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Halloween can bring with it a whole host of stains. Our tips can help take the horror out of holiday spots. Dave Wallis / The Forum
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	Out, out dirty spot … seven stain-fighting rules

Halloween is one messy holiday.

There’s all that carving of pumpkins, slathering on fake blood and spilling purple punch on your sequined Michael Jackson socks.

Don’t shriek in despair. Here is your guide to removing the scariest of Halloween stains, courtesy of Mary Zeitler of the Whirlpool Institute of Fabric Science, and Mary Marlowe Leverette, a former county Extension agent who is now About.com’s laundry expert. We even tried a few of these stain remedies. Read on for the results.

Fake blood leaves a lasting impression?

It’s the dyes that will be difficult to remove, so either use liquid chlorine bleach – if care label indicates you can – or a color-safe bleach. If necessary, garment can be soaked in a color-safe bleach solution (follow bottle instructions for soaking and pre-treatment) for at least 30 minutes before washing.

Results: We tried this, using color-safe bleach, and it worked well.

Gum leaves a sticky stain?

If the gum is still soft, freeze the item – either by sticking it in the freezer or rubbing it with ice – to harden the gum; scrape off excess with spoon or butter knife.

Soak the garment in a detergent-water mixture before washing in the warmest water safe for the garment. Air dry and check for any remaining stain. Repeat the procedure if necessary before you place it in the dryer.

Punch leaves a grape big mess?

Fruit juices – as well as beer, coffee, tea, brown soft drinks and many brown liquors – cause a tannin stain, a plant component that often shows as a color in the final product.

First, check the care label of your garment. Next, rinse in cold water to dilute the stain and prevent it from setting. Soak the garment in a mixture of detergent and water for up to 30 minutes before washing it in the warmest water that’s safe for the garment.

If necessary, repeat the treatment. Air dry and check for any remaining stain. Repeat the procedure if necessary before placing garment in dryer, Zeitler says.

Never use natural soap in a bar or soap flakes because they will actually make the stain tougher to remove, Leverette says.

Older tannin stains may need to be treated with bleach – chlorine bleach if that’s allowed on the care label; color-safe bleach for other fabrics.

Results: We didn’t have complete success getting day-old grape juice out of a white T-shirt this way. A very slight, grayish stain – only visible when you held the shirt up to the light – lingered. Chlorine bleach in the wash water probably would have remedied this.

Face paint miss your face?

First, check the care instructions.

Then use a pre-treater like Shout or rub liquid dishwasher detergent into the stain. Allow to work for up to 30 minutes. Rinse in hot water.

Wash in hottest water safe for the garment.

If necessary, follow up with a wash in color-safe bleach or liquid chlorine bleach.

Air dry and check for any remaining stain.

Repeat if necessary before drying.

Another option: Soak item for at least two hours in 1 gallon of warm water with a tablespoon of liquid dishwasher detergent and a quarter teaspoon of ammonia.

Rinse in fresh water and launder, adding bleach (chlorine or color-safe, depending on garment’s care label) as directed.

Caution: When presoaking, do not add dishwashing detergent that contains bleach to ammonia mixture, as bleach and ammonia together can create a deadly chlorine gas.

Results: We had the most trouble trying to get oil-based face paint out of our test T-shirt. Even after soaking the item, washing it, then washing it again with bleach, a bit of pink paint remained. Sara Sunderlin of NDSU’s Apparel and Textiles Department says one problem could be the bleach itself. “The newer it is, the better cleaning power you will have,” she says.

Another culprit could be notoriously-hard-to-eliminate red dyes in the pink paint. Sunderlin suggests rubbing a paste of OxiClean and water into the fabric as a pre-treatment.

Pre-treatments/pre-soaks in detergent paste, stain removers or grease-cutting dishwashing soap also may help to wash makeup out of a polyester costume, which will suck up the paint’s oils like a sponge. Also, Sunderlin suggests washing the garment in the hottest water possible for polyester fibers, as the heat will help dissolve grease.

Pumpkin-picking gets down and dirty?

Fresh protein stains like mud can be removed by soaking and rubbing the stain in cold water before washing. Never use hot water, which can “cook” the protein and make it harder to remove,” Leverette says.

If the stain is dried or old, scrape or brush off any excess, then soak in cold water using a liquid detergent with color-safe bleach. After pre-soaking for 30 minutes, launder in warm, not hot, water with detergent.

If stain remains, soak an additional 30 minutes, then rewash.

More spray-in hair color on frock than on locks?

Spray-on hair color is meant to be shampooed out, so any good detergent should do it. The warmest water safe for the garment is best. (Also check the hair-color can for any tips on laundering.)

If it is not removed with the first wash, bleach the item with chlorine or color-safe bleach, according to garment care instructions.

The best approach is prevention: Make sure to stand away from walls and curtains when spraying, so the overspray does not get on hard-to-clean items.

The best tactic: Have kids spray their hair outside or in the garage, with an old sheet fastened around their shoulders to protect clothing.

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Readers can reach Forum reporter Tammy Swift at (701) 241-5525