How do I get rid of or at least minimize dust mites?
Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at
10:28 pm
I saw a special on Oprah that says that dust mites mainly feed off our skin cells and are all over our homes, especially our beds and pillows! I know vacuuming is a good way, but the best systems such as Rainbow cost about 00! Are there any cheaper alternatives?
Filed under: Air Bed
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Very intelligent of you to recognize the healthful benefit of sleeping on hygienic mattresses.
Here are your options.
The very best you could do, or anybody else for that matter, is to hire a professional mattress cleaner that uses the "dry method cleaning process." Unfortunately, there are very few persons in the U.S. that provide this service. Following immediately below are the steps a professional mattress cleaner would perform. BUT, because there are so few mattress cleaners in the U.S., read further down to discover what you can do to clean your own mattress. It won’t be as good as a professional, but will still be a huge improvement over not doing anything at all.
A professional mattress cleaning technician using the "dry method cleaning process" (never wet a mattress) will first use a HEPA-rated vacuum cleaner (not just one equipped with HEPA filters) and powerful suction to remove the "contaminants" within a mattress. Knowledgeable technician’s know better than to use an attachment with a beater brush, power nozzle or turbo nozzle, as these attachments cause vibrations. The vibrations will cause the "contaminants" to become airborne from the other areas of the mattress not yet serviced.
Secondly, knowledgeable technicians’ will bathe the mattress surfaces with a separate, portable UVC light wand that has ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) capabilites. They will apply the UVC light in a grid-like manner and bathe an area approximately 18" x 18" for a full 20 second duration, and so on. This will alter the DNA in all micro-organisms and cause the death of 99.9% of the microbials.
Thirdly, a knowledgeable technician will apply a very light mist of all natural, non-toxic, odorless enzyme cleaner to the mattress surface and pillows. The enzymes will continue to do the work started by the mattress cleaning technician and thwart future growth of dust mite colonies, mold, mildew, spores, fungi, bacteria and viruses, until the next service date. The cost of servicing a 3 or 4 bedroom home will run around $120-$150 and take 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Depending on the needs of the home occupants, a follow-up service should be scheduled every 6 months, 4 months for a home with an allergy sufferer, 3 months for a home with an asthmatic. Consider the number of indoor pets also.
BUT because there are so few professionals…use the next best option.
On a day forecasted to be bright and sunny with no rain in the forecast, take your mattress (and the the others) outside early in the morning and beat the crap out them. Prop them up so that they catch the morning sun and then re-position them so they catch the afternoon sun on the reverse side. Make sure the automatic sprinkler system doesn’t start up. Once you have beaten the crap out of them and have used the sun’s natural cleansing abilities (UVA and UVB light waves) tote the mattresses back indoors. It would be a good idea to inspect the top edge of the mattress just in case a cat has napped on it. Also, you should do this at a time of the year when pollen is not so heavy. Your local weathercast usually provides this info daily. Next, apply a very light misting of all natural, non-toxic, odorless enzyme cleaner on the surfaces of the mattresses. The enzyme mist should be dry to the touch within 5 minutes or else you have misted too heavily. Mist the pillows too. Each time you launder the mattress pad, apply the enzyme mist (very lightly) to the mattress and pillows before replacing the mattress pad and pillow cases. The enzymes will "munch on" and slow down the growth of dust mite colonies, mold, mildew, fungi, spores, pollen, bacteria and viruses, until the next time you beat the crap out of your mattresses.
Some people may suggest you vacuum the mattress in position (in the bedroom) but unless you have the right vacuum and most likely you don’t, I would not…unless you vacuum the mattress outdoors. Most vacuums, even the top ranked HEPA vacuums per the Consumer Report’s magazine, still spew millions of dust particles into your indoor environment. These particles stay airborne for 2 hours circulating throughout the entire home, before settling on top of everything…including dust mite-proof mattress pads and pillows.
For generations upon generations (ask any octogenarian) people would routinely tote their mattresses outdoors at least every spring, and sometimes again in the fall, to literally beat the crap out them with a big stick, broom, 2 x 4, baseball bat, 9-iron, tennis racket, or whatever else they could find.
The purpose of doing so, was to remove the dust within the mattress. What was not known then, is known today. The "dust" was mostly shed human skin and the allergenic waste products of dust mites which love to eat shed human skin cells, along with mold, mildew, spores, fungi, pollen, pet dander, bacteria and viruses.
Splurge on some 400 TC (thread count) sheets, or better. These sheets will have a pore size of about 6.5 microns (when new) which is small enough to act as a barrier between the smallest dust mites (20 microns at birth) and itch mites (different critters, aka scabies). However, dust mite allergens (DMA’s) and other allergens will still pass through even a 400 TC sheet, just as they will through the best, most expensive, 2 micron dust mite-proof mattress pad.
If the mattress has any foreign stains on it, then check out the mattress stain removal link at the bottom of this reply. BTW, enzymes will, overtime, also eat away any organic stains, on or in, the mattress(es).
An average queen-sized mattress is host to around 2 million dust mites. A dust mite poops 20 to 30 fecal pellets, 15 microns in size, per day (actually night, as they are nocturnal). So that equates to 40-60 million FRESH fecal pellets in your mattress each morning you awake. Dust mites live for 100 days…so one average-sized colony leaves 40 to 60 TRILLION fecal pellets in your mattress over their lifetime and of course as they die off…many more replace the dead ones.
The digestive system of a dust mite produces a protein called guanine. The guanine breaks down hard to digest foods which also allows dust mites to practice "corphagia" meaning they can survive by eating their own feces just in case you decide to put a mite-proof mattress cover on your mattress.
The fecal pellets dry up and become powdery thus reducing the 15 micron size to an even much smaller size (< 1 micron). All the contaminants in your bed become airborne each time you roll over in bed (50 to 60 times per night is average) or each time you fluff your pillow, or of course every time you and your significant other bounce on the bed.
When inhaled, guanine attaches to lung walls and kills healthy lung cells by suffocation.
BTW, the weight of a new pillow can increase 10%-25% in just a couple of years.
Dust mites have been around for about 300 million years, 2 months, and 4 days. They discovered man after man began sleeping on mattresses about 8 to 10 thousand years ago. Man discovered the absolutely healthy need to sleep on hygienic mattresses on, or about April 1st, 5993 B.C. But and for some unproven reason, man then forgot about the healthful benefits of sleeping on clean mattresses and pillows sometime around 1967 (LSD maybe?).
Here’s the bottom line, for better Health and Wellness, start with mattress hygiene…
it’s so easy, even a caveman can do it!
Free info "76 Tips to Reduce Dust Mites and Indoor Allergens" at this link:
http://www.sterilmattress.com/ebook_dust...
Mattress stain removal tips at this link:
http://www.sterilmattress.com/mattress_s...
dust and vaccuum, wash your sheets and pillow cases in pine sol or lysol. give your home a good cleaning!
If you have no allergies, I really would not worry about it at all. If you are, there are special covers for mattresses and pillows that dust mites cant burrow into. Besides that…vaccum daily.
You may think this is extreme, but get rid of carpet. I did it and am so glad. Carpet is really dirty stuff no matter how often you vacuum. It’s so much easier to keep a clean house without it. I did lay down a couple area rugs and when they eventually get bad, I will throw them out.
I also use an ionizer air filter. I don’t know if it does anything for dust mites, but the air in my home smells clean and fresh.
Wash your bedding every week. And I believe there are mattress and pillow covers you can buy specifically designed to repel dust mites.
Best wishes!
Wash your pillows or fluff them in the dryer (make sure your dryer is vented properly) for a couple minutes to kill the nasty things, change your bedding often, dust frequently, wash curtains and stick to lighter fabrics for them, get rid of any carpeting (if possible), and try to eliminate as many fabric surfaces as possible.
I have a dust allergy & I also use Febreeze Allergen Reducer occasionally on my sofa & chairs.
PS: I use a bagless Eureka vacuum that I purchased from Walmart…it works great.
Actually, if you’re really concerned about dust mites (especially if you’re allergic to them) you should remove the carpet altogether. Along with the mattress, pillows, and stuffed furniture (like sofas) – carpet is one of the top habitats of dust mites.
One square foot of carpet may contain as many as 100,000 live mites.
If you have to have the carpet, you really need to invest in a top quality HEPA vacuum cleaner. Sub-par vacuums don’t filter dust effectively and end up flinging the mites, their shed skins, and feces into the air. I recommend the Dyson, personally. It is expensive, but well worth it. You really do get what you pay for, and a cheaper vacuum cleaner just isn’t going to do the job as well as a top of the line cleaner.
However, if you want to focus on maximizing your campaign against the little buggers you should really concentrate on minimizing dust mites in your bedroom, since that’s where they’re most concentrated and it’s also where you probably want them the least (sharing your bed with them!)
The article linked below is a guide to eradicating dust mites in your bedroom for a total cost of under $100.