Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?All About House Dust Mites and Allergies
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Richmond Areas of VA
Dust mites can be found in your air ducts, linens, and carpeting, and cause cause or aggravate allergy problems. Invisible to the naked eye, dust mites live in and feed off of dust in your home. The dust in your home is actually made up of millions of tiny particles of skin, hair, and fecal matter, that the dust mites feed on. The official species name of home dust mites (HDM) is dermatophagoides farinae. These dust mites are a frequent cause of asthma. Larval stage mites have 6 legs while the post larval ones have 8. The mites themselves each have a very short lifespan ranging only about 19-30 days for males. Unlike the males, females can live 60 days, half of which they spend laying eggs.
Dust mites will not bite your sting you. The dust mite most often lives on shreds of 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. Due to the moisture as a result from people sleeping (perspiration and saliva), dust mites often live in beds and bedding. The reason dust mites are bad is that they are a big source of allergens and can cause asthma, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and dermatitis. Dust mite poop contains an enzyme that causes allergic reactions of the skin,, lungs, and other body functions.
As mentioned above, dust mites like to live in very humid places, and therefore do not care for air ducts very much. Of course your air ducts are still full of all the things dust mites like to eat and live in. Dirt built up in these systems is then circulated around the house by the fans. The dust mites never run out of food when they have your air duct system depositing more all over the house for them every day.
The below suggestions will help reduce dust mites:
- Regularly vacuum all carpets in your house.
- Dust your house regularly.
- Even things like drapes and upolstry should be regularly clean and sanitized.
- 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.
- 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.
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 grasp of what the procedure involves and what you might look to in an 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 already at your home cleaning your air ducts, will save you money.
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