Dust Mites and Allergies: Protect Your Home

As it relates to allergies, dust mites are major offenders for most people, causing everything from nasal congestion to sneezing, itchy eye, and more. The major problem is, they exist everywhere within the environment, and avoiding them entirely is essentially impossible. Still, there are a number of steps you can take around the house to reduce the amount of mites within your personal space.

As you have probably guessed, dust mites are very tough creatures that require very little
"food" to thrive. They prefer environments of at least seventy degrees, and they feed on microscopic organic particles such as dead human skin scales that the typical human being sheds at all times.

One of the most common places to find the organisms is in your mattress and pillow. Upholstered furniture such as carpet, drapes and couches are other places where they seem to thrive.

Another big problem with dust mites is that they can procreate at an exponential rate. If you ever got the feeling you could not eradicate the dust in your home no matter what you seem to do, you may have a thriving colony on your hands.

While you can never hope to eliminate the organisms entirely from your home, there are a number of steps you can take to decrease their numbers. If you are suffering from allergies, following these steps is vital.

First, you should protect your mattresses and pillows with official "dust mite approved" covers. You should also wash your bedding in hot water at least once every two weeks, including your pillow cases.

Next, you should remove all carpet and thick window drapes from your home. If this is not a practical option, make sure you get them cleaned professionally once a year and vacuum at minimum, once a week. Keeping your space clean is essential to preventing a dust mite invasion.

You should treat your upholstered furniture the same as you would carpet and drapes. If you have allergic children, make sure to remove carpet, drapes, stuffed animals, and other upholstered items from their room entirely.

In addition to frequent cleaning, there are other solutions you can add to your home that will help reduce the amount of dust mites in your home. HEPA air filtration systems and filters can drastically reduce the amount of dust mites in your home, as well as a UV light. Keeping the humidity in your home less than 50% and frequently changing your air filters in your central air system are absolutely vital.

Dust mites are very hard to control and impossible to completely eradicate from your home. Following the instructions listed above can reduce the amount of dust mites in your home and possibly lessen your allergic symptoms. However, allergy immunotherapy is the best recommendation for dust allergies. If you feel that you are suffering from these symptoms, consider scheduling an appointment with a local allergy clinic.