Photo Credit: Gilles San Martin
Despite their name, the house dust mite do not restrict themselves to dusty homes. Even a home that looks sparkling clean can have problems with these microscopic insects. If you want some ways to get rid of or cut down on the home dust mite to ease your dust mite allergy, asthma symptoms, asthma attacks, health problems, or perhaps you just enjoy cleaner air for optimal health conditions, there’s a lot you can do.
How a House Dust Mites Infestation Gets Started
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Before you create your plan of attack for ridding your home dust mites and possible dust mite allergies, it helps to understand what these mites are and how they behave. Dust mites are tiny relatives of the spider, too small to be seen with the naked eye.
They exist in nearly every home and, to most people, they’re completely harmless. For those with allergies, asthma, eczema or certain other sensitivities, however, dust mites can act as allergens, cause allergic reactions, and cause result in worsened symptoms of a dust mite allergy.
These mites feed on the scales of human skin that people and animals, including dogs and cats, shed every day. Before the mites can process these skin cells, the scales must be broken down by bacteria and fungi that are commonly found in the home. These microorganisms thrive in dark, warm, and humid conditions.
This means any soft place, particularly those where you spend time lying or sitting, makes an optimal home for dust mites and dust mite allergens. Your bed, pillows, beddings, upholstered furniture like soft chairs and sofas, carpets, wall-to-wall carpeting, and fabric curtains can all collect dead skin cells, absorb humidity, and provide dark spaces between the fibers where microorganisms can thrive.
The mites themselves rarely become airborne, so you’re unlikely to breathe them in. The problem, particularly for those with allergies or asthma, is dust mite droppings and body parts from dead mites. These dry particles can float around in your air and are small enough to enter your airways when you breathe and can be harmful to anyone allergic to dust mites.
To solve your dust mite problem, you need a two-pronged approach that includes taking steps to:
- Rid your home of leftover dust mite debris, dust mite feces, including dust mite proteins and pet dander.
- Prevent the dust mites from reproducing
Take an Extra-Thorough Approach to Cleaning
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To keep the dust mite population down and dispose of lingering debris, clean your house at least once a week. Before you start to eliminate the mites and dust mite feces, put on a dust mask and turn your air conditioner to the “fan on” setting. Running the A/C fan keeps air moving through your HVAC system’s air filter, which helps pick up any dust mites, allergens or other debris you’ve kicked up while cleaning.
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How to eliminate dust mites naturally? Start cleaning by using a damp cloth or microfiber cloth to dust your hard furniture. Avoid using a feather duster, which just redistributes the dust instead of picking it up. Then vacuum your soft furnishings including carpets and, finally, vacuum or mop your floors. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter to ensure the mites and debris don’t find their way out of the vacuum again. These filters are often available at allergy care supply stores or specialty vacuum stores. On hard flooring, use a microfiber mop.
When you’re done with the cleaning, let the air conditioning unit fan run and stay out of the rooms you’ve just cleaned for around 20 minutes. This allows time for any contaminant particles floating in the air to settle or be caught by the air conditioning units filter.
Killing Dust Mites with Temperature Control
Once a week, wash your bedding, sheets, and blankets in hot water that’s at least 130 degrees. That’s the lowest temperature hot enough to kill dust mites and bed bugs. Once every other week, wash your machine-washable rugs at the same temperature. Washing is one of the best remedies to get rid of dust mites and bed bugs.
To kill dust mites on non-washable items, such as children’s stuffed animals and other stuffed toys, put the item in a plastic bag or wrap it in plastic and place it in the freezer overnight.
Create Conditions That Inhibit Dust Mites
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Are there home remedies to rid your home of dust mites and dust mite allergies? Yes, when possible, have your bedroom on the upper floor of your home. Because air contaminants settle at lower levels, the upper floors tend to have cleaner air and fewer dust mites.
Cover your mattresses and pillows with zippered allergen-proof (anti-allergy) covers for a better sleeping environment. These bed covers are made of a material impenetrable to dust mites and their debris. You can find these at allergy care supply stores as well as many bedding stores.
Before you cover the mattress you’re using now, vacuum it thoroughly. Use a HEPA-filter equipped vacuum if possible. Alternatively, invest in a new mattress. Put an allergen-proof mattress cover on it before you use it to prevent the dust mite infestation from even getting started. This is an especially good idea if your current mattress is more than five years old. You can even use dust mite spray to help reduce allergens.
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Lower Humidity
Another way to dispose of dust mites naturally is to lower humidity levels inside the house. Dust mites and the other microorganisms that aid them prefer high humidity levels ranging between 70 and 80 percent. Although they can live in anything over 50 percent. The ideal indoor humidity varies with the outdoor temperature, but most of the time, between 40 to 60 percent works well.
Monitoring Humidity
If your home has high humidity, you’ll notice signs like condensation on the windows and patches of mold spores in the corners of the ceilings, behind furniture, and under rugs. You’ll feel sticky in summer and clammy in winter. To more accurately measure your indoor humidity, hang a hygrometer on the wall. If you find your indoor humidity is consistently above 50 percent, taking steps to reduce it will help you get rid of dust mites.
Take shorter, cooler showers to get rid of dust mites on the skin. Keep pots and pans covered while you cook. After you shower or cook, run your bathroom or kitchen vent fan for around 15 minutes, but not longer. Any longer and you’ll let in more humidity than you let out. Cut down on the number of houseplants you have and try to keep them all in one room. If these steps don’t get your humidity down into a healthy range, you could benefit from installing a whole-house dehumidifier in your heating and cooling system.
Proper ventilation helps reduce the amount of debris in your home that feeds dust mites. This is an excellent and natural way to get rid of dust mites. Opening the windows is the simplest approach, but it also lets in pollen. For year-round ventilation that won’t let in outdoor air contaminants, talk with a ventilation technician about installing a whole-house ventilation system.
Temperatures between 68 to 77 degrees are ideal for dust mites. While this also the temperature range most people prefer, if you don’t mind keeping your home a little cooler in winter (around 65 to 67), it can help inhibit the growth of dust mites as well as keep your heating bills down.
Redecorating
A little redecorating can make your home a lot less hospitable to dust mites. Start by getting rid of all fabric items you can’t wash frequently in water of at least 130 degrees. Choose tight-weave fabrics whenever possible. If you have wall-to-wall carpet, consider tearing it out and replacing it with hard floorings, such as wood, stone or tile. Replace plush high-pile area rugs, such as shag rugs, with low-pile carpets.
To make dusting easier, keep your tables and shelves free of small knick-knacks and clutter. Switch from drapes, fabric curtains or blinds to vinyl roller shades, which are the easiest to keep clean and will prevent household dust.
If possible, avoid upholstered or fabric-covered furniture in your living room and opt for fiber surfaces, wood or plastic instead. If you don’t want to give up fabric-covered furniture, choose fabrics with a tight weave. Vacuum them regularly and use a steam cleaner to kill dust mites. While down pillows can harbor dust mites, they are okay to use with allergy-safe covers.
Keeping down the dust mite population in your home isn’t guaranteed to ease your asthma or allergy symptoms, and allergy attacks but it will give you both cleaner air and cleaner places to sit and sleep. That’s a benefit everyone in your family can enjoy and better health conditions. And of course after a complete clean you can use dust mite repellent spray to help them come back to your home and surfaces.
