How To Get Grass Stains Out Of Pants

Summer fun outside on lush green lawn guarantees grass stains on your kids' clothing. But there are easy ways you can remove those grass stains from clothing for good.

It's always a joy to watch kids playing outside on a lush green lawn, but it's never fun to discover a grass stain or two on the seat or knees of their pants afterwards.

Here's how to remove grass stains from clothing.

Dirty Legs and Feet of Children Sitting on a Bench

Grass stains can be one of the hardest stains to remove from clothing. Image: iStock

Removing grass stains from clothes or fabric

Grass stains will come out with prompt laundering and stain treatment. Some other techniques to remove grass stains include:

Rubbing alcohol – or methylated spirits or white spirits - can be a quick no-wash treatment for a grass stain, though such stain treatments can "bleed" the colours of the fabric, so it's worth trying using a 50:50 alcohol and water solution first before moving on to straight alcohol.
If the clothing is white and can be bleached, using a chlorine bleach solution on the stain will work. Just be sure not to use too much bleach or you'll damage the garment.
Soaking the stain in a solution of water and detergent is great – then wash the garment as usual, but don't put the item in the clothes dryer until you've checked the stain has definitely gone.
When trying to eliminate grass stains, don't use ammonia, degreaser or alkaline detergents because they may permanently set the stain.

Removing grass stains from unwashable fabrics

If the care label says the clothing is not washable, the easiest thing is to take the item straight to the dry cleaners. You can try blotting the stain with a towel and some drycleaning fluid available from hardware stores or supermarkets. Blot from inside the clothing to push the stain outwards.

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Removing grass stains from carpet or furniture

While it isn't easy to get a grass stain inside the house, it's not impossible. Grass stains are a mix of a protein stain with other organic matter like chlorophyll and pigments from xanthophylls and carotenoids.

For Scotchguarded and other stain-resistant carpets or furnishings, grass stains will have a harder time binding, though the stain may actually end up being from dried dirt, organic matter, and other natural remnants.

To treat carpet or furnishings, mix a mild detergent and water (try to avoid using a detergent that contains optical brighteners as it can discolour fabrics and carpets over the long term - laundry soap is great for this) at the rate of a quarter teaspoon to a cup of water. Blot from the outside of the stain into the centre with white towels or paper towels to see how much stain transfers on to the towel.

This article was first published in December 2015 and updated in September 2020.