What is the worst thing you have ever vacuumed up?

A metal shank from a broken nail .

Not sure what you're going for. Lots of gross muck gets vacuumed up, especially for those of us who own wet/dry vacs.

The biggest mistake I made trying to use a vacuum cleaner, was on what I thought were long dead fireplace ashes. There turned out to be a small bit of charcoal, still technically burning, and the vacuum pushed so much air past it after it was in the bag, that it flamed up and toasted the vac.

But that wasn't gross, it was just expensive.

I got one of those Dyson cordless hovers a few weeks ago.

The crap that hoovers up compared to my old one.

I hoovered up a wood louse by mistake and felt guilty, so I emptied it in the garden but couldn't find the wood louse, strange.

Dog hair.
Left for any amount of time in a vacuum,
you canna sneak up on it to clean it.

Here is a tip, learned from a refrigerator guy.
Once washed, soak a paper towel with Vanilla
(the real one not the fake) and let the cleaned
equipment sit on it overnight..miracles happen.

The refrigerator guy said he used to work at a
place that did nothing but repair/clean refrigerators.

They would simply soak a towel in Vanilla and leave
it in the 'fridge overnight..ALL smells gone.

I have done both and it freaking works :-)

well the string attached to yo-yo was a lot of fun

Has to be Madagasca vanilla, only the best will do

Well ... worst in a way was my extremely expensive tugtupite (gemstone). Very small, so I had to tear the bag apart and empty it bit by yukkie bit in a box, all the clumps of dust with spiders I'd vacuumed up somewhere in 'em... the smell is horrible too, needed to wear Marigolds, a dust mask and goggles cos of the dust flying everywhere even when careful ...
Going through all that yuk, had to empty the whole friggin bag, and yes!! At the bottom I found my tiny little tugtupite!! I was SO happy!

4" ?? wow

Do you count a rug shampooer as a wet/dry vac, because if you do vomit out of a short pill rug is the worst thing I've ever had to vacum.

What happened to it

What is a wood louse? I never heard of such a thing

I vacuum my water fountain water when it is green thats when I get to it.

you made me laugh pretty hard when you said that. I was thinking initially coke acola; I am pretty stupid when it come to that stuff.

In fact I found a little case on the street and it had a way scale and a few other instruments with what I thought was ( crushed glass)broken glass wrapped in foil.
I learned later that it was Crack!
I call the police they confirmed it and took it with them.

My cat's tail. He wouldn't stop attacking the vacuum so it had to defend itself. I may have helped a little though.