Why Do Brown Stains Appear On Old Mattresses
If you were shocked when you discovered brown stains on your old mattress, you are not alone. Don’t panic, though, mattresses turn brown due to several reasons. Instead of worrying, understand why your mattress has turned brown and how you can get it out.
What Causes Brown Spots on a Mattress?
Brown Stains, yellow Stains, or blue stains. No stain, no matter which colour, is great on a mattress. It’s natural to think that all stains signal an underlying issue with our neatness but while some are as a result of slacking hygiene, many are not.
This thinking is understandable, the mattress is where you sleep every night, it should be one of the places kept neat in a home. You expose yourself to diseases if you don’t keep it clean.
But brown stains can simply be the result of your mattress use. Everything has an age and constant usage would damage it eventually.
What causes brown stains on a mattress?
- Moisture
Even in a well-ventilated room, it’s normal to sweat while sleeping. But it’s not sweating that stains your mattress. Brown Stains maybe a result of rust. Rust is formed when metals (especially iron) are exposed to moisture.
Traditional mattresses have a core of metal springs. So if water pours on the bed, it percolates the foam and comes in contact with the metal. It’s this rusting iron that stains the mattress.
- Body Excretions
Natural bodily excretions such as sweat and oil are one of the reasons we get stains on our mattresses. You don’t have to endure night sweats or have a hot climate to sweat or produce natural oils every night, as it’s common for everyone to have them regardless.
And while it can make you feel disgusting, sweat and oil will eventually build up on the mattress as brown marks and even smell in some cases. Remember, we spend a lot of time in bed with our face and head against the mattress, which is why blankets are essential.
What naturally leaves our skin will eventually make its way through the mattress, and when the oil and sweat dry up, it will leave these spots. The culprit is the urea found in sweat and not the sweat itself.
- Brown Liquids
This could happen with people who love to eat in bed. If a brown liquid pours on the bed and it’s allowed to percolate into the foam, it can form a brown stain on the mattress.
Which liquids can stain your mattress?
Coffee
Yes, coffee can do it. If you have coffee spills on your mattress, you should never let it seep else it would stain.
Tea
Especially without milk, tea can be culprit number two. Teas spills should be wiped out before they percolate the mattress too.
Beer
All beers are equal, but some are more equal than others. In that analogy, some beers have browner shades than others and they can stain your mattress.
In all, you should avoid eating or drinking in bed as much as possible.
- Bed Bugs
Considering how many times, we say “don’t let the bedbug bite” those naughty bugs must not understand our instructions or don’t bother to follow them.
Aside from the itchy bites these bloodsuckers cause, they can cause brown stains on our bed too.
- Blood
When the blood dries, it turns rusty brown. If you bleed on your mattress and don’t clean up when the blood is fresh, it can cause brown stains if it dries out.
Blood can get on our mattresses if you get injured, aggravate an exciting injury, period blood, or through insect bites.
For example, mosquito bites leave bloodstains on your sheets or mattress.
What Are the Yellow Stains on My Bed?
Like I said before, no stain is good for your mattress. Aside from brown stains, most mattresses like teeth can turn yellow.
Unfortunately, you can’t brush your mattresses every day. You’ve got a wide image if you think your mattresses are as dirty as your teeth though.
Before you get disgusted, note that these four reasons for yellow colouring are typical, especially with mattresses. After all, we spend a lot of time in our beds and you can expect these things to add up over time.
We need to clean our mattresses regularly to avoid stains. Not only are they great, when they sparkle white, but constant maintenance itself also affects the longevity of the mattress.
The yellow stains on your mattress can be
Urine
Urine is made up of urea salt, water, and ammonia. While ammonia gives urine its characteristics stink, urea is that substance that ends up leaving yellow marks on your mattress.
Whether it’s a toddler or a pet, bedwetting occurs at night and will leave marks and stains on your mattress. What’s more difficult with urine would give this pungent smell that you also nullify. Nothing is as disgusting as a smell of urine choking your room.
Using mattress protectors is crucial to prevent this. And you must master how to properly dry your mattress. Mop off the urine as soon as possible to prevent it from seeping deeper into the material. If it percolates, it can further cause rust.
You can also use baking soda. Apply it on the affected areas and vacuum to help dry and deodorize.
Mould
Speaking of drying the mattress, mould can grow when you leave your bed damp or don’t dry it completely. It doesn’t matter whether the mattress is soaked or damp, even a little moisture can promote mould and mildew.
These fungi are not only harmful to health, but they also leave yellow spots on the affected areas. Compared to the more obvious yellow spots in body excretions or urine, yellow mould spots are smaller.
However, you should notice them quickly when you carefully inspect your mattress. Never use a damp mattress and always dry it as soon as possible if it gets wet or spilt to prevent mould growth.
How Do You Get Old Brown Stains Out of a Mattress?
Cleaning a mattress is close to cleaning a carpet. You can do this using the same equipment needed to clean carpets.
What Do You Need?
- Baking soda
- A detergent of your choice
- Hydrogen peroxide
The Procedure
- Remove the sheets and other protective coverings.
- Vacuum the mattress. This helps remove all dust particles and dust mites that contribute to the staining process
- Mix the materials. Add two teaspoons of baking soda to hydrogen peroxide in a spraying bottle. Top it with a little dishwashing liquid or detergent.
- Spray the stained areas generously. Make sure the urine and blood-stained areas receive sufficient amounts.
- Leave for half an hour or an hour.
- Vacuum the rest of the baking powder and allow it to dry.
What you have left is a clean mattress which also smells nice.
What Causes Rust Stains on Mattresses?
Simple answer. Moisture. If it is truly rust and not some other brown stain, that it has to be moisture.
As we have said above, rust comes from the iron inside the mattress that has got into contact with moisture. It’s this rust that stains your mattress.
What Are Orange Stains on the Mattress?
Check it, is it orange or a bright brown stain? If it is the latter, it can be a bed bug stain or rust. Rust can range from bright brown to orange. If it is really orange, then, it can be baby oil.
True, baby oil is colourless but when it seeps into the mattress, it gives rise to a bright orange colour. Not all oils do this, some would not stain at all.
It can also be mold. Fungi have a wide range of colours and it might seem that the mould growing on your sheet is orange.
Do Bed Bugs Leave Yellow Stains?
Yes, but not every time. Since they bite and suck blood, the normal bloodstain bed bugs leave is rusty brown or dark brown. Yellow stains can be formed however when unhatched bed bug eggs are crushed.
The more the yellow stain, the more the infestation, and the more bed bugs that are hiding in that part of your bed.
Yellow stains can also be formed by immature bugs. These bugs get crushed when you roll over on the bed and they get pinned between your body and the bed.
What Do Bedbug Stains Look Like?
Bed bug stains occur as tiny red or crusty brown spots. These occur from bed bugs suckling blood or when they are crushed by your body.
They look like little marker spots, like red droppings on the sheet or mattress. The spots can also come from the bugs’ excreta and other fluids.
Other Bugs That Stain Your Bed
Bed bugs can stain the bed but stains are not exclusive to this insect. Other bugs that can stain your mattress include:
Fleas
The flea is a parasite that you or the immediate previous user will have to bring into bed. The flea remains clinging to its victim, otherwise, its lifespan is reduced to 2 or 3 days.
Bed moths
The bed or clothing moth should not be confused with the food moth, the distant cousin of the butterfly.
The bed moth, digests keratin, a constituent protein of hair, body hair, feathers, nails and it can also chew on anything that has cellulose, like clothing or mattresses.
This explains why the bed moth likes so much to settle in woollen mattresses.
But it does not live in the very middle of the pile of wool that forms the mattress. These insects are sneaky and it is confined to places where it has access to the outside world.
This is mostly the passage between the bed and the padding.
Bed Mites
The word mite constitutes a family of microscopic arachnids which includes the house mites. Another name for them is dust mites.
Dust mites are phanophagous (that say they feed on our epidermal scales, which are small debris of dead skin, nails, hair, or hairs)
When they die, they form a brownish yellow stain on the mattress.
5 Mattress Yellow Stains Removal You Need
If the homemade DYI options of cleaning your mattresses don’t suit you. You can try professional stain removals. Here are five top products.
Good Life Stain And Odour Removal
If you desire a good not so expensive solution to your yellowing mattress, the Good life stain and odour removal are for you. It comes in packages of 32 oz or 1 gallon. You can place an order on amazon.
Resolve Stain Removal
Even more, recommended is the Resolve stain removal. Original produce to clean carpets, it can double as a mattress cleaner. It comes is in a 650 ml plastic bottle as it’s good for most materials.
KleanLogik Mattress Stain Remover
The Kleanlogik comes in a fashionable 6oz package. It is good for cleaning urine, vomit, coffee stains on mattresses.
You can mix the agent with detergent or hydrogen peroxide for maximum impact.
Bissell Woolite Stain & Odor Remover
One thing about the Bissell Woolite Stain Removal is it doubles as a sanitiser. It is great for removing yellow or coffee brown stains and effective for rust stains too. Place an order from amazon.
Clorox Urine Remover for Stains
Clorox has an array of stain removals and their urine stain removal is one of the best. You can use it to get your yellow mattresses sparkling white and back to how they looked from your first purchase.
What have we learned so far? Let’s do a recap.
No stain is good for your mattress but not all stains are hygiene problems. Brown stains are caused by several things which include moisture, bed bugs, and blood.
Urine and mould can also cause the yellowing of mattresses. There are several natural ways of getting the yellowness out of your mattress. One popular way is using baking soda.
Rust stains are caused by the rusting iron in the mattresses. Bed bug stains are mostly rusty brown but can also be yellow. Yellow stains are from immature bugs and eggs. Other bugs also contribute to staining mattresses. And we recommend five stain removing products that work wonders.
Why Do Brown Stains Appear On Old Mattresses – Conclusion
Stains disfigure our mattresses and no matter how clean you are, your mattress can turn yellow due to constant use. Maintaining proper hygiene and using mattress covers reduces the speed at which the yellowness or brownness forms.
Your mattress is your place of rest and it should be well taken care of.
