5 Things EVERYONE should know about dust mites
Did you know that you share your bed with millions of dust mites, their excrement, cast body parts and eggs every night? They are crawling through your mattress, foraging in your pillow and feeding on your shed skin cells. The worst is, when you breath on your mattress, you effectively breath dust mite poop!
Dust mites - spider-like, microscopic bugs
In this blog you will learn about these horrid little creatures and understand why they are a concern. You will find ways to identify if you or your family have a dust mite allergy and discover practical ways to protect yourself and your family from the dust mite invasion. Ultimately, whether you have a dust mite allergy or not, we all want to sleep better, breathe better and live better.
What are dust mites?
Dust mites are not insects, but spider-like, microscopic bugs that feed on your dead skin cells. Since people shed more than 1 million tiny pieces of skin every day, that’s more than enough to keep a rapidly reproducing dust mite population well fed and alive.
A couple of other interesting facts about these tiny critters:
A dust mite is about 0.3mm long and you cannot see them with your naked eye.
They reproduce at a rapid pace. The female mites can produce up to 35 new eggs each week. Now, that does not seem a lot but taking into consideration that an average mattress has around 100,000 to 10 million mites, 35 each per mite per week become a considerable amount of little baby mites.
A gram of dust can contain up to 3500 mites.
In a 10 week lifespan a single dust mite will produce approximately 2000 fecal particles (droppings) and an even larger number of partially digested enzyme-infested dust particles – which are the major cause of dust mite allergies.
Mites skyrocket in numbers during the hot, humid months. In Australia they love the coastal areas where they can be found all year round.
A typical mattress may have around 100,000 to 10 million mites!
Where do dust mites live?
Dust mites live in nearly all houses. They are naturally-occurring creatures, and their microscopic size makes it easy for them to get into our homes and other indoor areas.
Their droppings and cast body parts contribute to the overall bulk of dust in our homes.
Dust mites love humid, warm dark places. As mites cannot drink water, they rely on absorbing moisture from the air. Perspiration (sweat) and unlimited supply of food (your shed skin) trapped in your mattress and pillow, make your bed the perfect dust mite breeding ground. You can say, that in your bed, a dust mite is as snug as a bug.
Warning: When you steam clean your mattress in an effort to get rid of them, you actually just giving your tiny roommates a nice drink. Furthermore, the moisture gets trapped and collected in your mattress and can potentially cause mold and rust. You may even void the mattress warranty if you use liquid or steam to clean it.
Dust mites are also found in upholstery, carpets, curtains and stuffed animals. Generally anywhere in your house where dust gathers. Dust mites are not usually in the air and only become airborne during and after dust-raising activities such as vacuuming and dusting.
Dust mites thrive in warm humid environments, like your bed.
Why are dust mites a concern?
Dust mites themselves do not pose any significant health risks as they do not bite or sting. But, dust mites produce strong enzymes to digest their food. These enzymes (proteins) survive in the dust mite droppings and cast bodies. As people breath the droppings and enzyme within them, it can cause major inflammation in nasal passages and allergic reactions in your lungs. Enzymes in dust mite droppings have been found to be a major cause of allergic reactions and associated with childhood asthma.
Estimates are that dust mites may be a contributor or trigger in 50 to 80 percent of asthmatics, as well as in countless cases of eczema, hay fever and other allergic ailments.
Furthermore, exposure to dust mites in the first few years of a baby’s life can trigger a lifelong allergy.
Like many allergies, dust mite allergy can also develop over time with continual exposure.
Constant exposure to dust mites can cause allergic reaction
“Continuous Exposure to House Dust Mite Elicits Chronic Airway Inflammation” - > American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine > List of Issues >Volume 169, Issue 3
How to identify a dust mite allergy?
Many experts believe dust mites are the trigger for year-round allergies in children and elderly adults.
Have you ever been itchy but couldn't tell why? Dust mites could be the culprit, especially if you find your symptoms are worse when going to bed. Common symptoms are itchy, red, or watery eyes; stuffy and running nose; sneezing, coughing, post-nasal drip and in children, frequent upward rubbing of their noses, especially around bedtime
Symptoms can range anywhere from severe to mild, depending on how sensitive you are to dust mite droppings.
People with asthma can experience difficulty breathing. They may also feel more tightness and pain in the chest. In almost all instances, dust mites intensify symptoms for individuals living with asthma and allergies.
Some people can experience a dust mite rash, which is a skin condition that typically occurs when dust mites invade the bedroom. Signs of irritation on your skin include swelling, redness, and intense itching in areas like the neck or armpit due to an allergic reaction.
Skin prick or RAST tests can be used to determine if your allergies are dust mite-induced.
What is the best allergy medicine for dust mites? There are few over-the-counter and prescription medications that will help relieve symptoms for dust-mite sufferers. Talk to your doctor about antihistamines, nasal corticosteroids, and decongestants, but long term we do not want to pump our bodies full of medicine, but rather dig deeper and manage the cause of the symptoms.
“Conservatively, at least 100 million people worldwide are affected by house dust mite allergy, manifesting as asthma, rhinitis or atopic dermatitis.” - Matt Colloff (Australian National University).
How to get rid of dust mites?
How do you naturally rid you bed of these invaders? There is good news and bad news.
Bad news first. It is nearly impossible to rid a house of dust mites completely.
The good news is that you can greatly reduce population, and the aggravating and sometimes debilitating allergy symptoms that result because of them. There is no one single golden bullet that can reduce the population, but a host of actions that forms your control plan to keep the dust mite population at bay.
What should be part of your control plan?
1. Have your mattress professionally cleaned with a Safe Snooze treatment.
The 2-part process is the best start to control your dust mite population.
Extract
A dedicated mattress vacuum cleaner, extract debris such as dead skin cells, dust mite droppings, dead dust mite bodies, asthma and allergy triggers and odour causing bacteria from the mattress.
Sanitise and disinfect.
Sanitise and disinfect the mattress and pillow surfaces using our UVC germicidal light device, a Australian Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) registered medical device, scientifically proven to destroy all known micro-organisms on a mattress.
Why UVC you might ask? UV-C light is proven to kill 99.9% of germs on the molecular level by destroying their DNA and thus their ability to replicate. Germs include viruses, mold, fungi, and bacteria.
2. Focus on the bedroom
You do not have to become a fanatic house cleaner. Start by simply focusing on the bedrooms. Dust as often as you can (2x per week), but make sure not to dust right before bed. Get rid of clutter that can gather dust. Avoid making beds right away. This is probably one that teenagers will love. By leaving the bed unmade it gives moisture a chance to evaporate. Vacuum the material bed headboards or better yet, get rid of them and replace with a material such as wood that can be wiped clean.
3. Wash bed linen in hot water
Wash your lined weekly in hot water (60 degree Celsius) to kill the intruders.
4. Soft toys
A key part of the control plan is to minimise build-up of dust mite. Most effective way is to was regularly was soft toys or even stuff it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Remove unnecessarily soft toys from the room.
5. Reduce humidity
As dust mites thrive in a humid environment, aim to keep humidity below 50%. You may want to invest in a good dehumidifier to assist with this or run your aircon on “dry mode”.
6. Keep pets off the bed
We all love our fury friends, but their dander are just additional food source for the tiny invaders
7. Invest in bedding encasings for mattresses and pillows
There are a whole range of mite resistant bedding available through variety of suppliers
8. Get rid of carpets and curtains in the bedroom
Protect yourself and your family from these invaders.
The better you understand these uninvited house guests, the better you can manage them.
Say goodbye to stuffy noses, itchy and watery eyes and say hello to a good night’ s sleep.
Sleep better, breathe better, live better.
SafeSnooze
Contact us today to have your mattress treated.
hello@safesnooze.com.au