Can Bedbugs Travel in Laundry Bags and Launderettes in Lewisham?

Stripping and hot-washing bedding is part of the preparation for a chemical treatment, and a lot of people without a washing machine at home, or with one too small for a duvet, end up at a launderette. That is fine. It just needs doing in the right order.

Why a Laundry Bag Carries Them

Bedbugs hide in folds and seams and are carried about by the things people move. A pile of sheets taken straight off an infested bed can hold bugs and eggs in its creases. Put that pile in an open fabric bag or a basket and carry it down the stairs, and anything that drops out is now in the hallway. Leave the bag on a chair at the launderette and anything that crawls out is on the chair.

None of this is a reason to panic. It is a reason to keep the washing sealed from the bed to the drum.

Getting It Out of the Room

1. Bag it at the bed. Strip the bedding and put it straight into a strong plastic bag in the bedroom. Do not pile it on the floor first or carry it loose to another room.
2. Tie it and double-bag it. Tie the neck tightly, then put that bag inside a second one. If you have dissolvable laundry bags, they can go in the machine unopened.
3. Do not sort it at home. Separate colours at the bed if you must, straight into different bags, rather than tipping it all out later.
4. Keep the bags off upholstered seats. In a car, a bus or a launderette, put them on a hard floor or a hard seat, not fabric.

At the Launderette

Open the bag at the machine and tip the contents straight into the drum, then put the empty bag into a bin outside rather than folding it up and taking it home. Use the hottest wash the fabric labels allow.

It is also considerate to the next person to avoid sorting or folding dirty washing on the counters or seats. Nobody needs to know why you are being careful.

What the Dryer Does

The tumble dryer is the most useful part of the process. A full hot tumble dry takes everything in the drum to a temperature bedbugs cannot survive, eggs included, and it reaches into folds and seams that a wash on its own may not. Things that cannot be washed, such as some cushions or soft toys, can often go through a hot dryer on their own.

What matters is that it is hot and that it runs a full cycle, with the drum not packed so tight that the heat cannot move through the load. A cool or short cycle does very little. If a label says the item cannot take a hot dryer, it will need to stay in the room for treatment instead; ask us about it.

Bringing It Back In

Clean laundry goes into a clean, new bag straight from the dryer. Not the bag it came in, and not back onto the bed until the treatment is finished. Keep it sealed until then, and take out what you need as you need it.

If the bed is to be treated, you will be told when to put the clean bedding back. With chemical treatment the room is usable once dry, but the follow-up visits mean you may strip and wash again before the course ends. With heat treatment the room and much of what is in it are treated together, so there is usually less to carry out.

Clothes You Wear Every Day

Clothes from drawers and wardrobes in an affected room can go through the same wash and dry, then into sealed bags. It is tempting to wash everything you own at once. Start with bedding and whatever is kept nearest the bed, and ask us what else is needed before you spend a day at the launderette. How to handle wardrobes and drawers is covered on the Sydenham page.

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