Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Tools/ideas for fighting bed bugs
Do I need to re-wash/dry these?
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Fearful_and_Buggy
junior member
Joined: Jun '09
Posts: 53
Posted 5 months ago
Wed Jun 10 2009 15:05:16
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Last night, I did several loads of laundry, and then bagged them, while wearing a pair of pants and a shirt that had not yet been laundered. We were worried about bugs, so I asked my GF to heat the bags and the clothes again to be sure.
I just came in to find that the clothes had been re-dried, but not re-bagged. Instead, they'd been left in a bucket we know was clean (just bought from target), but which had held a few of the potentially-infected bags. The bags themselves were left open. These were all in the bathroom, which seems to be bedbug free.
What do I do? Do I re-dry the bags, the clothes, and try to wash out the bucket? Do I just re-bag the clothes and assume that the chances of pants to plastic bag transfer are very very low? Also, what can I wear while doing this laundry? I can't be naked, but if I'm wearing the same clothes to interact with dirty and clean clothes, will it cause issues?
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buggyinsocal
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Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 5 months ago
Wed Jun 10 2009 15:32:56
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Running off to work, but short version is this:
bed bugs usu. don't live on people except in extreme infestations, when they end up hitching a ride on your clothes/shoes.
if you're worried that items are contaminated, you do not have to rewash them, so long as the dryer gets hot enough to kill the bugs. it's the heat that kills bugs/eggs, not the process of washing them. (however, basic laundry 101 tells us that drying dirty items sets in stains, dirt, and odors, so to save your clothes it's a bad idea to dry dirty items. as far as bed bug removal goes, you could just dry everything, but that would do bad things to your clothes, hence the washing and drying.)
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Fearful_and_Buggy
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Joined: Jun '09
Posts: 53
Posted 5 months ago
Wed Jun 10 2009 16:03:10
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I still don't quite know what to do. If I'm wearing a pair of pants, say, as I'm tossing things out of a drawer into the "to be washed" pile, the pants aren't necessarily interacting with the potentially-infested clothing. I can wear those same pants to go downstairs and fold laundry into bags? Do I need to change clothes whenever I go from handling washed to unwashed laundry? What happens if I need to walk into another room that is of uncertain quality?
I need to go buy a few more dozen boxes of baggies. I'm going insane...
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bunnybedbug
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Joined: May '09
Posts: 60
Posted 5 months ago
Wed Jun 10 2009 21:02:25
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Yes, this can make us go insane if we are not: getting enough good sleep, taking enough breaks, doing our BB homework, actively addressing the issue. So far it sounds like you are asking good questions and getting right to work on the problem.
I am definitely not an expert but my take on it is that we have to do what seems right/what we can handle. e.g. I always change clothes as I am leaving the house; I don't change clothes to leave the room unless maybe I have been lying on the bed for awhile. I'll be interested to hear what others suggest but I think we have to make our own choices on this stuff.
bbb
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cantstandbedbugs
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Joined: May '09
Posts: 80
Posted 5 months ago
Wed Jun 10 2009 22:21:03
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You can put some 91% alcohol in a spray bottle and have it handy to spray yourself before handling the clothes. This way you can kill what ever bedbugs might've gotten on you when you handled the possibly infested clothes or after you been in an infested room.
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buggyinsocal
oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130
Posted 5 months ago
Wed Jun 10 2009 23:53:27
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The solution that I used was this.
I went to Target and bought three pairs of shorts and three polo shirts that were cheap and able to be washed in hot water. (I hadn't realized how few women's clothes these days are hot water/hot dryer friendly. I had almost nothing.)
While I was fighting the bugs, I wore only those three outfits while I was in the house. (Yes, I did a lot of laundry.)
When I would come home from work, I would put on an "inside" outfit that came fresh out of a bag since it's last laundering.
Before I did laundry, I would gather up my indoor clothes, towels, sheets (which since it was the summer was down to one flat sheet I'd roll myself up in) and such and put them into "dirty" bags (i.e. ziplocks that were used for possibly contaminated clothes.
Then I would shower and change immediately into "clean" indoor clothes (i.e. clothes that went straight from laundry to the clean bag) and zip out the door, usually wearing flip flops.
Outside, I would spray the flip flops down with 91% alcohol and change into a pair of shoes that had already been dried and so decontaminated.
I would take the "dirty" bags straight to the laundromat and dump the laundry right into the washers. I'd then wash and dry the items and put them into "clean" bags.
I did, actually reuse ziplocks. But I clearly marked them as either dirty (D) or clean (C) with sharpies so that I didn't get them mixed up.
Bed bugs won't usually hide in clothes that get moved around a lot. If you've got bugs in your furniture that stores the clothes, you might bring a hitch hiker with you.
And yes, you can get absolutely crazy with the whole contamination protocol set up.
The general idea that you want to keep in mind is this:
any fabric item that has been in an infested place is a possible source of infestation.
bed bugs generally hide unless they're out to feed, so the chances of randomly picking up a single bug between, say, the shower and the front door is fairly low.
Hope that helps.
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