How to Remove Pine Pitch

Posted on April 20th, 2009 by Elaine

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Pine trees are beautiful and elegant, but if you often go near them, you’ll find yourself covered with sap dripping from the tree. This is called pine pitch, and can be a messy drawback when handling this type of tree. Don’t worry if you got it all over yourself or your stuff, though, because there are effective ways to remove it.

What You’ll Need:

Gasoline or isopropyl alcohol
Butter or margarine
Peanut butter
Olive oil
Rags
Cloth or paper towels
Soap
Warm water
Gloves

Gasoline Works

Gasoline is a strong and smelly substance, but if you’ve got a lot of pine pitch all over your skin, this is a quick remedy you can turn to. Just pour some into a rag, then scrub all over the affected area. The sap will be gone in no time. Wash your hands with soap and water afterwards, to remove the pungent smell.

Isopropyl alcohol can be used in place of gasoline. These two can dry your skin, though, so rub some moisturizing lotion afterwards. One reminder: Don’t handle anything flammable while you’re using gasoline or you might go up in flames! Stay away from open fires, cigarettes, and stoves.

The Butter/Margarine Method

It’s likely that your hands get the most pine pitch, so if you’re not too keen on using gasoline to remove the mess, you can just use margarine or butter. You can find this in your kitchen, so this is a great option.

Get some butter or margarine, using a spoon or butter knife to cut off a portion. Be careful not to transfer the sap to your butter container!
Rub the margarine or butter generously over your hands or other parts of your body that has pine pitch. Rub your hands and wring them a bit forcefully to break down the sap.
When the pitch has broken down, use warm water and soap to wash your hands, removing the sap and butter. This might take a few minutes, since margarine or butter is greasy. Use liberal amounts of soap to help remove it.

Another interesting tip: peanut butter works just as well as margarine or butter.

Using Olive Oil

Olive oil works just as well as butter or margarine, but just like these two substances, it can be sticky. Don’t worry though, because you’ll get soft skin afterwards.

Ready your olive oil and some paper or cloth towels. Wet the towels with olive oil thoroughly.
Scrub the wet towel onto the areas affected with pine pitch. Let it stay there for five minutes. You’ll see the sap come off after a few moments.
Once the pine pitch is gone, wash yourself with soap and water.

Some Tips

Using gloves while working with pine trees helps avoid pine sap from being transferred to your hands.
Alcohol sanitizer can work on some surfaces, like your tiles or your car. If the surface has varnish or can be ruined with this chemical, though, you’re better off using butter or margarine.
To remove pine sap on your clothing, add half a cup of ammonia in the washer load.

Pine trees are beautiful, but pine pitch is not. If you’ve got some all over you, just try these easy techniques and you’ll get the gunk off quickly and effectively.