomfort in your pet.
- Make a 'flea collar'. Take the pet's collar or neckerchief and put on drops of eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, citronella, lavender, or geranium. (See Warnings below.) This will need to be done weekly.[4]
- If fleas are a problem in a specific area of your yard or home, fill a aluminum pie pan with water and set out in the area (i.e.under a bed). The fleas are trapped on top of the water due to the tension of the surface of the water. Change the water daily until there are no more fleas. If you are placing the pie pan outside, empty daily to prevent mosquitoes.
- Repeat all of the above as often as possible. It cannot be stressed enough that just because these solutions are "natural", they can still be dangerous for your pets, and people as well. Watch out for signs of discomfort and sickness! On the other hand, cleaning obsessively won't hurt anyone.
- Monitor your progress by making flea traps. The more fleas you see, the more you need to clean. Alternately, you can put out white bowls of water with a drop of soap in it - the white color attracts fleas and the soap cuts the surface tension on the water and makes them drown.
Video Tips - Know that nothing works as well as some of the better flea products. These above methods are for a more holistic alternative to the flea medications. There are risks in commercial medication to read up on whatever you use and learn about it.
- Always ask your vet before trying any home remedy on your pets. They can verify how safe the treatment is for your pet, and may have more tips on how to treat and prevent fleas.
- Vacuuming can kill almost as many fleas as any product and is very effective on hard wood floors that have gaps. Vacuum a heavily infested room twice a day to see if you can put a dent in the problem.
Warnings - Be careful of using too much of anything...especially essential oils.[1] Also, essential oils are toxic to many animals--especially cats. Check with your vet.
- Watch your animals closely for any signs of sensitivity. Don't introduce everything at once. Try one thing at a time so that you know if it will be too disruptive to your pet's health or comfort.
- Pennyroyal is a known toxin. Be extremely careful in its usage. It can cause spontaneous abortions and should not by used by pregnant women[5] or on pregnant pets.[3]
- With tea tree oil, be especially careful to use products with 1% or less of this essential oil. It can cause nausea, vomiting, lethargy, and general weakness and should be used with caution. With this oil, more is not better.
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