shadenights

The extraordinary uses of pepper

Stop a car radiator leak

A heat wave has hit your town, and your aging, leaking car radiator isn't too happy about it. If it's overheating because of a small leak, pepper can help. Before you bring your car to a mechanic for a more thorough repair, pour a handful of pepper into your radiator. It will temporarily plug the leaks until you can get some help.


Use as a decongestant

Is your nose stopped up? Are your ears plugged? Do you have a cold? Forget the over-the-counter medications. Nothing gets things flowing again faster than some cayenne pepper. Sprinkle it on your food and grab some tissues.


Keep colors bright

That new cherry-red shirt you just purchased is fantastic, but just think how faded the color will look after the shirt has been washed a few times. Add a teaspoon of pepper to the wash load. Pepper keeps bright colors bright and prevents them from running too.


Get bugs off plants

There's nothing more frustrating than a swarm of bugs nibbling at your fledgling garden. Just when things are starting to pop up, the bugs are there, chowing down. Mix black pepper with flour. Sprinkle around your plants. Bugs take a hike.


Deter deer from your garden

Your freshly budding garden seems as if it's ringing the dinner bell for the neighborhood deer. They'll find another place to dine if you spray your bushes with a cayenne and water mixture.


Keep ants out of the kitchen

Two or three of your annual summer visitors have invaded your kitchen. Those ants are looking for sugar. Give them some pepper instead. Cayenne pepper sprinkled in spots where the ants are looking, such as along the backs of your countertops or on your baseboards, will tell them that no sugar is ahead.


Kill an ant colony

If you find the ants' home colony a little too close to yours and it is causing them to relocate to your kitchen, cayenne pepper can help get rid of it. Pour the pepper down the ant hole and say so long to ants.

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