• Duct tape is good for much more than taping ducts.green insulation tape image by green308 from Fotolia.com
  
  Duct tape is just what the name implies, tape for joining metal HVAC ducts. It is extremely flexible, has excellent adhesion and is inexpensive, so it is no surprise that people have discovered hundreds of uses for it. Duck tape comes in handy in the home or office, is a must in the hiker's backpack, and can be made into toys and clothes. It even has medical uses.
  
  

Fly Catcher

• Everyone has been bothered by flies at some point, and while the perfect flycatcher may not have been invented yet, you can make a perfectly serviceable one out of duct tape. Simply roll out two lengths, fold the edges back and stick them together to make a single length that is sticky on both sides. Hang it in the bedroom at night and in the morning, it will be full of flies.
  
  

Wart and Hair Remover

• Using duct tape is a medically accepted way of removing warts. Simply crush some aspirin and spread it on the wart. Then lay a piece of duct tape over it and wait six days. When you remove the duct tape, pare the wart away with an emery board. In the same vein, you can remove unsightly leg hair by taping over it and jerking the tape off. Painful, but only for a little while.
  
  

Shoe Waterproofing

• Duct tape has one more attribute besides being sticky, flexible and cheap--it's waterproof. Wrap an old pair of sneakers in duct tape, overlapping as you wrap. When you are finished, you'll be able to go trudging through wet, muddy swamps with the best of them. You can even make shoes from scratch, using only duct tape.
  
  

Toys for the Kids

• Wrap duct tape around cardboard to make safe, realistic swords for the young pirates in your life, and cut thin strips and tape them together to make rings and bracelets for their wenches. Make a puppet out of a paper lunch bag wrapped in duct tape, with holes cut in the sides for your fingers and a head made of a ball of paper, also wrapped in duct tape. You can also make streamers to add to the handlebars of your kids' bicycles by folding lengths of different colored duct tape in half lengthwise.
  
  

Fashion Items

• Fold duct tape back on itself and cut it artfully enough and it becomes a fabric in its own right. You can make dresses, pants, shoes, wallets and purses, to name a few of the many uses that have been found this humble but versatile home stand-by. You can also use it to decorate your fingernails, make earrings and hold wigs in place.