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Keeping Dust Mites At Bay Means Managing Your Dust Bunnies

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When you want to make sure you have mastered the problem of having dust mites in your home, you will look for ways of how to keep dust mites at bay. First you have to take the necessary steps of eliminating the food source, which is the dead skin scales that come off our bodies. This happens in bed and on sofas. Since dust floats in the air, there may also be dust mites on the drapery, in carpeting and on rugs. It does involve dust proofing your home as much as possible.

Experts will tell you that the best way of managing dust mites is to remove all carpeting and rugs from your home. The best flooring is laminate or hardwood and even though dust does build up mites cannot burrow through this material like they can in carpeting. They like dark places that are warm and moist where they can feed off the dead skin scales of humans and pet dander. Vacuuming the carpet should be weekly chore and more often if possible. Rugs should be brought outdoors into the direct sunlight if possible.

Beds are the prime breeding grounds for these mites, especially the mattress and pillows. Female mites lay about 200 eggs in their 10-week life span and there could be millions of them in one mattress. Once you take all the bedding from the bed, cover the mattress and pillows with dust proof protective coverings. These covers will need to be vacuumed on a regular basis to eliminate any dust that may build up. The bedding should be washed once a week in hot water. Dust also accumulates under the bed, so in your weekly cleaning, you shouldn't forget this important area of the floor.

Dust floats through the air. When you clean laminate or hardwood flooring, use a broom with microfibre cleaning surfaces that will attract the dust and keep it from floating through the air and coming to rest somewhere else. Dusting the furniture should be dome with a damp cloth instead of dry dusting, but most people usually use some kind of furniture polish or glass cleaner when doing this chore. This wets the dust and keeps it from moving.

Stuffed toys should be removed from children's bedrooms. These are also areas where dust mites are found. The upholstered furniture is another area that needs attention. When vacuuming, you should vacuum the seats and backs of the furniture, making sure you get down into the sides and crevices of the material.

Since dust mites need a high level of humidity to survive, you should have a dehumidifier in your home. When you have a humidity level of less than 50% you can feel confidant that you are managing the problem effectively. Installing an air filter that traps the dust floating in the air is another solution to keeping dust mites at bay.

Although it make take some work at first to get rid of the dust mites, managing them afterwards is a simple chore that just involves good housekeeping.

Article Source: http://www.articlemanual.com

For more information on how to keep dust mites at bay and other dust mites related topics visit www.dust-mites.org



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