Crucial mistakes that cause 'pink slime' to show up in bathrooms following doctor's terrifying warning

There are some crucial mistakes people might make which causes ‘pink slime’ to show up in their bathrooms.

Unfortunately, some of us are probably familiar with the pretty gross ‘pink slime’ that sometimes has a tendency to appear in our washrooms.

It has a tendency to show up in various damp spots around the bathroom, and is inexplicably bright in colour and gross in texture.

But the seriousness of having pink slime in a bathroom took a sinister turn after a student on TikTok shared a video from a hospital bed, claiming he ended up there because he didn't clean the gooey substance.

Responding to the 'joke' on TikTok, Dr Karan Raj revealed that the pink stuff is actually bacteria as he explained the potential harm it can cause.

But how do you prevent the substance from developing? Here are all the mistakes that can lead to a build up of pink slime in your bathroom, according to HowStuffWorks.

First of all, and this won’t come as a surprise I’m sure, but you need to make sure when you’re cleaning you give all items in your bathroom the same treatment.

This means cleaning any shower chairs or other accessories you may have in the room but tend to overlook, because these can harbour mould too.

After this, it’s easy to think your work is done because what more is there to keeping a bathroom clean than… cleaning?

But don’t get relaxed too soon, because another key mistake people make that leads to pink slime is not drying surfaces properly.

It’s vital that when you’re done spraying down surfaces that you remove all signs of moisture, otherwise it could encourage growth.

And that takes us to the final mistake which can lead to the development of pink slime: keeping the bathroom window open.

While some might understandably think that keeping your bathroom window open would help prevent such growths, in this instance, it has the opposite effect.

Keeping the windows closed prevents airborne bacteria from entering, therefore reducing the chances of pink slime developing.

Instead, you can turn on the extractor fan to eliminate excess moisture.

Explaining the true bacteria nature of pink slime in his original video, Dr Raj said it's ‘specifically one called Serratia Marcescens, and it vomits hot pink all over your bathroom’.

The medical professional added: "This bacteria loves damp, moist places and enjoys munching on fatty deposits like those found in soaps and shampoos. Hence why it likes to hang out in your steamy bathroom."

While Dr Raj said the bacteria is ‘pretty harmless’ when you touch it, he did advise you still wouldn’t want to get it into ‘eyes or open wounds’.

For people who are immunocompromised, the pink slime should be approached with more caution because it could infect the chest, gut or urine.