Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?What Allergy Problems do House Dust Mites Cause?
Dust Mites and Allergies in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Areas of NY
Everyone should know about tiny dust mites that live in your air ducts, carpets, and many other places, and can cause allergy symptoms. To the tiny dust mite, your household dust is home. Mites eat the hair, food, and skin particles that compose 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 serious respiratory problems, particularly asthma. Dust mite larva have 6 legs and adults have 8 legs. On average a male dust mite only lives for 19-30 days. Conversely, females live for up to two months, laying eggs for the last 30 days.
One thing that you do not have to worry about dust mites is that they will not bite or sting you. Dust mites main food is particles of shed human skin and hair. The 0.5 to 1 pounds of skin a person loses each year makes for plenty of food for the dust mites. As gross as it may seem, the moisture from your sweat and saliva makes your bed an idea bed for dust mites as well. A common source of household allergens, dust mites can cause conjunctivitis, rhinitis, dermatitis, and asthma. If you have allergies, it could be because of the enzyme DerP1, which is found in dust mite feces.
The low humidity of air ducts actually make them unattractive homes to dust mites. Air ducts do trap more skin, hair, and fecal matter particles than anything else in your house. Heating and cooling vent systems often are used mainly to move air around the house. 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:
- Daily use of a HEPA filtered vacuum will help greatly.
- Dust any surface that food is eaten on.
- Sanitizing household fabrics like carpets and bedding will help a lot.
- If you replace your carpets with vinyl or wood you will reduce dust mies and cleaning required.
- Get allergen proof covers for your pillows and even furniture.
- Freezing plush toys is a good way to help protect your children.
- If you can keep the general humidity below 70%, possibly with your HVAC system, then that will take care of most of the mites.
Now that you know a lot more about dust mites, you will be better able to prevent them from affecting your health.
Well, that concludes our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better understanding of what the process involves and what you might search for in an ductwork 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 already at your home cleaning your air ducts, will save you money.
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