Video: Pumpkin-clogged drains creating more business for plumbers

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SEATTLE - Sales of Halloween candy, costumes and decorations are expected to be up this year, but there's another industry set to see a boost - plumbing. Every year during this season, phones ring with cries for help.

Revenue jump-starts this week for plumbers after people start carving jack-o-lanterns, then cave in to the temptation to do the forbidden - stuff the innards down the drain. Then you have to call guys like Robin French.

"We'll get three or four calls in each of our areas from folks that have clogged up their line," said French, production manager with Rotorooter.

Pumpkin pulp jammed down the drain is a Halloween tradition.

"Every year someone decides to clean out their pumpkin and shove it down their garbage disposal," said French.

Plumbing repair companies like Rotorooter get the panicked calls after the pumpkin pulp sticks to the pipe, hardens like glue and chokes off drains.

"Don't keep trying and trying," advises French. "Once it's down there if you keep forcing it, you could force it beyond the trap and then really have problem down there."

Don't look to the toilet as a disposal. The clog can be just as bad but down deeper, requiring long cables to loosen pipes.

And the jack-o-lanterns guts are pretty ugly coming out.  With a plumbers bill getting up to $200 or more, the scariest visitor in your neighborhood may be a necessary evil.

"It is surprising to me that people will put everything down their drains and say, 'Well gee, I had no idea,'" said French, "but yeah, it's really amazing actually."

What's the best thing to do?  Take newspaper and gut your jack-o-lantern on it. Wrap the guts and throw them away or save the seeds and plant them next spring.