Worried About Having a Bad Duct Cleaning Experience?Defending Your Home Against Dust Mites
Dust Mites and Allergies in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord Areas of NC
Everyone should know about tiny dust mites that live in your air ducts, carpets, and many other places, and can cause allergy symptoms. Microscopic dust mites live in and feed on the dust in your house. There is a lot of hair, food, skin, and other particles in the dust of your hose that dust mites feed off of. The official species name of home dust mites (HDM) is dermatophagoides farinae. They are know to be one of the most common causes of asthma, not just in America, but worldwide. Dust mites have to stages in their life cycle, the larval stage with 6 legs, and the adult stage with 8 legs. The mites themselves each have a very short lifespan ranging only about 19-30 days for males. Females on the other hand can live an extra 30 days to lay eggs.
The only good thing about dust mites is that they do not bite. Dust mites feed on shed skin and other food particles. The average person loses up to over a pound of skin in a year, which provides plenty of mite food, especially in a family. Moisture lost by people while sleeping, such as sweat and saliva, makes beds and ideal places for dust mites to live. 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. Doctors have directly connected the enzyme DerP1, which is found in dust mite poop, to many skin and respiratory allergies.
Despite all the dust in your air duct system, mites usually choose to live in more humid places. However, the air ducts ofter are one of the best sources of dust, hair, and fecal matter. Duct systems then use a fan to move these dust particles all over your house. 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 following are all good ways to control dust mites:
- If you have a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter, you can use this to greatly reduce the food available to the mites.
- Practice regular dusting.
- Any fabric in your house that could trap dust and moisture, such as sheets, carpets, drapes, and upholstery should be sanitized on a somewhat regular basis.
- By replacing your wall-to-wall carpeting with even just vinyl, you will make a big difference.
- Get allergen proof covers for your pillows and even furniture.
- Children's stuffed animals can be frozen to kill mites living in them.
- The mites cannot thrive if humidity is under 70% in your home.
Having learned about dust mites, you should not be able to live a healthier life.
Well, that concludes our dust mites article. Hopefully you have a better take on what the procedure involves and what you might search for in an air duct cleaning company. Since most ductwork 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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