<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Sometimes those quick and easy life hacks are just a web of lies.\nWhile you're browsing your Pinterest boards for outdoor DIY hacks and projects, you probably run into one or two ideas that seem too good to be true. While many hacks can simplify our lives, even more of them end up being total duds.\nSee also: Pin-vestigation: 11 Debunked DIY Tricks on Pinterest\nIt's not your fault. Many have been lured in by the seductive temptation of their pinboards, but not all pinners are to blame for their Pinterest fails, especially when it comes to these outdoor hacks.\nCheck out the video above to see how we debunked these popular pins and subscribe to Mashable for more pinvestigations. Remember: Think before you pin.\n\n1. Glow-in-the-Dark Mountain Dew\n\nGlow-in-the-dark DIY projects are wildly popular on Pinterest. Unfortunately, a majority of them end up being disappointing for those who attempt them. This \"hack\" combines 1/4 bottle of Mountain Dew, less than a teaspoon of baking soda and three caps-full of hydrogen peroxide to create a glow similar to light sticks campers use to illuminate their way in the woods.\nDespite Mountain Dew's, err, \"natural\" bright green, fluorescent color, there are actually no chemicals that make it fluoresce, or glow. If it did, it probably wouldn't be safe to drink. Even the popular debunking website Snopes.com has disproven this pin.\n2. Hiding Money in a Chapstick Tube\n\nMost beach-goers have probably thought about how to deter thieves from getting into your beach bag while you're having fun in the sun. This pin suggests rolling up your cash to stick into a hollowed out Chapstick tube. The idea's harmless enough, right?\nExcept, the last place you want to hide your cash is into the one object that you lose 100% of the time within five minutes of purchasing it. Even if you are savvy enough to finish a tube of Chapstick without losing it, you're definitely going to lose it the second something important is stashed inside.\nPlus, American dollars are too wide for a Chapstick tube, as demonstrated in the video. Even if you can manage to roll a tight enough wad of cash, you still wouldn't be able to get the cap back on because of the mechanism inside the tube.\n3. Blowing Up a Balloon With Vinegar and Baking Soda\n\nMany pinners swear by this method of blowing up balloons as an alternative to buying helium tanks for your kid's birthday party. Of course, not a lot of people are just going out and buying helium tanks, but that's beside the point. This messy method is a bit of a letdown. The combination of vinegar and baking soda does produce a gas that blows up a balloon, however, not to the size that is shown in the pin, no matter how much you use. \nThe gas emitted by the combination is carbon dioxide, which is the same as blowing up a balloon with your own lungs. Helium balloons float because the gas is lighter than the air in our atmosphere, which is not true for carbon dioxide. Tell the kids the birthday party is cancelled.\n4. \"Fairy\" Jars\n\nIn the grand tradition of Pinners busting open glow sticks and throwing their contents wherever they please, these glow-in-the-dark mason jars, or \"fairy\" jars, are presented as a summer kid-friendly project. By cutting open glow sticks, kids and adults can create brightly glowing lights inside mason jars that will last about a day. Perfect for the backyard.\nExcept this pin is the result of old fashioned camera trickery. The goopy glowing substance pools at the bottom of the jar, faintly glowing as if the fairies are holding on for dear life, however, the brightness in the pin is actually the result of a flashlight, off camera, pointed upward, to highlight the effect. \n5. Glow-in-the-Dark Planters\n\nThe king of glow-in-the-dark pins is a money-saving DIY hack for your backyard: glow-in-the-dark planters. This pin promises that if you simply paint your normal terra cotta planters with common acrylic glow-in-the-dark paint, they will light up your garden party and wow your guests for pennies on the dollar.\nHowever, they're the the biggest, boldest lies on your pinboard. The objects in this pin are not painted pots, but actually electric LED planters. They can even be purchased on Amazon. We've all been duped."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/08/24/pinvestigation-outdoor-diy-hacks/>