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(For those who see the term and don't know what it means - F.A.Q. means "Frequently Asked Questions")I'm often asked or see the same questions asked again & again on the mailing list I'm on and finally had the brilliant idea of setting up a Frequently Asked Questions page to simply answering the same ol' questions when they come up. To start, I'm dividing the page into three sections: If you have a question(s) you'd like to submit,
click here to email it to me
. New Idea from The Webmonster - Put one of the Cyalume light sticks in a caldron of warm water and dry ice. Cyalume's are all over the place around Halloween for kids to wear to make them stand out in the dark. It's a flexible plastic tube that you bend to break a harder plastic pellet inside to create a chemical reaction that creates a green or orange glow, depending on the color you buy. One of the name brands is Safety-Glow. Anyway, put one in a caldron of warm water and dry ice and it'll give off a glow and give the effect of colored fog.
Back to Top How do I get really spooky looking low-lying ground-hugging creeping fog - In order for fog to hug the ground, it needs to be cold. Remember science class in school? Hot air rises, and a fogger works by heating a mixture of distilled water and glycerin to the point it vaporizes, creating a warm fog. To chill the fog, you need to construct a fog chiller. They're pretty easy to make from an ice chest and some other simple supplies readily available at any hardware store. Mark Butler's Monster Links List has instructions on several.
Can I get colored fog if I put food coloring in my fogger?No, and doing so will probably ruin your fogger. Try this little experiment at home - put a pan of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Now add a little food coloring. Does the steam change color? If you leave the pan on the burner, eventually all the water will have boiled off and you'll be left with a gummy, crusty residue of minerals from the water and the food coloring. That's what will happen if you put anything into your fogger other than fog fluid - the liquid will be vaporized leaving behind the solids to clog your fogger. Others have tried and ended up with a non-functional fogger that can't be repaired. If you have one of the new caldron foggers, you might try placing a Cyalume light stick on a cool spot inside (be careful that you don't place it where the heat of the fogger might melt or burn the light stick) to give the effect of colored fog. (See "New Idea" above in the General Section.
Can I get scented fog if I put perfume or something like that in my fogger?See the question about colored fog. Replace "food coloring" in that answer with "scent" and you'll get the idea. Some fogger companies DO have scented fog fluid available.
Can I make my own fog fluid instead of buying it? Yep...but it'll probably cost you more than the commercial product. You can't, or at least shouldn't use plain tap water in fog fluid because it contains chemicals and minerals. The left-behind minerals will, in time, clog the fogger. It's the same idea as using distilled water in a clothes iron - most tap water will clog an iron in pretty short order. The commercially produced fog fluid is made with distilled, de-ionized water and glycerin that has been filtered to remove all particulate matter and other harmful residues. With a home-made mix, you wouldn't be able to filter and purify it anywhere near as well as the commercial producer. Yes, there are those who mix their own and haven't had any problems with the fogger...at least not yet. <grin> I just keep an eye out for sales at the local party shops, and other stores particularly shortly before and after Halloween. My local Wal-Mart had fog fluid on sale on right before Halloween at a buck a quart. The day after Halloween, it was 50 cents. Yeah, I stocked up! But even at full price, I'd rather buy the commercial product and pay a little more and know I'm not taking a chance on wrecking one of my foggers.
Can I add anything to fog fluid to make it glow in the dark or fluoresce under black light? See the above discussions of adding scent or color to fog fluid - the answer is no. Never add anything to fog fluid or you run the risk of ruining your fogger.
There are a couple of companies that make black light or glow-in-the-dark fog fluid, but it's very expensive. I'll add links to these later. Have anything you'd like to add to the Fogger FAQ section? Click here to
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Do those $6.95-9.95 black light bulbs that look like regular screw-in light bulbs except that they're purple work very well?If you just want a little bit of purple light, yeah, they'll work fine. Or if you want a lot of heat and very little light, they may be just what the doctor ordered. But if you want true black light that will make things glow and fluoresce, you're going to be very disappointed. Save your money and get a regular black light. If you shop around (Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Spencer Gifts, etc.) you'll find that they're not that much more - I've found 18" black lights including fixture for $12.95 or so almost anytime I've looked for them. I've found 6" battery operated ones for under $2 regular price at Wal-Mart. Just this week, I saw an 18" battery operated one there for $12.95 - it uses 8 AA batteries, and I was tempted. For those who don't know me that well, that means I'll be heading down to buy a couple after I hem & haw for a couple more days! Also, I've found that a single 48" fluorescent light fixture from the hardware section and separate 48" bulb are usually substantially cheaper than buying one of the sets with fixture & bulb where the fixture is painted black. On the smaller sets, the price difference is negligible, but check prices of the sets vs. the bulb & fixture separately. The cheaper screw-in bulbs are just going to throw off a little purple light, no true "black light" and they get VERY hot very fast. Be sure to wait at least 20 minutes after turning one off before trying to remove it from a lamp or fixture or you'll definitely get burned. The same goes for the "black light" stringers of light you see around Halloween - the ones like Christmas lights (C7 or C9 bulbs). You'll get a lot of heat, a little purple light, but no true black light effect. Again - save your money. Also, last year (2001) two new types of screw-in black lights hit the market that can be used in place of regular light bulbs.. One is a round fluorescent type bulb (some call them space station lights) that's about 8-10" across. The other is somewhat in the size & shape of a standard light bulb but has two small fluorescent tubes twisted together. Hard to explain, but you'll know it when you see it. From all reports, both work quite well, especially in situations where you can't or don't want to put up a regular black light tube fixture. But again, neither is like a regular screw-in incandescent light bulb.
What things that I might already have around the house glow under black light?Oh, man - the list is HUGE! <grin> Here are a few - but the best way is shut off the lights in the house some dark night and go exploring with black light in hand and see what you discover! Laundry detergent - they have a "whitener-brightener" mixed in to make whites appear whiter and it glows under black light. Some "Highlighter" pens - not every brand or color fluoresces but many do. You can also pull the tip out of a highlighter (they're an inch or two long piece of felt) and put it into water. Let it soak awhile and you'll have "glowing water" - and be sure to swish the casing of the highlighter in the water to get out the fluid remaining inside. Some gel-ink pens and certain colors fluoresce pretty well. RIT Whitener - you'll find it at the store in the laundry section with all of the RIT dye products. A couple don'ts - don't drink it, don't put it where animals might drink it. I don't think it's toxic, but it could make them sick. Here are a
few uses for RIT whitener: People on the Halloween lists report they've mixed both the liquid and power into paints to give things an eerie glow under black light. Personally, I've mixed some into jars of water to make them glow We poured a couple bottles into our fountain so it glowed and under normal light, you don't see anything. I put a couple handprints on the counter and mirror in our guest bath, wrote REDRUM on the mirror, etc. Under normal light, nothing, but turn on the black light and ka-boom. I dipped my finger in it and put a few spots on my face (staying WAY away from my mouth and eyes. We had the bar for a party a few weeks before Halloween set up in the laundry room and while mixing a drink for a friend, I said I just felt kind of "off kilter" that day and wondered if I was coming down with "voracious ravenicitis" (remember that from Bewitched?) Then I flipped off the regular light and with just the black light, I had these glowing spots on my face. But...while nothing happened to me, if you ant to try this, I would try a couple small unseen spots beforehand to see if you might develop a rash or have an allergic reaction before going whole-hog. I put a couple spots on the back of my left hand a week ahead of time so I'd notice if any redness or the like developed. Xerox a photo and on the Xerox copy, use a dip fountain pen to draw scars, wrinkles, etc.
that will only appear under black light. Write "secret messages" on countertops, walls, windows, mirrors or even the invitations to
your big Halloween party and give everyone a hand-held black light and have them find all
of the "ghostly messages" around your haunted house..
Pet urine - yes, now you can find all those secret spots that your beloved pet has left behind when you weren't around. Tonic water - yep, just like you use in a gin & tonic. Bubble Fluid - there are companies that make fluid for bubble machines that make bubbles that fluoresce under black light. I'll add some links later. It's not that expensive compared to regular - check your local bowling and DJ supply. Fog Fluid - yes, there is fog fluid that reacts under black light but it's expensive and you can get a pretty good effect using plain fog, black lights and some colored flood lights aimed at some of the fog. I'll post links to the fluid later. In the meantime, you can check your local bowling and DJ supply. Not that most of us probably have them, but scorpions (yes, the spidery kind) naturally glow under blacklight (thanks to Scott Ribbens for this addition!) Have anything you'd like to add to the Black Light FAQ section? Click here to
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