Many people were stunned to find out what the pink marks were in their bathrooms, having always assumed they were down to something else
A cleaning expert has issued an urgent warning about the pink mould in your bathroom – saying it’s not actually mould at all.
Bathrooms are notoriously one of the hardest places to keep clean, given how damp they can get. You can spend hours scrubbing, only to find it looking grimy again as soon as someone brushes their teeth. However, according to one professional cleaner, there’s one thing you need to be looking out for in particular.
‘Cleanfluencer’ Kacie Stephens posted a video on Instagram —where she often shares all kinds of tips and tricks—warning that there’s a nasty type of mould that can easily cause infections, and it’s easy to spot because it’s bright pink. The reason why it’s so bad is that it’s not actually mould after all, despite what many people think.
Kacie, who is from Melbourne, explained in the video’s caption: “Pink mould is not actually mould at all, it’s bacteria. The build-up of it on your shower can cause infections, so make sure you’re washing it away regularly.” In the clip, she was seen scrubbing away at pink-coloured slime in the shower. “FACTS,” Kacie wrote, adding: “This pink mould? It’s not mould at all. It’s a bacteria called Serratia Marcescens.”
According to a 2013 paper published in the National Library of Medicine, Serratia Marcescens is an ‘opportunistic, gram-negative, nosocomial pathogen’ that belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae. It was first discovered by Italian pharmacist Bartolomeo Bizio back in 1819, when he identified it as a ‘cause of the bloody discolouration on cornmeal mush’.
Many people were stunned to find out what the pink marks were in their bathrooms, having always assumed they were down to something else. “I always thought it was soap scum,” one person said, while another added, “I always thought it must be maybe makeup build-up!!!!” Someone else remarked, “Eww is this the pinky-red s**t that builds up around sink drains?” A fourth user wrote: “Thank you for sharing this information! I noticed this pink liquid in my dehumidifier which totally puzzled me because it didn’t come from a water source. It was in the air. Regardless, I wasn’t comfortable with that and tried to rinse my dehumidifier frequently after emptying.”
Sharing their own advice on how to deal with it, another user advised: “Serratia is an incredibly resilient bacteria and can grow in most any moist environment. Eradicating it totally is hard, but a 10% bleach solution and keeping your shower as dry as possible between use helps.”
