Teach Soap

I have a 50 lb block of Shea butter and this morning I noticed mice droppings on the top. I don't know how they got into it, but its just the top. I'm afraid I may have to throw the whole block away and that was alot of money!!! What to do? Do you think if I shave half the block off and throw it away that I can keep the bottom half?

It's been contaminated. I wouldn't sell any of it; sorry.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I was afraid of that, thank you!

Sounds like you need a good mouse catcher. I picked up this one, but she is no good at catching mice:

You need to get yourself one of these bad boys!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

KITTIES! My worst weakness! OMG they're so cute! *melts*

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

You need to come see mine then! I have 2 x Devon Rex cats. They are only 12 months old and have more energy and craziness than 100 kittens put together!! That's Coolah above, my daughter's cat. He's the smaller of the two but also doesn't think before he does anything... like walking along the edge of the bath, or falling asleep on the edge of the 6 foot high cat tree (geez for something small he makes a loud thump when he hits the floor from that height!)

He chases anything and everything, his favourite being Styrofoam peanuts. He will bat and chase those round the house for hours!!

The other one is Max, my cat. He thinks he's a dog most time and carries things around in his mouth. That's when he's not inspecting every nook and cranny he can, the latest being a box on it's side half way up the wall. Ever seen a cat walk on hind legs just to see what was at the other end?

Together, the two of them are like little boys - always playing rough, running around the house, no observation for things around them and have tripped all family members over at least once.

They also don't malt! Coolah is nearly hairless all over, Max has 1 layer of fur. They feel like velvet to pat.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I don't think we have a single non-frozen mouse in our house! We have 4 cats now, had 6 but two passed away. The youngest now is 9, and she LOVES to hunt. She is my spider-getter! I have arachnophobia, so its extra great =) I do suggest a cat for keeping mice under control, just be sure to de-worm the kitty every 3 months as mice are common carriers of tapeworm and occasionally other parasites too!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

This is why I keep my butters wrapped, in a tin, shut away in a cabnit. We live on the edge of a woods and I usually get 1-2 mice per year. I am allergic to cats so that is no help... but I do love my glue boards. We also keep our bird food in a tin container... those mice will chew thru plastic you know.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

yeh, and we lost about 10# of bird seed before we knew the mice and chipmunks had a hole in the back of our plastic storage bin ! Those little creatures have no respect for our birds!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

No way, don't throw that away. Just use a hot knife and cut say 1cm off the exposed outer layer that could have been contaminated. Easy.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I completely agree with Irena, feces contaminated products are sooo not cool.

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

There's no risk for two reasons.
1. Take off the outer layer carefully with a hot knife. Shea is an absolutely solid piece of lipids. Mouse poo won't penetrate. Actually I wouldn't even knife off the outside; I'd probably use acetone to remove the top surface, it will be spotless after that.
2. Soap is sterile no matter what goes into it thanks to the nature of the process. NaOH is an absolute sterilizer. There is never any risk of bacteria.