In my “Quick Tumble Dryer Tip” I said the following:
This means that pyjamas, underwear, sheets, blankets, socks, etc. do not need to be ironed.
Why would they need to be ironed anyway?
Well, I’ve heard MANY horror stories about how flies and other bugs can land on clothes that are hung out to dry, and if they aren’t ironed, may have deposited eggs/larvae that may work their way into your skin! So anything that is hung out to dry must get ironed, in my opinion.
I’m sure a lot of people didn’t believe me, but how about this article on the Daily Mail website:
The trip was a great success, and as I took the taxi to the airport I was pleased to see that I had only one mosquito bite. It was on the inside of my left upper arm, by the seam of my T-shirt. Never mind, I thought, it’s not even itchy: it will be kept cool in the plane’s air conditioning and will be almost gone by the time I’m back.
At about 4am, I had turned the light on and was staring at the bite. Suddenly, it seemed to be moving. I must be very, very tired, I reasoned.There was now a hole at the top of the bite, with what looked like pus; I wiped it clean with a piece of disinfected cotton wool. The pain abated. Twenty minutes later, more movement, more yellow stuff, more agony.
I explained that I’d been bitten by a mosquito in Kenya, and it now seemed infected. I tried to add nonchalantly that I thought the area was wriggling. I didn’t want to be the ‘crazy lady’ of the day.I needn’t have worried. As I rolled up my sleeve to show the nurse, it became immediately clear to both of us that it was not a mosquito bite. Out of the – now larger – hole popped what appeared to be a small maggot, accompanied by the now familiar wave of pain.
Jake told me the female tumbu fly likes to lay its eggs on damp clothing or linen. (I remembered leaving my wet T-shirt hanging off the edge of my sunlounger to dry.) If those clothes are then worn, the eggs penetrate the skin. After two or three days, the larvae hatch beneath the skin.Once ‘born’, the larvae need air so they eat their way out. I realised, with horror, that the pain was the larva munching its way out of my arm.
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