An in-depth look at dust mites, dust mite allergy and where they come from.
Get a close up of dust mites and learn some facts about these barely visible critters.
Dust mites, due to their very small size and translucent bodies are barely visible to the human eye and if they didn't cause allergies, runny noses, constant sneezing and coughing, they would probably never enter a conversation.
Dust mites excrete very fine droppings which are HIGHLY ALLERGIC to about 30% of the population, and to about 90% of people with asthma, persistent hay fever, and eczema.
When something is affecting your daily breathing and wellbeing, you start to notice. Do you suffer from a dust mite allergy?
Dust mites are 8 legged spider-like microscopic animals.
General dust mite facts
Dust mites were first discovered in 1694 by Anton van Leeuwenhoek.
They are nearly microscopic white arachnids, a member of spider and tick family.
The most common dust mite in Australia is called Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (the European Dust Mite). Their Latin name means “skin-eating spider”.
They have an average length of 0.3 millimetres, too small to squash.
Males dust mites can live over a month, while female dust mites can live up to 100 days.
The female lays between 65-100 eggs in the last 5 weeks of her life.
In their 10 week lifespan they produce approximately 2000 fecal particles (poop droppings).
There can be over 3500 mites in a gram of dust. 50 of them can live on the head of a pin.
In Sydney, dust mites likely peak in February, our most humid month.
Microscopic dust mites foraging in your mattress
Can dust mites bite?
The good news is that they are not technically parasites as they do not feed of the live part of humans.
I specify “live parts” because they DO EAT human tissue - but it is our dead skin cells that are their favourite meal. So you can relax. They do not bite.
The average human sheds about 1 million skin cells a day and some of these inevitably come off in the tossing and turning of sleep. Mattress and pillows tend to be full of this discarded human skin cells, making it an ideal dust mite home. Since the female dust mite will usually lay up to a hundred eggs in her lifetime, the mite population tends to grow pretty fast.
That may be kind of gross, but eating dead skin cells doesn’t cause any harm to us.
So why worry? Well, it is when the dust mites excrete the skin cells that the problem starts. Mites uses digestive enzymes, called proteases, that can cause allergic reactions in humans.
Why do dust mites cause allergy?
People who are allergic to dust are actually allergic to the enzymes in the dust mite feces. Plenty to go around – your average mite excretes about 20 fecal pallets per day. Multiply that by 100,000 (or 10 million) dust mites in your mattress and that is a lot of fecal pallets. They are very small though.
Those little pellets end up in your pillows and your mattress and get spread through the air. When they are breathed in by someone who is sensitive to the enzymes, they can cause wheezing and sneezing and itching an all sorts of non-fun asthma and allergy symptoms.
Constant sneezing and coughing can indicate a dust mite allergy
How to get rid of dust mites?
Killing dust mites are not easy, but you will be glad to know that they have a weakness.
Humidity.
Or the lack of it.
Dust mites don’t drink water. They suck moisture out of the air though their bodies. They need at least 50% humidity to survive. If the humidity drops below that, they go into sort of panic mode. When this happens, a lot of mites will gather together in on spot to try and decrease the surface area of their bodies that are exposed to air so they lose less water.
Dust mite nymphs cluster together in low humidity.
Photo credit: Gilles San Martin
They basically try to form one giant mite-ball. If humidity gets too low for even that, the young mites, called nymphs, will latch onto fibre and hibernate until the humidity increases again. That is why some people might find that their dust mite allergies are seasonal. Dust mite population decreases when humidity is lower and comes back from hibernation when humidity is higher.
This survival method is so effective that there is really no way to completely get rid of the dust mite colony.
Ways to control dust mite numbers:
Frequently wash sheets and pillows in very hot water.
Use polyester pillow cases and mattress cover to create a barrier between your body and the mattress.
Get rid of carpets.
Vacuum and dust often.
Regularly (3-4 months) book a SafeSnooze treatment to sanitise and disinfect the mattress to ensure all dust mite eggs, bacteria, microorganisms and allergy triggers are removed from the mattress and pillows.
Skin cells, hair, dander gathers in your mattress, making it the perfect breeding ground for dust mites.
If you want to learn more about the benefits of clean mattress, read our blog:
https://www.safesnooze.com.au/blog/wellbeing-benefits-of-a-clean-mattress
Take steps today to manage the dust mite colony on your mattress.
Sleep better, breathe better, live better. SafeSnooze
(Now servicing Sydney's North Shore)
E: hello@safesnooze.com.au
M: 0415428035