A laundromat has the potential to get bugs. Cockroaches love starch-based items and water. Bed bugs often travel on clothes and in dirty laundry. To prevent bugs from infesting your business, commercial pest control in Mississauga gets ahead of the problem and takes a proactive stance to minimize the problem.
How Bed Bugs Get Into a Laundromat
Many people use a laundromat to get rid of bed bugs, which means that the bugs come into the business. Bed bugs are small, so they can come in on someone’s clothes or in linens. The pests can survive cold washes, which means that the next person who comes in to do the laundry could take the bugs home. Even worse, the bed bugs could reproduce and lay eggs in your machines or around the baseboards in your business. Female bed bugs lay at least one egg a day, but at the peak of their life, they can lay five to seven eggs per day. While they don’t reproduce quickly, they will reproduce.
Roaches are another common pest that your laundromat can have. One female can produce up to 6 generations per year. Controlling the population of cockroaches can be difficult without commercial pest control because these pests are so pervasive.
How to Avoid Bed Bugs and Other Pests
Bed bugs are one of the hardest pests to get rid of. The one good thing about a laundromat is that for the most part, there is no steady food source. Bed bugs feed at night. They are drawn to people and animals who release carbon dioxide as they sleep. The bigger problem is that bed bugs can go home with other clients. Professional pest control is often the best solution to get rid of bed bugs because you won’t have to wonder if you still have them. You won’t waste money on products that aren’t effective. Professionals also have access to stronger pesticides that are still safe and eco-friendly. These chemicals can be used proactively to prevent infestations. Instead of spending time trying to keep bed bugs or roaches from getting in your laundry, you act first and use pesticides to keep bugs out of your business.
How Customers Can Protect Themselves From Getting Bed Bugs From a Laundromat
If bed bugs have been a problem, you can give customers these tips:
- Use heat to wash and dry clothes. Washing in hot water will kill most of the bugs, but drying clothes in a hot dryer should get the rest.
- If clothes can’t be dried at a hot temperature, visually inspect each item before placing it in a clean bag.
- If you use a cloth bag to carry your clothes to the laundromat, wash the bag along with your clothing and dry it too.
- Don’t set your laundry basket on the floor at the laundromat. Bring an alcohol wipe to clean your laundry baskets to avoid transferring bed bugs to your clothes.
- If you use plastic bags, place your clean clothes in clean plastic bags to take them home. Visually inspect the outside of the bag when you get home. Individual bed bugs can be killed with rubbing alcohol.
- Avoid using the tables at the laundromat. Fold your clothes at home.
Bed bugs can be intrusive and difficult to get rid of. Pests make your laundromat appear dirty, which can turn patrons away. Contact Truly Nolen for professional pest control.