Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?All About House Dust Mites and Allergies
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Denver-Aurora Areas of CO
Dust mites are tiny enough to live in your air ducts, carpet, and even bed, and are known to complicate allergies. Most microscopic dust mites live in the dust accumulated in your air ducts. Even if you keep your home very clean, skin, hair, food, and fecal matter are still present in your ducts for the mites to feed on. Doctors and allergen specialists often refer to the home dust mite, dermatophagoides farinae, as HDM. Asthma, a serious respiratory problem, is often caused and made worse by dust mites. The 6 legged dust mite larva turn into 8 legged adult dust mites. Individual dust mites live only around 19-30 days each. The females, who live twice as long as males, are the ones who lay the eggs.
At least the mites do not bite or have any sort of poison. Dust mites often feed on the dust produced by 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! The moisture from you sleeping, sweating, and breathing on your sheets and bedding, make your bed an ideal place for dust mites to live. Even though they do not bite, do not think that dust mites cannot harm you because they are a source of the allergens that can cause asthma, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and dermatitis. Those with allergies may know about the enzyme DerP1, which causes allergic reactions and is present in dust mite fecal matter.
Not as many dust mites live in your air ducts as you may think because of the lack of moisture. Air ducts do trap more skin, hair, and fecal matter particles than anything else in your house. Air duct systems also use fans to circulate air all over your home. Daily use of your vent system cause fresh food to be flung into the air for the mites.
The below suggestions will help reduce dust mites:
- If you have a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter, you can use this to greatly reduce the food available to the mites.
- All surfaces of your home should be dusted at least weekly.
- Do not forget to get your carpets, drapes, upholstery, and air ducts professionally cleaned.
- You might want to consider having your floors refinished to get rid of any carpeting.
- Switch to buying allergen proof bedding products.
- The freezer can be used to kill mites living in your children's plush toys.
- One of the best ways it to maintain a humidity of under 70%.
Even though there is no way to keep mites out of your house forever, this article should have made you able to control populations to the degree that they are not causing you allergy problems.
Well, that wraps-up our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better take on what the procedure involves and what you might search for 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.
Local Articles Related to Denver-Aurora Dust Mites and Allergies
Local Colorado Air Duct Cleaning Companies and Government Links
