Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?Information About Home Dust Mites and Allergy Problems
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Areas of WA
Anyone with allergies should be concerned with dust mites living in their air ducts, carpets, and bed. Most microscopic dust mites live in the dust accumulated in your air ducts. Dust mites live off of the skin, hair, food, and fecal matter that makes up most of the dust around your home. Dermatophagoides farinae is the latin name for house dust mites, which is abbreviated HDM. Dust mites are one of the leading causes of asthma. Adult dust mites have 8 leg, and ones still in the larval stage have 6. On average a male dust mite only lives for 19-30 days. Females on the other hand can live an extra 30 days to lay eggs.
One concern people don't have to have about dust mites is that they do not bite. 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. If you have any allergies, you should know that dust mites are a huge source of allergens and can cause or make worse conjunctivitis, rhinitis, dermatitis, and asthma. Mite droppings have been found to contain DerP1, an enzyme that has been shown to complicate allergies.
Air duct systems trap a lot of dust, but not many mites live in them because the mites like a humid environment. Often air ducts are the biggest source of skin, hair, and fecal matter particles in your air. Your air duct system is responsible for moving these dust particles all over your home. Daily use of your vent system cause fresh food to be flung into the air for the mites.
Here are a number of great ways to reduce and control dust mite growth:
- Regularly vacuum all carpets in your house.
- All surfaces of your home should be dusted at least weekly.
- No possible dust mite home should be overlooked, and linens, drapes, and air ducts should all be professionally cleaned on a regular basis.
- Consider replacing your carpeting with something that will not trap so much debris.
- Replace all of your pillow cases with special allergen proof cases.
- You can freeze your kids stuffed animals.
- Keeping the humidity constantly below 70% does wonders for mite control.
No one thing is going to completely remove dust mites from your home, but following the above instructions will help considerably.
Well, that wraps-up our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better grasp of what the approach involves and what you might look for in an air 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 still at your home cleaning your air ducts, will save you money.
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