Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?Are Household Dust Mites Responsible for Your Allergies?
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Areas of MN
Dust mites can be found in your air ducts, linens, and carpeting, and cause cause or aggravate allergy problems. Common household dust is the home to microscopic dust mites. 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. Dermatophagoides farinae is the latin name for house dust mites, which is abbreviated HDM. These dust mites are a frequent cause 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. Unlike the males, females can live 60 days, half of which they spend laying eggs.
Symptoms of dust mites does not include bites, as they do not directly affect your skin. The most common food for dust mites in pieces of human skin. The 0.5 to 1 pounds of skin a person loses each year makes for plenty of food for the dust mites. Because of the moisture you lose during the night from saliva and perspiration, your bed is the perfect home for dust mites. 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.
Even though there is plenty of dust, the low humidity in air ducts means that not many dust mites live in them. Air ducts do carry a lot of skin, and other dust particles though. Heating and cooling vent systems often are used mainly to move air around the house. By just re-circulating air, these vent systems deposit new food for the mites and fling their allergy causing fecal matter into the air where you breath it.
Below are a number of good ways to control dust mite populations:
- Replace your standard vacuum with a HEPA filtered one.
- Make sure you dust and wipe down surfaces after use and on a regular basis.
- Clean and sanitize bedding, upholstery, drapes, and linens regularly.
- Not only would replacing your carpets with vinyl flooring help reduce dust mites, it also makes cleaning easier.
- There are sheets and pillow cases that you can buy that are anti-allergen.
- Protect your children by putting their stuffed animals in the freezer overnight.
- Although it may be hard to do, keeping the humidity below 70% will make it much harder for mites to live in your house.
Now that you know a lot more about dust mites, you will be better able to prevent them from affecting your health.
Well, that wraps-up our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better handle on what the approach involves and what you might search 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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