Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?All About House Dust Mites and Allergies
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville Areas of CA
Dust mites can living an a variety of places including air ducts, linens, and carpeting, and can cause allergic reactions. One of the reasons most people do not know much about dust mites is because they are so small you cannot see them, and they live in dust around your home. The mites feed on the particles of hair, food, and skin that litter your home as dust. Home dust mites, or HDM as allergists usually call them, are scientifically know as dermatophagoides farinae. Asthmatics should be aware of dust mites, because they are one of the most common causes of asthma. The 6 legged dust mite larva turn into 8 legged adult dust mites. The mites themselves each have a very short lifespan ranging only about 19-30 days for males. The egg laying females live for up to 60 days.
One thing that you do not have to worry about dust mites is that they will not bite or sting you. Generally dust mites live on the dust formed on shed human skin cells. When you consider that the average dust mite sheds about one half to one pound of skin a year, that adds up to a lot of dust mite food! Moisture from human breath, sweat, and saliva makes bedding an ideal place for the mites to live. A common source of household allergens, dust mites can cause conjunctivitis, rhinitis, dermatitis, and asthma. Doctors have directly connected the enzyme DerP1, which is found in dust mite poop, to many skin and respiratory allergies.
Even though there is plenty of dust, the low humidity in air ducts means that not many dust mites live in them. Air ducts are a huge source of the dust particles that the mites live off of however. Most heating and cooling systems do circulate air all around your home. Not only does this bring the dust mites a steady stream of food particles, it also moves their allergy causing feces to be circulated around your home.
The below suggestions will help reduce dust mites:
- Replace your standard vacuum with a HEPA filtered one.
- Practice regular dusting.
- Any fabric in your house that could trap dust and moisture, such as sheets, carpets, drapes, and upholstery should be sanitized on a somewhat regular basis.
- Reducing dust mite populations is just one of the many reasons to have your carpets replaced with vinyl or hardwood floors.
- Allergen resistant bedding can be bought at home stores.
- Children's stuffed animals can be frozen to kill mites living in them.
- Although it may be hard to do, keeping the humidity below 70% will make it much harder for mites to live in your house.
Although there is no be-all-end-all dust mite solution, the above tips will make a big difference.
Well, that wraps-up our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better take on what the procedure involves and what you might look to in an air duct cleaning company. Since most air duct cleaning companies also clean dryer vents, you might want to read our dryer vent cleaning tips article as well. Having your dryer vent cleaned while the technicians are still at your home cleaning your air ducts, will save you money.
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