When you discover bed bugs in your home, your first reaction is that you want them out of your home as soon as possible. That’s totally understandable! But you also don’t want to make the problem worse for yourself and for other people, so it’s best to take a moment to make a plan for safe and professional treatment of any infested clothing or other fabrics.
First of all, when you have an infestation, please don’t simply take your clothes, bedding, and other household laundry to your local laundromat or dry cleaner. It’s understandable that you want to be discreet and take care of the problem yourself, but unfortunately this won’t help you. Your local laundry and dry cleaning services aren’t equipped to handle this situation. Think of it this way: if you were hiring a pest control company, would you hire just anyone, or would you want a professional?
There are professional laundry services which specialize in the removal of bed bugs. The people who provide these services have training and experience in identifying, removing, and preventing the return of pests when handling your clothes, sheets, towels, and other fabrics. The services also use equipment which allows for high-heat washing and drying cycles which aren’t always available on the machines at your neighborhood laundromat.
Unfortunately, if you try to wash bed bugs out yourself, you could very well be making a bad situation worse by helping to spread the bugs instead of terminating them. Who knows what trouble you could be leaving behind in the washing machine for the next person who uses the machine-or the next load you wash yourself?
Also, when you are transporting your laundry to a laundromat, you could be spreading bed bugs around town and making a bad situation worse for yourself and others. These pests have become an all too common nuisance in many areas, and by working together, people can help address the problem more effectively.
Rather than allow the infestation to spread, you can double-bag your infested items in heavy trash bags and tape the bags closed. Then, look for a local laundry service that specializes in bed bug removal. Maybe of these services will also offer discreet pick up and delivery because they understand both your concerns for privacy and the importance of keeping an infestation contained.
The convenience and peace of mind of having your laundry professionally treated for bed bugs are worth the investment. You can have your laundry treated by a specialty service at the same time that you’re having your house or apartment treated-and you can know that you won’t be reintroducing bed bugs into your home after everything has been cleaned!
