Dust mites are tiny, little creatures than can have a big effect on you. If you have a dust mite allergy, your body has an allergic reaction to the allergens dust mites produce. Dust mite allergens can trigger rhinitis allergica or bronchial asthma. Dust mites are a major cause of asthma and allergies, especially in such vulnerable individuals as children and the elderly. In fact, there are estimates that dust mites may be a factor in countless cases of eczema, hay fever and other allergic ailments and in 50 to 80 percent of asthmatics.
Dust Mite Allergy Symptoms
If you find you are sneezing a lot, have a constantly running nose, are always itching, have inflamed or infected eczema, watering or reddening of the eyes or feel that your lungs are clogged, you may well have a dust mite allergy.
If you suspect you have a dust mite allery, you should see an allergist who will test you and provide a definitive diagnosis. If you or someone in your family is asthmatic, it’s more than likely that the asthma is triggered by a dust mite allergy.
What Are Dust Mites?
Dust mites are microscopic organisms that can be found in just about every house, even those that have been cleaned scrupulously. Dust mites begin as eggs and have four stages of development – egg, larva, nymph and then adult. The entire life cycle of a dust mite from eggs to adult usually takes three to four weeks. Female dust mites can lay as many as 60 to 100 cream-colored eggs within the last five weeks of their lives. Dust mites typically live 10 weeks, during which time they will produce about 2000 fecal particles and an even larger number of partially digested dust particles.
Dust mites don’t bite like fleas or mosquitoes and are not parasites. Instead, they lay up in warm, humid areas like our bedding and upholstered furniture, quietly feeding on our skin scales, pollen, fungi, animal dander and bacteria. For that matter, we shed about 1/5 of an ounce of dead skin each week, which represents an unending buffet for dust mites.
This may make you go “yuck”, but a typical used mattress can contain anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million dust mites. Ten percent of the weight of a two year-old pillow can be composed of dead mites and their droppings. Nearly 100,000 dust mites can live in one square yard of carpet. And a single dust mite can produce 20 waste droppings a day, each of which contains a protein to which many people are allergic. We breathe these droppings and the body parts of dead dust mites as we sleep or inhale them as we walk around the house. The dried dust mite droppings can become airborne when we walk over the carpeting, sit down in a chair or shake out bedding.
Dust mites can survive in all climates, but they prefer warm, humid areas. The worst months for dust mites are those when the house is all closed up and the indoor humidity and temperatures are high. This means that one good way to control dust mites is to keep the humidity in your home below 50% relative humidity.
Focus On Controlling Dust Mites
It is impossible to totally eliminate dust mites in your home. However, you can control them. In this case, cleanliness is not only next to godliness, it is also what’s required to control dust mites.
Dust mite control involves vacuuming the house regularly, using a vacuum with a HEPA filter or double-layered micro filter bag. You will need to encase your mattresses and pillows in dust-proof or allergen impermeable covers. All bedding and blankets should be washed weekly in hot water – at least 130 to 140 degrees F. If the water in your home is not this hot – and it probably isn’t – wash the bedding in the hottest water possible and then dry it for 30 minutes with your dryer set to hot cycle.
Be sure to dust with a damp rag or mop. Never dust with a dry cloth, as this just tends to stir up the mite allergens. If possible, replace wall-to-wall carpets in bedrooms with bare floors and remove fabric curtains and upholstered furniture.
These may seem like drastic steps but if you or someone in your family suffers from asthma or a dust mite allergy, these actions are the surest and best way to tame the dust mites and, thus, the dust mite allergens.
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