Whoever spray-painted the word Azules13 on a Northeast Raleigh fence -- a gang, a prankster, an artist with bad handwriting -- didn't count on Anthony Williams and his tank of Taginator.

One quick spray from Williams' tank and the 4-foot letters turned runny. One quick blast from the power washer and they vanished. Adios, Azules.

"That Taginator's awesome," said Elwood Davis, Raleigh's street superintendent. "You spray it on there, it goes to work. It'll take the sheen off a stop sign."

Davis is bragging about his new graffiti-removal team, a six-man squad whose only job is getting scrawls off walls.

With $115,000 in this year's budget, Raleigh hopes to discourage gang chatter and beautify its streets.

Taginator, which costs about $200 for a 5-gallon tank, will eat through the most stubborn splotches. It may be biodegradable, but it is powerful enough to sting skin.

"Our goal is to ride the city in a year," Davis said. "The biggest deterrent is to get it off as soon as possible."

Graffiti has long troubled the Triangle -- not just Raleigh, but Smithfield, Knightdale and Durham.

In June, July and August, the Raleigh graffiti team hit 100 spots in the city.

It turns up all over, often under bridges, most often along Hillsborough Street. There is no pattern.

In August, Raleigh police charged three men in a graffiti spree across North Raleigh, including some unreadable scrawling on the side of one man's van.

As Williams and the team were squirting the Azules sign Thursday on Jacqueline Lane, Portia English came out on her back porch to tell them the letters only recently appeared.

"It's just started because the kids are back in school," she said. "How are you going to catch them? You're either asleep or gone when they come by."

In the past, graffiti erasers have split time cleaning streets and fixing potholes.

Starting Oct. 3, a dedicated staff will start sending the team whenever someone calls to complain.

The goal, Davis said, is to remove anything in the city's right-of-way within 48 hours. In a park or along a greenway, the city is aiming at a three-day deadline.

Graffiti on private property may get included in the program someday. But four-letter words get scrubbed off wherever they are painted. There is no room for ugly sentiments, or even professions of puppy love, on a Raleigh wall.

Kilroy may have been here, but from now on, he'll have to buy a billboard.