FOR RELEASE THE WEEK OF OCT. 7, 2001:
I bought a shirt that has black-and-white checks. I've been told by someone that has a shirt like this that the colors ran or faded a lot after the first washing. What is the best way to set the colors and help slow down the fading process?
High-contrast pigment combinations like black and white can be tricky for both the manufacturer and the consumer, says Sandra Evenson, University of Idaho associate professor of clothing and textiles. But if the shirt fabric was manufactured in a U.S. textile mill, you have a right to expect it to be virtually free of bleeding, or fading, in the wash. That's because contemporary dyeing processes produce colors that are very fast, will not bleed into other fabrics and are resistant to light fading.
In addition, the Care Labeling Rule acts as an implied warranty. If you follow the care instructions and the laundered garment does not return to near-new appearance (minimal shrinkage, color loss and deterioration), you should return the garment. Indeed, Evenson says that's your best strategy: Follow the manufacturer's instructions on the care label and return the garment if it fails to live up to your expectations.
However, if your shirt was manufactured in a developing country where dye methods--and even care labels--are not as reliable, then try to minimize color loss by washing the shirt in a short, cold-water cycle using Woolite or another detergent specifically formulated for cold water. Line-dry it out of the sun.
"Even though I am ardent in my belief that you, the consumer, should not be responsible for color-fastness, we all purchase these kinds of garments," she says.
Sometimes it helps to soak a new garment in a mix of 1/2 cup vinegar and 1 gallon of water for 20 minutes prior to washing, says Evenson. Depending on the fiber content of the garment and the type of dye that was used, that may help set the color. Unfortunately, because the vinegar-and-water soak is not prescribed on the care label, using it will void the implied warranty.
"The consumer is in a difficult spot," Evenson says. "If I paid top dollar for a garment, I'd follow the care label instructions to the letter and then return the garment if the instructions proved faulty. If I paid $18.99 for an India-cotton gauze skirt, I'd be more willing to take a chance."
I was waxing my old car and found a small wasps' nest inside the bumper. I didn't know wasps built nests on cars. Is this a different kind of wasp?
It could be the European paper wasp, a relative newcomer to Idaho, says University of Idaho Extension entomologist Bob Stoltz. First found in Massachusetts in 1980, this Old World native has been making its way westward and was confirmed in southern Idaho this summer.
Half the size of our common paper wasps, these European paper wasps or Polistes dominulus are black with bright yellow markings and yellow antennae. By comparison, our standard Polistes are yellow with black or brown markings. The nests of European paper wasps are open and flat-celled, just as our common paper wasps' nests, but the newcomers' abodes are a little rounder and somewhat smaller.
European paper wasps also tend to be a little more aggressive. "They'll fly around you and check you out a little bit more before going on their way," Stoltz says. But the elevated risk they pose isn't from their being more aggressive; it's from us encountering nests where we don't usually expect them.
My dog likes to eat cat poop from our cat's litter box. She also eats duck poop, horse poop and any other poop she finds on our off-leash walks. We keep up on her shots, including parvovirus. Can she pick up any nasty problems while indulging in this nasty habit?
Veterinary parasitologist Bill Foreyt of the Washington-Oregon-Idaho Regional Program in Veterinary Medicine says your dog can pick up the parasites giardia and cryptosporidium by eating the feces of other dogs. However, parasites in the feces of other species aren't likely to survive in her. An exception is the raccoon roundworm, which Foreyt says is carried by 72 percent of raccoons in the Pacific Northwest: once roundworm eggs have aged about a month in raccoon poop, they've reached the infective stage and pose a threat to many other species.
"If these old raccoon feces are eaten by any type of bird or mammal--including a dog--the infective roundworm larvae can potentially migrate into the spinal cord and other tissues and cause central nervous system problems, such as paralysis," Foreyt says. However, that chain of events would be very unusual.
"Many dogs have the habit of eating animal faces on a routine basis, and it's rare for those dogs to acquire parasite infections through this habit," he says.
In addition to parasites, the microbes salmonella, campylobacter, coronavirus and parvovirus can all be transmitted through feces. However, the health risks--except for parvo--are "pretty minimal," says Foreyt's colleague, veterinary microbiologist Lindsay Oaks. Oaks calls the taste for poop "relatively normal and common."
"It really makes you want to get a big, wet kiss from your dog, doesn't it?" he says.
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