h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As in how do I? My parents gave us an old keyboard for my son to bash about on, and my husband cheerfully took it upstairs, plonked it on the carpet, and half an hour later realised that the rubber feet has disintegrated all over the carpet. Sadly, the glue was less obliging and so now he, my son, and the carpet were covered in disintegrated black rubber, held firmly in place with sticky adhesive.

So the carpet is now covered in persistent rubbery black smears (which is clearly of more convered than my family being covered in persistent rubbery black smears). Will anything shift it?

Wash in solvent. lots of solvent. nail polish remover or aceton might do as well. there's an almost certainty that it will change small black spots into larger grey spots, and any colour in the carpet may look wildly different after the cleaning.

Maybe try an unobtrusive corner of the carpet first with that eh? Acetone (nail polish remover is acetone) is likely to make a right royal mess if it's got synthetic content in the pile.

If it's latexy type stuff a better organic solvent (i.e. better for your purpose) is just paraffin as that is more likely to just dissolve the rubber - but if it's all over the carpet you've got a lot of work on your hands.

Professional clean? Hire a carpet cleaner?

try the same method as chewing gum, bag of frozen peas till it goes hard and brittle then break it up and scrape it off wwith a blunt knife

It might be worth trying a hot iron and brown paper. Press, move paper, press...
Depends, of course, whether it's real or synthetic rubber
Any solvent, try a small patch in a corner first...

Trying to think of a gentler solvent than acetone...
Paraffin oil?
Lighter fuel?
Isopropyl alcohol from a chemist?
White spirit?

OOh yes, isopropyl alcohol is a good bet.

Making my shopping list now. Thanks guys!

It's a cream carpet so I don't hold out too much hope. On the other hand it is rather grey inplaces from other toddler activity (calpol is a right pain in the staining department).

Did anything work in removing the black rubber stains? I have the same problem and cannot get rid of the black stains. This is the most difficult stain I have ever faced. Is it possible to dye a black stain to a lighter brown color?

I'm afraid I got distracted and left them. Every now and again I look at them and think, oh yeah, and then they get covered in toys again and... I am the worst housewife.

If anything works for you, though, do pop back and I will remove finger from...