Dead Mouse in the Washing Machine - now what?

phagga

Switzerland2194 Posts

March 22 2014 22:26 GMT

I just opened my washing machine to retrieve the freshly washed laundry, only to find that there were also freshly washed bones in there, probably from a mouse. I assume that my cat snuck it into the laundry when it was lying on the ground for a few hours.

Luckily the laundry was already sorted beforehand, and the mouse (or whatever it was) was in the pile that was washed on 95°C for almost 3 hours; mostly cleaning cloths and stuff from the kitchen.

I have cleaned out the filter and the machine (I've found about 8 bones totally and some things that I don't want to start guessing what it originally was), but how do I proceed? Can I just wash the laundry again and use it? or should I throw the stuff away that was washed with the mouse? And what about the washing machine? I assume since I retrieved all parts of the mouse (hopefully) and the water was flushed anyway, I can just normally use it, but I feel unsure.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I have two little kids, and I just fear that they get some sickness or something if I'm not careful here. Or am I too paranoid?

KadaverBB

Germany25658 Posts

March 22 2014 22:31 GMT

Moved to blogs lol

Staboteur

Canada1873 Posts

March 22 2014 22:33 GMT

I'd lean towards too paranoid, but as a bachelor and not educated on the subject, I'd say my opinion isn't worth that much.

That said, I'd have an incredibly hard time imagining that a single dead mouse is going to contaminate an entire load of laundry to the point of it being unsafe for use. Consider this: Your cat managed to hide a dead mouse in your clothing somewhere. That is not, will not be, and has not been the only dead and hidden mouse in your household. As far as health and safety goes, finding it after an intense laundry cycle is probably more hygienic then your toddler waddling up to you with a dead mouse in their fist saying "Mommy! Daddy! Look what the cat found!"

The end : Myself in that position, I'd replace the clothes if I couldn't forget that a dead mouse is basically saturated into the fibers. That would weird me out, so I'd replace them.

ObviousOne

United States3704 Posts

March 22 2014 22:39 GMT

Is it weird that I'd just wear them immediately?

phagga

Switzerland2194 Posts

March 23 2014 00:12 GMT

On March 23 2014 07:33 Staboteur wrote:
I'd lean towards too paranoid, but as a bachelor and not educated on the subject, I'd say my opinion isn't worth that much.

That said, I'd have an incredibly hard time imagining that a single dead mouse is going to contaminate an entire load of laundry to the point of it being unsafe for use. Consider this: Your cat managed to hide a dead mouse in your clothing somewhere. That is not, will not be, and has not been the only dead and hidden mouse in your household. As far as health and safety goes, finding it after an intense laundry cycle is probably more hygienic then your toddler waddling up to you with a dead mouse in their fist saying "Mommy! Daddy! Look what the cat found!"

The end : Myself in that position, I'd replace the clothes if I couldn't forget that a dead mouse is basically saturated into the fibers. That would weird me out, so I'd replace them.

These are pretty good points, thank you.

On March 23 2014 07:39 ObviousOne wrote:
Is it weird that I'd just wear them immediately?

Not necessarily, I might be the weird one here.

Actually, I think if I was living on my own, I wouldn't care. But life with two kids and a wife that is a lot more paranoid than I am when it comes to hygiene and animals has left its mark.

LaNague

Germany9118 Posts

March 23 2014 01:12 GMT

Uhm, a mouse is just a cute little animal, why would a dead one contaminate your clothes so that you could never wear them again.

People EAT dead animals every day, they put them in their mouth, not just have them touch their clothes.

Coagulation

United States9633 Posts

March 23 2014 01:32 GMT

its a mouse not a meth lab. man up.

Belisarius

Australia6233 Posts

March 24 2014 02:59 GMT

On March 23 2014 10:12 LaNague wrote:People EAT dead animals every day, they put them in their mouth, not just have them touch their clothes.

People don't (normally) eat decaying dead animals, which are the kind cats usually leave around. And "touching their clothes" and "eating" are frequently connected when you're talking about small children.

@OP:
3h @ 95C would be enough to make the vast majority of bacteria etc extremely unhappy, and those are the only "real" things you need to worry about. Most bugs can't deal with boiling (ie. 100 C) water for longer than 20 minutes or so. Even 95 C would have an effect for the length of time you're washing for.

A few would probably survive (normal steam-sterilization procedures in a biological lab are around 2h at 140 C to be sure), but for those... well.... as others have said, your kid would get a million times the exposure from any other dead mouse that he found.

Personally I'd re-wash the stuff under the same conditions (or higher if you can) just to be sure, but wouldn't worry too much.

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