Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?Could Home Dust Mites be Causing Your Allergies?
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River Areas of RI
Dust mites can be found in your air ducts, linens, and carpeting, and cause cause or aggravate allergy problems. Most microscopic dust mites live in the dust accumulated in your air ducts. The dust in your home is made up of tiny particles of hair, food, and skin that the dust mites live in and feed on. Home dust mites, or HDM as allergists usually call them, are scientifically know as dermatophagoides farinae. They are know to be one of the most common causes of asthma, not just in America, but worldwide. Adult dust mites have 8 leg, and ones still in the larval stage have 6. Dust mites live only a very short time, with a male having an average 19-30 day lifespan. Female dust mites live twice as long and lay eggs for the last 30 days.
Dust mites to not bite or sting. Dust mites eat the dust from discarded human skin cells. On average people lose from 0.5-1 lb. of skin per year, all of which is available to the dust mites as food. 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. Dust mite droppings cause allergies because of an enzyme in them, DerP1.
Dust mites prefer humidity, and because of that not many live in your air duct system. Air ducts are a huge source of the dust particles that the mites live off of however. Air duct systems also use fans to circulate air all over your home. With the HVAC system constantly moving air around your house, the dust mites have an endless source of food.
Do the following to prevent and 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.
- Not only would replacing your carpets with vinyl flooring help reduce dust mites, it also makes cleaning easier.
- There are various allergen proofing treated fabrics available today for pillows and other bedding.
- You can freeze your kids stuffed animals.
- Using a couple dehumidifiers to keep the humidity in your house under 70%.
Having read the above you will now be able to greatly reduce the number of dust mites living in your home, and therefore have less allergies.
Well, that wraps-up our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better grasp of what the operation involves and what you might look for in an ductwork 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 still at your home cleaning your air ducts, will save you money.
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