HELP! How can I get this mussel out?

[JDM625]

Ok, this is the most ridiculous thing! I was scrubbing mussels for dinner lastnight, and one slippery fsucker flew out of my hand and went down the overflow pipe!

I've tried chopsticks, tongs, a knife, bottle brush but due to the angle, nothing is working. I can unscrew the S bend/trap underneath, but the hole within the overflow isn't wide enough to push the mussel through. Maybe I could push it up though?

Any other ideas to get it out before it stinks?

I would prob try and use gorilla glue to glue string to the shell. Wait until dry then pull.

Ideally 2 or 3 strings worth so you can get more force

I'd probably just get some of that Mr Muscle drain cleaner

Mr Mussel (snigger)

Lube and a fish slice is the traditional MN method of unsticking things isn't it?

Never mind rumble in the jungle.

This is tussle with a mussel.

In this vein: never let your kids play with Lego in the bath…

Good luck, OP!

You’re just going to have to move house now I’m sorry.

You need some of the flexible plastic webbing strips used to fasten parcels. Feed it down to below the mussel then keep feeding it till you can grab the end. You should be able to pull the mussel up with the loop.

❤️

Oh thankyou! That's wonderful!

Brill 😂😂😂😂

In previous times I'd also have suggested that, in combination with whatever else you try, you could tip a bit of oil down there to ease the release. But cooking oil it so sodding expensive at the moment I think that's really a last resort.

@Boiledbeetle that is obviously phenomenal, but why isn't the wedged mussel called Russel? Answer me that.

There was a young shellfish called Frink,
Who tried to escape in the sink.
OP came and told us
About the wild mollusc
That selfish young shellfish called Frink.

Frink languished anon in the drain.
Some thought that he might be in pain.
He's not got the feels
Just like jellied eels
It's all in the absence of brain.

Hours passed and we had no update
Had OP swam away with the fish bait?
Is Frink sadly dead,
Or have they got wed,
Is Frink now a Mumsnet OP's mate?
😂

Her DH got it out with a bag and a seaside spade.

Apparently, they do feel pain.

Has anything happened to Maurice yet?
Free the Belfast Sink One!

Unexpected thread award of the week! Good luck!

Sadly, Maurice is still stuck in there!

Its a new sink, so don't want to try drills or smashing it up.
I told DH about all the other wonderful suggestions. We took the S bend/trap thing off the bottom, but the overflow joins the main pipework from an angle. My chopstick was too rigid to get into the overflow pipe. I tried a pipe cleaner, but it was too thin to support the mussel on the tip.

DH has gone to B&Q to find something bigger, bendy and strong to shove up there! I can't tell anyone in real life because they'll think we are both bonkers!

Can you get a wire coat hanger bent round and hook it up far enough for the other person to get hold of it?
Or two of them, one each side to sort of cradle it up?

Tell your DH to get drain rods from b&q, then go in from underneath.

This is why we need th mn laugh emojis.
@Redheadedstepchild you have won mn today.

@JDM625 do you have any old fashion type wire coat hangers that could be made into a hook ?

Failing that go to the seaside and collect a bucket of sea water and record the sound of the sea then dangle it over the overflow while playing the recording to tempt him back out .

Ooohhhh - this takes me back. read the bobble plate thread in Classics!

Wire coathanger bent into a hook to pull it up

Day 2 and Maurice remains stuck down the overflow.

Mussel Rescue have been called in and Maurice's twin brother Malcolm is showing the rescue team why their current idea of just throwing a loop around Maurice won't work.

Classics!

Cork screw?
oil butter soap ?

Hoover with skinny end attachment?