Clean the Carpet, Honey!

May 12, 2004 12:56 AM

large broken bottle of honey + carpet = much sticky unhappiness. any suggestions on how i can get the carpet cleansed before the ants arrive?
posted by ubersturm to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Call in the pros. In my experience, Coit (independent, and will try to sell you a whole bunch of services you don't think you need) and Superior (Sears subsidiary, ditto) both do an excellent job and are worth what they charge. I.e., far cheaper than ant/bee/wasp/roach exterminators and ensuing unhappiness, or new carpet.

Ain't no way you're going to tackle a large jar of honey by yourself with any success. (Says she who once broke a huge bottle of maple syrup on a carpeted kitchen floor...)
posted by Alylex at 1:20 AM on May 12, 2004

a carpeted kitchen floor
OT, but a carpeted kitchen floor is asking for trouble.
posted by PenDevil at 1:59 AM on May 12, 2004

A wet-dry vac, water and vinegar solution, and a lot of time. Calling the professionals isn't a bad idea, unless you're unemployed and have the spare time.
posted by Kwantsar at 7:57 AM on May 12, 2004

Once that honey gets into the foam pad, it is hell to get out. We never could, with a carpet machine. a powerful shop vac might work. i.e. shampoo the carpet heavily and then shop vac the liquid. Warning: this is a guess on my part.
posted by mecran01 at 9:35 AM on May 12, 2004

How to Clean Anything
posted by stbalbach at 10:03 AM on May 12, 2004

The link above doesnt mention honey but if you go to house interiors->carpet it has other gooey stuff.
posted by stbalbach at 10:06 AM on May 12, 2004

Well, if the bottle was glass, I'd watch out for small shards of glass glued into the carpet by the honey, especially if you are scrubbing by hand with a foam pad or similar. It's amazing how microscopic pieces of glass can (a) hang around (b) are not that visible to the naked eye and (c) can get under your skin in a flash (said he from experience, after a glass bottle of soda exploded in the freezer after being put in there for a quick chill, lacerating many of the bags of frozen stuff therein and necessitating their disposal, as well as requiring defrosting/removal of everything else, and tedious wiping and rewiping of all freezer surfaces with damp paper towels to pick up every last molecule of sharp pointy glass remaining).
posted by carter at 12:55 PM on May 12, 2004