Would you Risk using a laundromat today? (bedbugs)

In My Humble Opinion
1

We got some very dirty bedspreads and comforters. Should have been washed a year ago and we are afraid too.

Our entire lives we’ve used the giant, jumbo laundromat washers for these bulky items. Especially now since we got screwed over with a new low water usage, top loading washing machine. Even on the Bulky setting the tub only gets about half full of water. My wife and I both are dissatisfied with the thing. We do love the natural gas, steam dryer that came with it. :slight_smile:

I Googled laundromat and bedbugs. OMG. OMG. :eek:

We’re thinking about just saying screw it, and using our home washer. It’s better than nothing and it is a large capacity Maytag Bravos XL 4.5 cu. ft. High-Efficiency Top Load. Biggest machine Lowes had.

Would you risk a public laundromat in todays bedbug world?

2

I voted “yes”.

I also still go to movie theaters, sleep in hotel rooms, and visit other people’s houses.

3

Your Google search displays mostly a bunch of random speculation and people generally looking at chances to say “ewwww” about using a laundromat.

Hot water kills bedbugs. Hot dryers kill bedbugs. Washing something in hot water na dputting it in a hot dryer will definitely kill any bedbugs. If you want to be super-careful, put it directly in a fresh garbage bag when you are done, and don’t use the provided laundry carts. If you want to be super-super-super careful, leave the stuff in a black bag in the sun for a while before you bring it in.

But really, you are more likely to catch bedbugs by visiting the movie theater or something. They are annoying, but I’ve had actual “I have bites all over my body” bedbugs from my adventures at the developing world’s dirtiest guest houses, and I’ve never tracked them home even once. You are really unlikely to get them by a quick trip to a place full of stuff that effectively kills them.

4

Bedbugs are not new.
Laundromats are not new.

Why are you now concerned?

What has changed?

5

Bedbugs have spread quite a bit in the past few years. bedbugregistry.com and BedBugReports.com lists more and more infected hotels. There’s a lot of red on their map.

A treatment must be found soon or everybody will have them. Just like the bad old days when Grandmaw was a kid.

6

There is a treatment. It’s called doing your laundry.

7

The biggest concern is our furniture. There’s been stories of people throwing it out because of bedbug infection.

My wife bought a really nice living room set a few years ago. A hide-a-bed sofa, matching chair and end tables. Our daughters left for college and it was time to redecorate. :smiley: We’d both be heartbroken to have that furniture ruined by bedbugs.

We try to always check hotels at the bedbug registry before leaving for trips. We look the room over carefully after we check in. Look for any signs before bringing in our luggage.

8

Your life sounds very stressful.

9

Not really. It pays to be careful. We still travel and use hotels. We still go to movies. There’s only so much anyone can do to avoid bedbugs.

The laundromat is a special concern because that’s where people with bedbugs take their laundry. Because the high temp dryers will kill them. But, that doesn’t do much for the ones that avoid the dryer and hop off onto tabletops and the floor.

10

I voted “Other”.

Mom and I don’t have access to a washer & dryer in our apartment, so we do our laundry downstairs in the laundry room, which is available to all apartment tenants. The only other option would be to go to an public laundromat. I did enough of that as a child. No thanks.

It wouldn’t be as bad, I suppose, because I don’t think smoking is allowed in laundromats nowadays, and I have stuff to do to occupy myself (like my 3DS). But the screaming children are still there, and the sketchy weirdos… I digress.

I guess my answer is: I would do my laundry “at home” but unfortunately I don’t have the choice. :mad:

I am in the unfortunate position of having some minor bedbug issues right now. (I’ve found three of them in the past week, and have been itching my hands and arms like crazy when I’m trying to sleep in my bed.) Where we picked them up is a mystery. We don’t travel so hotels/motels aren’t an issue.

We have gone to food pantries in the last 3-6 months, who serve people more disadvantaged than we are, who may not be able to launder their bags, etc. as easily. I can’t blame them: I can’t imagine trying to wash your backpack or whatever at a homeless shelter, where if you put something down and so much as look away, it’s stolen.

But it’s not just places like that, it’s hotels, hospitals, wherever you have upholstered surfaces. The bedbugs hide in the upholstery, then hitch a ride on your bag or jacket. Ewww!

Putting your infested items in the washer & dryer will kill the damn things, but the washer and dryer must be VERY HOT! For some reason, our laundry room doesn’t have very hot water. (Landlord is too cheap to turn up the hot water heater? Dunno.) Hot dryers we have, but some of my items can’t go in the dryer, or they’ll be damaged. (Like acrylic throws and stuffed animals.)

I just finished spraying my mattress with a pest-killing spray, and I think it’s dried enough to put on my bedding. Tomorrow I’ll pick up the clutter and thoroughly vacuum the carpets. Crossing my fingers this will do the trick! :smiley:

11

I will occasionally use a laundromat. I have a washer and dryer in my home, but there have been times when I am so overwhelmed by laundry that it made sense to go to a laundromat and do it all at once.

As for bulky comforters, I take them to a dry cleaner. I have one that’s washable and two that are dry clean only, and when Bad Cat pees on them, off to the dry cleaner they go, and they’re happy to take my money.

12

I voted “Yes with special precautions.”

I would advise you to leave a garbage bag in your car until the bedspreads/comforters are ready to come out of the dryer, then directly into the bag they go. If you are really bugged about it, (sorry, couldn’t help myself! :smiley: ) then don’t hang out in the laundromat while you are waiting. Wait in the car. As soon as you get home, put your shoes in a bag in the freezer for 3-4 days. Immediately strip down, take a shower, and wash your clothes. You should be safe.

13

You could and have them dry cleaned.

14

I worry more about grease and oils being stuck in the washers. I have gotten a few stains from laundromats.

15

Both intense heat and intense cold will kill bedbugs, so it’s as easy as putting things in the hot sun (how they cure it in the tropics, successfully!) or out into the freezing cold for a couple of days, (how it’s done in cold climates, successfully!).

This has not stopped excitable people freaking out and believing nonsense like, “or everybody will have them!” Not true. Not now, not ever.

Hospitals successfully avoid infestation, though zillions of uncleaned masses go through every day. How do they do that? Oh yeah, by doing the laundry, with hot water! If it works for them it ought to work for you, don’t ya think?

16

I don’t have a choice - the water system in my building can’t handle a washing machine, and we don’t have a water softener to keep the clothes from turning orange from all the iron in the water. I’ll occasionally hand wash an item (good thing my work shirts are red already) but really, it’s the laundromat or nothing.

Haven’t had an issue with bedbugs.

If I ever did I would simply have to deal with them.

17

I was the lone “Hell no” because I’ve had bed bugs. It was hell on Earth. I’m one of the lucky people who reacts very badly to their bites, so each bite (and they bite in groups of three) was the size of a half dollar and easily the most painful, intensely itchy thing I’ve ever experienced.

Getting rid of them is difficult, to say the least. I ended up spending thousands to have my house heat treated. Pesticides do not work. Intense heat is the only thing that kills every bed bug in every stage of development. 118°F for 90 minutes to reach 100% mortality.

I got mine from a moving truck, incidentally. They like to hide in the moving blankets, the techs said. They told me they’ve treated city buses, movie theaters and libraries, to name a few. I don’t sit on upholstered furniture in public places anymore.

18

This sounds like raging paranoia and a big dose of Google-gross-outing to me.

If you’re that worried, take some precautions. Choose a nice looking laundromat, not a fleabag joint. Inspect the washer you intend to use carefully before removing your goods from a sealed trash bag. If you find bugs, use a different laundromat, not a different machine.

Once you find a clean machine, run the washer through a full cycle on max hot with soap, bleach, and none of your goods. Inspect it again. Now run your goods through the same washer, taking care to empty stuff from your sealed trash bag directly into the washer cavity without touching the floors, outside of the machine, etc.

While the washing is running, do the same inspect-and-pre-run with the dryer. Once it’s safely sterilized, be equally careful transferring your goods from washer to dryer to avoid touching anything. Once done, be equally careful transferring goods from dryer to a fresh trash bag. Don’t use the old bag you brought the goods in. The bag or your goods might have had bugs all along, or the bag may have gotten them while you’re at the laundromat.

if all this sounds borderline crazy / OCD, it is. But no less so than your OP. And regardless of the average likelihood across the entire US of catching bedbugs at a Laundromat, I think it’s pretty clear doing things as I suggest will reduce your risk 10-20x below that.

Which is good enough for rational folks. And for the slightly irrational folks we all actually are.

19

Excellant advice LSLGuy. I hadn’t considered running bleach through the washer first to clean it. That would be helpful for a lot of things. Never know if someone washed a load of dirty diapers an hour earlier. Or greasy mechanic’s clothes. Cleaning the machine makes good sense.

Anyway, I’ve decided to use the Laundromat and take special precautions.

20

Well, since I “risk” using one every Saturday and don’t have any bugs, I voted “yes.”