It started about a week ago. I noticed a sticky feeling on my hands so I washed them (as I do regularly). Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the feeling came back. I’ve started noticing it on everything I frequently touch - mouse/keyboard, Xbox controller, phone, on and on. I tried household cleaner, rubbing alcohol, water/soap on these surfaces and it seems to help for a short while, but it comes back within hours. Just now I gave my phone a good wipe with soapy water and as soon as it dried it feels sticky again.
I’m not sure what else to try or how to get rid of it.
Possible culprits I can guess at: -pollen? the cars around here have been covered in greenish yellow powder which I have seen before, but never experienced this stickyness. I don’t use my car / touch the door handles very often.
-some sort of plastic or rubber is degrading, maybe my phone case? It’s an Otterbox that’s over 6 years old.
-a little weed container I bought around the same time this started, maybe the store had vape juice spilled on it? But I don’t touch it often enough to warrant the spread of this profound stickyness.
Any ideas are welcome. It’s driving me nuts.
If the Otterbox case had a rubberized coating on it to try to improve grip, and with it being 6 years old, there’s a possibility it’s the culprit. You could try ditching the case for a little while, and/or getting a new case and swapping them out, clean the surfaces again and see if you feel the stickiness again after handling your phone and other stuff.
However, often with those rubberized coatings, the degradation (when severe enough to feel sticky) is more immediately apparent and you’d be more apt to avoid touching anything else afterward. Also in my experience I don’t recall it transferring to other surfaces much, but then again when I dealt with it I noticed ASAP and cleaned my hands right away.