I read an article in one of the rags withen the last two months on what was used for sticky stuff on the leading edges for tagging streamers. I can't seem to remember what the stuff was called. I think it was called sure foot. It goes on the bottom of trees to capture insects. Anyone's memory better than mine?

Tanglefoot, found in garden centers.

Also used if no honey bees are present are honey, molasses, castor oil. My preference, if bees are not a problem is honey.

Cajun[8D]

Cajun, thanks for the fast reply. Have you used this stuff? I have used honey in the past and it has worked ok. Are they comparable. Is Tanglefoot better?

I use Tanglefoot. It's the best working stickum I've seen. Honey can dry and crystalize on the wing. I've seen it happen more than once to guys at various contets. Tanglefoot even stays really sticky when it's cold, something that not all stickum's will do.

The big downside to Tanglefoot is that it's NASTY. I use mineral spirts to get it off my wings. It will stain colthing (brown marks on white t-shirts, for example), and, if you are married, you need to make sure it stays well away from your wife.

I get it at Ace hardware. Url for it:

http://www.tanglefoot.com/products/index.htm

I have noticed that it comes in bucket's, tubes, even caulking guns. Which is the best for applying? The article I read said to heat it up and put it in a surenge. How do you spread it on the wings? If (when) you get it on your forearms, Mineral spirits works there too?

I used to try to get it in the tube, which makes application easy. I think a caulking gun is easier still, but harder to transport.

These days, I just go straight from the tub (my local hardware stores only cary the tub). I just use a broken prop to scoop it out and spread it on. It's pretty quick with a little practice. Sometimes I'll use a finger to do a last smoothing and spreading.

Getting it off a forearm is a bit annoying. I good wipe with a paper towl will get most of it, then some kind of solvent. Rubbing alchol seems to work in the shop to get it off of things, but I haven't tried it in the field. At a contest, I usually just wipe with a paper towl and live with it until later. But I'm also one of those guys that, by the end of the contest, wind up pretty much covered in dirt, oil, sweat, stickem, whatever else is around. You won't see me on the cover of GQ, that's for sure.

I used to use honey and now I use Tanglefoot out of the tube. I smear it around with my finger and, like Kirk, am a mess at the end of the day. The stains don't wash out of a white t-shirt. I always licked my fingers after applying the honey but it only takes one lick of Tanglefoot to break that habit...[X(]

rrh

Tanglefoot is also a great wife repelant. You can be sure she won't want to touch anything that's been anywhere near tanglefoot. Espeically after she first gets some on her.

Oh, and it smells nasty. I've never come close to eating any, and I never want to try.

montague: You are sure correct about its hard to take off. Transport on the way home wing fell off my little rack and now its all over my seats!!! Yuck.. I did manage to get it out with some basic carpet cleaner and a whole lot of elbow grease, and a good steam cleaning afterwords.

Oh, man, I'm sorry about that. I forgot we put it on your wing this weekend. I wish I had remembered before you left so we could have cleaned it off and prevented that mess.

I wrote the article in the rag you referenced. Tanglefoot is castor oil based, smellysnasty, and can be cleaned off with mineral spirits. Which also smells nasty. Kirk is right, it is a good wife repellant, but maybe he would have better luck if he would not put it in his beard! it sticks to your legs, forearms, etc. use mineral spirits unless you have adhered covering such as icarex with 3m77, which will dissolve as the mineral sprits soaks thru the covering. The other stuff is bird repellent, made by JT Eaton company, I have not found it locally but i have ordered it from www.truevalue.com. this stuff comes in a caulk gun-like tube. Tanglefoot is good and tacky in temps up to about 85-90 degrees, then it starts getting thin. Bird repellent is stiff until it starts getting warm, then it sticks like a booger. so we use tanglefoot on cooler days, bird repellant on warm days. bird repellant is dissolved with vegetable oil- wipe it on, and the stuff thins out and wipes off. I keep a bottle of veg oil for cleaning up the big deposits before i put the planes in the car, becasue i got sick of having bird repellant all over my car's interior. I use the syringe method for applying Tanglefoot, but i saw Kirk trowelling it on right out of the tub and that works well too. All you need is a broken prop, those can be real hard to find at a combat meet!

Hey now, I don't recall ever getting sticky stuff in the beard. I guess we can file that line in with all your talk about getting cuts?

I haven't had any problems with tanglefoot in hot weather in Dixie, Nats, or Paris. It does get thin, but that just means that it spreds itself out on your wing LE. But I've never had it get non-sticky and lead to drapes.

It seems as tho every time I fly at a combat meet, it is at least 90, more like 95 to 100. Sounds like the bird stuff would work best.

Try good old black molassas. Brush it on and go. If it starts to harden, a quick squirt with the Windex bottle before the heat and it's just like new. Easy clean up with paper towels and Windex.