Many people are afraid that they might have to throw away their favorite clothes that have become infested with bed bugs. The good news is you can launder you clothes to get rid of the critters and keep your favorite wear. All you need is some caution and basic laundry skills and you should come out of the ordeal more or less unscathed.
You can follow the same procedure with other common household fabrics such as bedding, pillows, drapes and area rugs.
How to Remove Bed Bugs from Clothes
Place the infested clothes in a plastic bag and seal if you are not washing them immediately or are moving them to the laundry room from some other part of the house. This step is crucial to avoid spreading the bed bugs.
Pour the contents of the bag into the washing machine making sure that the bag?s mouth is in the machine. Picking out clothes by hand from the bag and into the washer may give the bugs a chance to escape. Place the used laundry bag in another plastic bag and seal tightly before disposing. Run a full wash cycle with hot water. Move the clothes carefully to the dryer or heat-dry on the highest setting possible for your fabrics. You may skip washing if your clothes aren?t dirty to begin with. Just the dryer should be enough to kill the bed bugs. Run the dryer for at least 20 minutes to be sure that you have killed the pests.
If you have dry clean-only clothes, take them to your local dry cleaner. Again, carry the clothes in a sealed plastic bag or a bed bug proof laund...