Jonathan Hatch
About Dust Mites
It is not possible to completely rid your home of dust mites. The only thing you can do to treat an allergy to dust mites is to control dust mite populations. This article will teach you how to control dust mite populations.
Suggestions or Questions? Check our Pest Control Forum.
How to Get Rid of Dust Mites
Do you have allergies even when it's not allergy season? Chances might be that you are allergic to dust mites. Dust mite feces and their remains are one of the leading causes of allergic reactions in the home. Completely getting rid of dust mites isn't possible, but reducing the number of mites in your home is. Below are some suggestions for getting rid of as many dust mites as possible.
Preventing Dust Mite Allergies
Wood flooring is what my father (who is extremely allergic to dust mites) used as a way to avoid allergic reactions. The logic behind such a move is that with less carpet (the most infested part of your home) on the floor, the less places you give dust mites to settle down and roost. He seems to think it has worked.
Synthetic Furniture
Synthetics are better choices for furniture apoholstery because dust mites tend to be attracted to wool and other natural fabrics. Materials like polar fleece are a good choice for bedding.
Dust Mite Control
Dust mites eat your dead skin and the remains of other pests. If you want to seriously reduce the number of mites in your home, you're going to have to clean it.
Dust mites live in beds. They collect in your bed because it's the one place you spend a good deal of time shedding your skin on. Change your sheets, and beat your pillows regularly.
Dust mites live on chairs and couches. Again, dust mites feed and breed in these places because you spend a lot of time occupying them, leaving your dead skin as a sort of buffet.
Dust mites live in your carpet. Carpets collect everything you drag into your home. Thus, large amounts of dust mites are found breeding in your carpets. Vacuum them regularly.
Dust mites eat the remains of other pests. One of the best ways to reduce the number of dust mites in your home is to reduce the numbers of other pests like roaches, silverfish, and fleas.
Dust mites don't like being steam cleaned. Steam clean those areas in your home where you have apoholstery and a lot of human traffic. The steam cleaning will kill some of the mites and does a more thorough job of picking up particles of dust.
Dust Mite Treatments
If step 1 fails, then perhaps you should try an alternative found in the sidebar to the right. There are, of course, sprays and treatments that can be used to reduce the number of dust mites or at least neutralize the allergens present in dust mite feces. There are many vendors of dust mite treatments on the internet. It doesn't take much to find them, and it saves you the hassle of a trip to the store.
After completing these two easy tasks, you should have less dust mites in your home. No more waking up with rashes or swollen sinuses.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.