What Are Dust Mites?
- Dust mites, cousins of the arachnid family (spiders), are invisible to the human eye.
- They have four pairs of legs, equipped with hairs and claws on their last segment.
- They measure between 0.2 and 0.4 mm in length.
- They only live for 2 to 3 months but reproduce very quickly when they find favorable conditions of humidity between 65 and 80% and a temperature between 20 and 30 degrees
Did You Know…?
- Dust mites are responsible for 50% of allergic manifestations
- It’s the detritus of dead dust mites and their droppings that cause allergies
- In a room with 85% humidity, dust mites eat 5 times more and produce 5 times more allergenic detritus
- Their inhalation is responsible for respiratory manifestations such as asthma or rhinitis
- Their contact with the skin causes eczema or atopic dermatitis
- Symptoms caused by dust mites are more frequent in autumn and continue throughout the winter as houses are generally less ventilated and warmer during these seasons
Practical Tips:
- Ventilate the room every day, both in winter and summer, for 30 to 60 minutes each day.
- Change sheets weekly and wash them at the highest possible temperature (approximately 60 degrees).
- Avoid electric radiators that expel air.
- Vacuum two or three times a week
- Wash pillows, duvets, and blankets at least once a month at the highest possible temperature.
- Store clothes in a closed wardrobe.
- Put stuffed toys in the freezer once a month overnight, wrapped in a plastic bag.
- Keep the room temperature between 18 and 19 degrees maximum and humidity between 50 and 60%.
- Clean furniture dust regularly with a damp cloth.
- Avoid bunk beds: the child sleeping on the bottom bunk inhales many dust mites coming from the mattress of the upper bunk.
- Slatted bed bases are recommended for allergy sufferers’ beds.
- Synthetic material pillows and duvets should be chosen to avoid feathers, where there is a risk of finding dust mites.
- Use a dust mite-proof cover, hermetic to dust mites, that completely covers the mattress
- The vacuum cleaner: you should vacuum for 30 or 40 minutes to remove 20% of dust mite allergens. The vacuum cleaner should be equipped with a HEPA filter (high efficiency for airborne particles) to prevent dust mites from dispersing back into the environment.
- Avoid carpets, shelves, curtains… and in general places where dust can accumulate.
- The use of dust mite-proof covers for mattresses, pillows, and duvets helps reduce the allergic person’s contact with dust mites.
- These covers can be machine washed at 60 degrees.
