5 Unexpected Uses For WD40

There's an old saying about the only two tools you need being duct tape and WD-40. If something moves and it's not supposed to, reach for the duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, grab the WD-40. On top of making things that have ceased moving work again, the aerosol lubricant and solvent blend has a couple of thousand other uses. It can even get stubborn messes like chewing gum off shoes and out of fabrics.

You can stop a hinge squeaking, shine up your wheelbarrow tires, or stop snow attaching itself to a snow shovel. However, some of WD-40's other uses are less obvious. Over the years, people have used it to keep clubbers off drugs, remove wildlife from vehicles, and even take criminals into custody. While those last three seem a little far-fetched, they did apparently happen and rank among the strangest uses people have found for the 70-year-old, secret-formula-based, product. So read on to find out how all of that, and a few more things, have happened.

There's a wonderful period in every child's life when several hours a day can be dedicated to destroying the house in multiple ways. One popular pastime involves taking a pack of crayons and turning entire hallways into an exciting modern art project. While an expert art critic may laud the emotion expressed in the work, it's array of colors, and how the seemingly senseless and chaotic lines that make up the piece draw parallels with the confused new human that created it — the average parent may not see it that way. In fact, they may be quite upset that their white, grey, or beige hallway now looks exactly like that stack of coloring books in the corner.

But it's actually no big deal. WD-40 can clean it right up. Amongst its many uses, the spray acts as a potent solvent and can break down wax crayon quite efficiently — allowing you to simply wipe away the mess and allow your budding young artist to have another go. Major wax crayon manufacturer Crayola even recommends WD-40 as a way to get its products off various objects, including fabrics.

Before its name shifted to mirror that of its most popular product, the business that made WD-40 was known as the "Rocket Chemical Company," and its slippery output was used to counter rust and corrosion on some of NASA's early spacecraft. It was also liberally applied to the surface of John Glenn's Friendship VII earth orbiter in an attempt to minimize friction during the re-entry process. The links with flying objects don't stop there — San Diego-based company's first customer was missile manufacturer Convair Aerospace.

Convair used the formula to protect their Atlas Missiles from corrosion while they were being stored at ground level. Being a method of launching nuclear warheads vast distances, they would spend a lot of time at ground level and need to be kept corrosion-free and ready to go should they ever be needed.

The Atlas itself has a pretty interesting history, especially to folks fascinated by the Cold War. It's technically the first ICBM, and a predecessor of the Atlas rockets that would power the Mercury space missions. Would the U.S. have made it into space without WD-40? Yes, obviously, the Russians did without it just fine. But the whole venture might have looked a lot rustier without Iver Norman Lawson's lubricant mix.

We've all seen irate social media messages where party people launch complaints about the number of people urinating in a nightclub's "cocaine room." But not all late-night establishment owners want to be associated with Bolivia's main illicit export. Various steps to reduce drug use in nightclub bathrooms have been taken over the years, from upping the security and police presence to removing lavatory seats entirely. But a handy solution nightclub owners in the British city of Bristol discovered involves WD-40.

Apparently, club managers discovered that coating surfaces in WD-40 will stop individuals from inhaling any powdery substances that may be poured on them. Said powdery substances congeal when they come into contact with the world-renowned water displacer, solvent, and lubricant — rendering them difficult, if not impossible, to imbue nasally. As a dual-use, it may also remove some of the graffiti in said bathroom stalls at the same time.

As it's a potent lubricant, a few sprays of WD-40 is a good way to separate two stuck objects. This logic applies in most cases, even when one of the objects is a vehicle, and the other happens to be a large python. One such case happened in Asia, when a very big serpent decided to coil itself around the undercarriage of a bus. The bus driver decided to use the spray to remove said reptile. Details of exactly how this was achieved are a little sparse, despite multiple sources, including WD-40's own website, reporting that it did in fact happen. We'd like to think that the multi-purpose fluid was used to lubricate the bus and/or snake so the slithery little fellow would simply slide right off the bus' undercarriage without too many problems.

WD-40 has also been suggested as a pest control product in some places, with writers inferring that it can stop spiders from making a home on your property and help get rid of wasp nests. Neither of these uses is endorsed by WD-40 itself, and it could be quite harmful to a variety of animals. So stick to de-sticking inanimate things and consult a pest control professional instead.

While WD-40 is designed to loosen various things up, it can actually be used to lock something, or rather someone, up for a good amount of time. Police officers in Chicago used the popular spray to free a burglar who had managed to wedge himself in one of his intended air conditioning vents. That freedom was short-lived, as the burglar was subsequently arrested. The burglar was also naked for some, thankfully unspecified, reason.

If you want to stop a burglar from getting into a position where the police will have to extract them, then WD-40 can help there too. In fact, it can make it more difficult to break into a home in general. If you coat window sills, ledges, unused handles, and any other part of your house an intruder could climb on or use to ease an entry in WD-40, they will be far harder to grip. This may be enough to make the intruder give up and go looking for an easier target. However, under no circumstances should you use a can of WD-40 with a lighter to recreate that one scene from home alone. That's incredibly dangerous for everyone involved.