Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?An Explanation of Dust Mites and Their Allergies Problems
Dust Mites and Allergies in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Areas of CA
What exactly do dust mites do, and what allergies can they cause or complicate? Microscopic dust mites live in and feed on the dust in your house. Dust mites live off of the skin, hair, food, and fecal matter that makes up most of the dust around your home. While the home dust mite's true name is dermatophagoides farinae, allergists often refer to them as HDM. Dust mites can cause or greatly aggravate asthma. Adult dust mites have 8 leg, and ones still in the larval stage have 6. An average male dust mite lives only a short 19-30 days. Female dust mites live twice as long and lay eggs for the last 30 days.
The only good thing about dust mites is that they do not bite. The most common food for dust mites in pieces of human skin. Usually dust mites have plenty to eat since people shed around 0.3 to 0.45 Kg (0.5 to 1 lbs) of skin each year. As gross as it may seem, the moisture from your sweat and saliva makes your bed an idea bed for dust mites as well. As one of the biggest sources of home allergens, dust mites have been know to cause conjunctivitis, asthma, rhinitis, and dermatitis. Those with allergies may know about the enzyme DerP1, which causes allergic reactions and is present in dust mite fecal matter.
Since they like the moisture, dust mites rarely actually live in air ducts. However, the air ducts ofter are one of the best sources of dust, hair, and fecal matter. Duct systems then use a fan to move these dust particles all over your house. The constant re-circulation of air leaves plenty of food for the dust mites.
Below are a number of good ways to control dust mite populations:
- All carpets in your home should be vacuumed regularly, and a HEPA filtered vacuum is recommended.
- Dust any surface that food is eaten on.
- Sanitizing household fabrics like carpets and bedding will help a lot.
- Carpets can be replaced with either hardwood or vinyl that does not retain dust so well.
- Put allergen proof mattress covers on all of your beds.
- You can freeze your kids stuffed animals.
- If you can keep the general humidity below 70%, possibly with your HVAC system, then that will take care of most of the mites.
Hopefully the above steps and information will help you have less allergies and illness.
Well, that wraps-up our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better grasp of what the procedure involves and what you might look to in an duct cleaning company. Since most 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 already at your home cleaning your air ducts, will save you money.
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