What places or things do you think are a treasure trove of germs?

Escalator handles.

I’d have to say public stair railings. Especially in subways.

ATM machines, keypads for credit/debit cards at stores.

Wow, maybe I should start wearing rubber gloves whenever I go to these places. LOL
Oh, just thought of one more. Elevator buttons.

Door handles at porn shops

Outhouses

Fruit and Produce at the grocery store. Sure you wash it before you eat it, but if some snotty handed kid or adult picked up that apple first, then put it back onto the pile, then you picked it up and then inadvertently wiped your hand across your mouth or your eyes, hen you just picked up a bug.

Television remote controls, especially ones in hotel rooms.

Elevator buttons, especially ones in medical office buildings.

Shared work telephones.

The microwave oven at work. People break for lunch, take a whizz, don’t wash their hands and put their food into the microwave. Then you open the microwave to put your food in. And there it is.

Menus at restaurants. At best, they get wiped down with a greasy rag.

Tabletops at restaurants. See above.

Counters at fast food restaurants where people tend to bring itty bitty kids and park their diapered butts on the counter while they search for their wallet to pay for that Potty Meal I mean Happy Meal.

Bouncy houses (like the kind people rent for kids birthday parties) Just imagine what’s been hocked up, pooped out, run down or otherwise oozed out of a kid. They don’t go in there and sterilize those things after the party, they just deflate them and throw ‘em back onto the truck.

The handles and insides of those shopping baskets that you carry. Unless you took them outside and hosed them down with disenfectant, they pretty much just get gathered up and put back onto the pile, even though there are miniscule-looking pieces of rotting produce at the bottom and God knows what kind of snot covered germs that have been holding the handle.

@Kardamom Damn, nice. Good list.

I like inflatable bouncy houses though lol.

Those kid play grounds at McDonalds, etc., with the round plastic balls in it. How many hamburgers, spit, puke, and snot is lost in those plastic balls?

Money.

The grease bin in the alley behind a restaurant.

Which I would never voluntarily touch, I don’t worry about germs much

Cart handles at Walmart.

Someone told me once that the outside, bottom area of a purse is a haven for germs and the spreading of germs. Think about all of the places you put your purse. How many times do you disinfect the outside of your purse? How many times do you come home and put your purse on your dining room table or kitchen counter? Yuck. Don’t even get me started about the soles of your shoes.

Money is about the nastiest of all that I have read about, enought to make about 9 out of 10 folks sick. ehk! One thing I hate is pumping gas because you know that handle NEVER gets cleaned. I will plan my day around when to pump gas if possible. haha really…. nasty litlle nozzle.

Your cell phone, if not cleaned regularly, is a treasure trove of funk also.

I wonder about the handle on my frozen mug? if it freezes, that doesn’t mean the germs die does it?

@bkcunningham I know people that bring their kids shoes in and put them on the kitchen table! beyond freaking me out there…. that is just not thinking… in the least bit.

The Krubera cave.

toilet handles

I’m surprised nobody mentioned keyboards/mice, such as at a library or school.
People have their hands all over them for hours at a time, and I don’t believe they are ever disinfected.

@chyna: I don’t think any McDonald’s still has the balls for kids to play in. At least not that I’ve seen in the ones we go to.

@jca Some do, but most don’t have that play area in them.

I was thinking this morning, library books. Imagine how many people have handled a library book and in many places too.

Touch it all, folks… that’s how we strengthen our immune systems. ;)

Everything we touch out in pubic has probaby been touch by many people. Don’t touch your face. If what gets on your hands doesn’t get to your eyes, nose, or mouth, you probaby won’t get sick. I try to do this more than worring about washing my hands. I rarely get sick. i have not had a stomach flu in 25 years.

At our grocery stores they have wipes near the carts so you can wipe of the handle if you want. But, of course everything in the grocery store was probably touched by multiple people. The one thing os thay cart handle might have been touched by small children and they are big time germ vectors. But, not most kids are in the pretend car carts.

@dappled_leaves Very true, but when I was suffering with my stomach bug, I really didn’t care what the long term benefits would be. I’m not going to be freaking out everytime I touch something but I think I’m going to be more careful about some things I touch and be sure to clean my hands before touching my face when that happens.

Trumpet blowout valves.

Door knobs, and toilet seats, these are two of my favorite things…

Mary Jane Rottencrotch’s pantie drawer?

Relevant from this afternoon.

@johnpowell No offense but I think I certainly won’t shake your hands. Now, I’m wondering if I will shake any guys hand. Ah, I got it a nod and a smile. No need for physical touching. :D

If video cameras were placed in men’s bathrooms, I wonder what it would show as to the percentage of men that wash their hands after going to the bathroom?

@jca That has been done. I don’t remember the specific stats. Men wash much less often than women. What I always wondered when they reported these studies is of they separated out men washing their hands after using the urinals, from when they us a stall. I’d be curious.

I have heard that hedgehogs can be rather flea ridden, but if your hedgehog needs a bit of a wash, this is how to do it Link

@JLeslie: It would be interesting to see those cameras placed in a food establishment, and then see what men don’t wash their hands and then go prepare food. It might be nauseating.

@jca That’s why I’m all for having those 5 gallon jugs of hand sanitizer placed in every restaurant kitchen. At least someone, whether it was the patrons or the supervisor of the restaurant could watch them clean their hands.

I always bring those mini packages of Clorox wipes in my purse, and I wipe down the entire table before I even set my stuff down. The clerks wipe down the tables with the same dirty, greasy rag all day long. It makes my skin crawl.

@jca You know what drives me crazy is when there is no soap left. How are they washing their hands? I also was thinking that their must be sinks in the kitchens, and they can wash before handling food there.

The farm on that eighties movie, The Curse. O_o