There should be a word for the slimy fibrous stuff that accumulates in the meshes of a dishwasher filter. After all, there's a word for smegma. It's "Smegma".
Anyhow, the meshes are too fine for most sharp things to fit through them, and the holes are too numerous for me to stand there poking each one with a pin or a specially-whittled cocktail stick. Not after last time, anyway.
The stuff resists high-pressure tap water (for reasons to do with surface tension, perhaps? or because the fibres somehow stretch across more than one hole?)
So, there's a clear need for a firm, three-dimensional form complementary to the mesh, in the sense that, everywhere the mesh has a hole, this form has a prong. Ideally, the prongs are so short that they barely, if at all, protrude out the other side of the mesh, so that, once the two items are married, you can wipe down the back of the mesh, flush the mesh mush and settle its mesh mush hash.
You'd probably need a different specification for each make of dishwasher, and another one occasionally useful for sieves and tea-strainers.-- pertinax, Apr 16 2007 Now, if I could just collect enough of these fine, pointy fishbones, maybe I could clean the filter with a sort of 'fishbone comb'.-- pertinax, Apr 17 2007 Me and my big mouth!-- pertinax, Apr 17 2007 Could you run the filter through your dishwasher....-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 17 2007 The dishwasher has a filter?-- DrCurry, Apr 17 2007 As a non-dishwasher-owner, I'm curious as to where this filter is. If it is on the water outlet, why? And if on the inlet, why?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 17 2007 You could also collect and use those clogged filters like tea bags to make a type of watery soup.... let me know how it tastes.-- xenzag, Apr 18 2007 For [DrCurry] and [MaxwellBuchanan], and possibly [Galbinus_Caeli]: the dishwasher has a filter between the dishes and the drain, perhaps because it would be hard to operate a plunger while leaning awkwardly into a dishwasher. (Supply your own innuendo here).-- pertinax, Apr 18 2007 random, halfbakery