A spot where you’ve spilled food, such as fries or donut crumbs, may look harmless. But spills produced the most bacteria among the car sites tested. The researchers sampled 11 different sites inside 100 cars in Illinois, Arizona, Florida, California and Washington, D.C., and looked for both mold and bacteria. The study also examined variables such as vehicle type, whether children traveled in the car, geographic location and the gender and marital status of the drivers. Single people and men proved to have the cleanest cars and those in Arizona had the lowest bacteria numbers, while married people and women had the germiest vehicles.

That’s because women tend to drive the family car, which holds the car seats and harbors children’s germs, the study found. More bacteria were isolated in vans and SUVs, typical family vehicles, than in cars.

But beyond whether you have children, the city you call home can make it easier or harder to keep your car clean. Of the cities tested, Tampa, Fla., ranked highest in average amounts of bacteria. Thanks to its humid, high temperatures, the city’s drivers had 10 times more bacteria in their cars than Tucson, Ariz., residents. Higher average monthly rainfall in cities also translated to more bacteria, according to the study, possibly because bacteria can survive longer in moist environments. Cars in Chicago, on the other hand, had 15 times more mold occurrences than those in Tampa due to the differences in temperature.

If your car is suddenly starting to sound like it needs a cleaning, Gerba recommends disinfecting it once a week. Start with any food stains and work your way down to the change holder and steering wheel, the place our hands come into contact with the most. ”Don’t become overly paranoid,” Gerba says. “Just clean the seat before the kids start sticking to the bottom.” Pleasant Details is now offering DrivePur to better serve our Clients and to provide the best odor and bacteria fighting process on the market! Call us for more information on DrivePur.