Mildew, ideas please.

[AllisonK]

Some of my son's shorts were left wet and when I found them they are so stinky with mildew. I washed them and they still smell and they actually made a pair of my DD's smell too that were in the same load. These are jean shorts. I have washed them so many times. How can I get the stink out???
Would bleach take the color out of the shorts (dark blue denim) if I only used a tiny bit?
Thanks
Allison

[sunshinestarr]

Tea tree oil might help.. It gets mold off of my walls.. I don't know - maybe you can try adding a bit to your wash?

[Spastica]

Soak in vinegar - then with regular wash, throw some baking soda in the wash. Tea tree oil is good with the vinegar soak, yup.

[AllisonK]

Thanks mammas,
I did some online searching and put one cup of Baking soda and One cup of vinegar into the wash with no soap or anything. Did an extra rinse, It worked!! No mildew smell at all. The link I found said that this will actually get the little black spots off of the really bad stuff too. These were not that bad yet so I don't know if it really does that but they smell so much better.