Simply running the dishwasher will not deep clean it. As a result, it will accumulate food, grease, and undissolved detergent.

So, the next time you want to load your device, make sure that it’s properly cleaned. The best part is you can use items you already have at home.

Using the right products will allow for a deep clean of your dishwasher that doesn’t involve heavy lifting and scrubbing, and we know that you already have these products at home! Vinegar helps remove grease and grime, while baking soda eliminates unpleasant odors. Try this simple cleaning hack and repeat it monthly for optimal results.

You need a glass measuring cup, two cups of white or apple cider vinegar, one cup of baking soda, and a toothbrush (although that’s optional).

You should empty out the machine before deep cleaning. Put two cups of vinegar in the glass measuring cup and put it on the top rack. Run a normal cycle without anything else in the dishwasher.

Then, remove the measuring cup and pull out the bottom rack. Add baking soda all over the bottom of the machine, run a short hot-water cycle, and when it’s finished get rid of any stubborn stains with a toothbrush.

There are different things you can do after each use, weekly and monthly, to keep your dishwasher in tip-top shape. After each use, clean up any leftover food, and don’t forget to check out the silverware basket. Once a week, you can wipe away any residue on the interior door, the handle, and the dishwasher control with a damp sponge or a towel.

You should also remove the filter every week and rinse it under hot water while scrubbing the mesh screen and plastic with a toothbrush. This step will help you avoid spots and film on your dishes. For stainless steel dishwashers, polish the exterior door to remove fingerprints and stains. You can do so by using a stainless steel cleaner.

Many species of mosquitoes are known to carry a variety of dangerous and even deadly diseases. That’s why researchers have been trying hard for decades to create adequate means of controlling the mosquito population. A young scientist, Aseel Rawashdeh, recently put forth a promising larvicide design that could help achieve this goal using natural substances!

Weeding Out Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes

If the teenage scientist’s hypothesis works out as planned, it could be a significant step forward in weeding out the Aedes mosquito species. This species is known to carry dengue, yellow fever, and other viruses. Across the world, over a million people die each year as a direct result of diseases that mosquitoes carry. This includes malaria, West Nile, dengue, Zika, lymphatic filariasis, and yellow fever. Rawashdeh thought it would be best to attack the problem at the source and find a way to prevent transmission in the first place.

The Project Won 6th Place

Aseel Rawashdeh is currently a senior at L.C. Anderson High School in Austin, Texas. She conducted the research and came upon an informed hypothesis for creating this inexpensive, natural, and selective larvicide. This year, the young scientist submitted her innovation in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, which is the most prestigious math and science competition in the country for senior year students. Rawashdeh’s entry won sixth place with the first place going to Christine Ye from Eastlake High School in Sammamish, Washington.

How Aseel Rawashdeh Came to the Idea

Rawashdeh learned a lot about the political and socio-economic impact that the diseases carried by mosquitoes have on marginalized groups during her research with her school debate team. She continued doing extensive research on the subject and found a 2014 study that stated entomologists at Louisiana State University used yeast as bait because it killed cellulose-digesting protozoa in termites.

The Course of the Research

Rawashdeh postulated that, because certain species of mosquitoes in the wild feed on yeast, hiding essential oils (a known larvicide) in yeast could target specific mosquito species. Her idea of encapsulating the essential oils in yeast is designed to have a mosquito want to consume it while other organisms in the ecosystem wouldn’t. She reached out to universities across the country to try and acquire mosquito eggs for her research. She used various concentrations of toxicants on the larvae in a series of tests. The results proved to be promising.

She also tested the hypothesis on beneficial species and there were no mortalities or morphological changes to the tested species.