At what temperature do dust mites die?

Pillows

• Never sleep on feather pillows or cover yourself with down (quilted) blankets; give preference to bedding with synthetic fillers (foam or polyester/acrylic).
• Use breathable covers for your pillows, but not vinyl ones. Although vinyl protects against house dust mites, according to scientists in South America, when the head and body move, a “balloon effect” occurs, which creates a stream of high-pressure air containing allergens. They immediately penetrate into the pillow through seams and weaves.
• Change your pillows every six months.
• On sunny and warm days, take the pillows out into the sun for 5 hours to disinfect with ultraviolet light.

What is a house dust mite?

The house dust mite is a very small representative of arthropods from the class of arachnids and the family Pyroglyphidae. It cannot be seen with the naked eye, as it is 0.1-0.5 mm in size. But nevertheless, it does a lot of harm to people. Typical saprophyte by type of nutrition. This is the type when the dead epidermis, that is, the uppermost layer of the skin, acts as the food product of the insect.

Did you know that every day we lose 1.5 g of epidermis? This is a scientifically proven fact; dead epidermis no longer serves a vital function, so it naturally exfoliates. A person does not feel or notice this. The tick, in turn, speeds up this process for its own benefit. It secretes excrement that contains enzymes that help break down the skin. The insect's lifespan is approximately 60-80 days. Females can reproduce as many as 60 eggs in one clutch.

1 gram of dust contains almost 100 mites of various species. There are about 150 of these species. The most favorable conditions for the existence of ticks are as follows: air humidity above 55% and temperature 18-25°C. In this case, there may be even more dust mite representatives.

Mattresses

• Use plastic, vinyl, or microporous mattress covers.
• Lightweight, breathable bedding covers are essential for controlling house dust mites.
• Wash your mattress covers regularly.
• Rotate mattresses every month. If the weather permits, place the mattresses in the sun for 5 hours.
• If the child's room has a bunk bed, a child with asthma should sleep on the top bed.
• Wash bedding at 60°C, which kills dust mites.
• In the morning, do not cover your bed with a blanket; let it air thoroughly.
• Do not buy children's beds whose back or sides are upholstered in soft fabric.

Cleaning Features

Among arachnids, saprophytes are distinguished, the representative of which is the house dust mite. They find their favorite nutrients in dust. It accumulates a huge amount of dandruff, hair fragments, food residues, fibers from nightwear, and bed linen.

Household dust mites are dangerous for a child or adult with weakened body defenses. Insects are found in almost every living space, and they are especially attracted to warm and humid rooms.

House dust mites are not carriers of infectious diseases, do not bite humans, and avoid their presence. The insect's excrement, its body, dries out and mixes with dust particles that a person inhales.

Allergy to dust mites

Linen mites love to live in rooms with high humidity and temperature, and poor ventilation.
Air polluted by exhaust gases and tobacco smoke creates excellent conditions for the proliferation of parasites. As a rule, the allergen is insect particles, as well as their excrement, which contains substances that provoke a negative reaction in the human body. When inhaled, these elements enter the respiratory tract and cause an allergy to bed mites.

A dust mite allergy is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• nasal discharge, nasal congestion, itching;
• due to the inability to breathe normally, the brain suffers from a lack of oxygen, which causes severe headaches, deterioration of well-being, and decreased ability to work;
• redness, irritation of the eyes, excessive lacrimation;
• attacks of dry cough, wheezing in the chest area;
• redness of the skin, itching and flaking;
• shortness of breath and attacks of suffocation;
• sleep disturbances caused by difficulty breathing;
• Quincke's edema, characteristic of the most sensitive people. Sometimes swelling leads to death.

The appearance of one or more symptoms may indicate sensitivity to bed mites. The most accurate diagnosis will be carried out by an immunologist using special studies. To identify the disease, a small amount of allergen extract is introduced into the body, and then the reaction to it is monitored. Diagnostics will help determine what is tormenting the patient, an allergy to a dust mite or something else.

To date, scientists have been able to identify about 23 allergens, the carriers of which are bed mites that exist in the home. Accurate determination of the causes helps to prescribe effective treatment for the patient.

Treatment of allergies consists of observing the following rules:

1. Eliminate contact with the allergen as quickly as possible; you also need to treat all places where linen mites can live. To do this, it is worth using acaricidal drugs.
2. You should get rid of the symptoms of the disease with the help of medications prescribed by your doctor.
3. We must not forget about methods that help reduce the patient’s sensitivity to the proteins that feather mites secrete.

Treatment of allergy manifestations is carried out using drugs that can be purchased in pharmacies: Telfast, Suprastin, Lomilan, Eden and others. Many of them are suitable for children. Treatment is carried out strictly according to the attached instructions.

Ants

Red house ants came to Russia from Ethiopia. They breed throughout the year and usually live in areas with high humidity, such as kitchens and bathrooms. But in general, they can live anywhere - behind tiles and under baseboards, in linen, in food products, in books. These insects are omnivores: they do not disdain meat, sweets, or dead insects. Because of them, not only food spoils, but also clothing, insulation of electrical appliances, and leather items. As soon as you notice ants in your apartment, their paths along the walls, floors and furniture should be immediately treated with preparations that include diethyltoluamide (DEET) or dimethyl phthalate (DMF). It is better if professionals from the sanitary and epidemiological station do this. Treatment is carried out twice, with an interval of 3-4 days. Various gels, traps with intestinal poisons and poisoned baits help best in the fight against ants. By the way, ants easily crawl from apartment to apartment, so it would be good to fight them with the whole entrance. To prevent insects from getting into the food, treat the edges of dishes or bags with sunflower oil: the ants will not overcome this obstacle - they will get stuck. You can put elderberry, wild mint or wormwood leaves in the food cupboard - this is also a good remedy.

Cleaning

• Vacuum your bedroom carpets daily, as well as any other carpets where children play.
• Vacuum your entire home at least twice a week.
• A vacuum cleaner that does not have appropriate filters will spread allergens.
• Only a small number of dust mites can be "swallowed" by a vacuum cleaner, as they attach to the carpet fibers with suction cups and cling to their paws. Wet vacuuming is more effective.
• Carry out wet cleaning at least twice a week.
• Regularly wax your wood floors to create a mite-proof film.

How to get rid of ticks in a mattress?

There are several fairly simple ways to eliminate unpleasant allergens. So, just a few decades ago there was one effective method - freezing. To do this, the mattress was taken outside in the cold and left for a while. This method helps eliminate harmful microorganisms and refresh the product. But what to do in the summer?

In the warm season, a different type of mattress cleaning is needed. To do this, you can use both special preparations and folk remedies. Thus, it is believed that ultraviolet rays also fight microorganisms. But if you skip cleaning or don’t wipe the floors and baseboards thoroughly enough, the mite population resumes.

One of the home methods is salt cleaning. To do this, you need to thoroughly treat the surface with a 20% solution of table salt. You can also try this method: spray the product with a solution of vinegar or ammonia, and after drying, sprinkle with borax, leave for a while, and then brush off.

Also, cleaning the mattress from ticks can be done with special means. Among them are safe preparations: “Milbol”, “Allergoff” (available in a spray or special washing liquid).

Methods for killing dust mites

People try to learn how to get rid of dust mites instead of just getting rid of dust, although there are many ways to do this:

1. It is necessary to eliminate places where dust accumulates most often: carpets, fur coats, soft toys.
2. Try to replace parquet with linoleum.
3. Washing in water with a temperature of 60 degrees will help destroy dust mites on clothes, curtains and other textiles.
4. It is recommended to replace regular curtains with blinds, since mites, like dust, always accumulate on the surface of fabrics.
5. It is worth buying special covers for linen that prevent dust from settling and the development of allergies.
6. To get rid of dust mites, you do not need to allow pets into your room, as they activate the movement of parasites.
7. Clothes must be stored in locked cabinets.
8. Fighting bed mites involves replacing wool blankets and feather pillows with products made from hypoallergenic materials. The more often mattresses and pillows are ventilated and dried, the better it is for health.
9. Destruction of dust mites requires wet cleaning every day. The floor surface must be cleaned using a saline solution.
10. Furniture should be treated with detergents containing borates or benzyl benzoates, which insects are afraid of.
11. You can also use other anti-dust mite products to help kill them.
12. Ventilate your home more often and stop smoking indoors.
13. People undergoing treatment for allergies are advised to take vitamin C, which kills harmful microorganisms.

But you need to know not only how to get rid of dust, but also how to deal with dust mites. The most popular product suitable for treating various surfaces is Allergoff anti-dust mite spray. The aerosol is absolutely safe for people, so it is suitable for beds, toys, carpets and other items.

A modern way to get rid of linen mites is quartz treatment. An ultraviolet lamp can kill not only feather mites in pillows, but also various microbes.

Another effective remedy for dust mites is a quartz air purifier. Purchasing such a device will help clean your living space from numerous harmful bacteria, mold, and viruses. The complex device is equipped with a whole set of filters and is convenient to use. The air purifier is absolutely safe for health.

You can also use essential oils of clove, eucalyptus, and tea tree as a remedy for bed mites. They are suitable for processing furniture, carpets, curtains. Ticks in bed quickly die if about 10 drops of oil are added to the powder while washing clothes. Aqueous solutions prepared with essential oils are a natural remedy for dust mites.

If you detect a negative reaction to substances secreted by parasites, you should consult a doctor. Symptoms should be treated, as well as active use of anti-dust mite products. Treating places where insects may be will help minimize the negative impact of allergens on humans.

Expert opinion

Svetlana Khudyakova, chief specialist-expert of the Department of Particularly Dangerous Infections of the Moscow Office of Rospotrebnadzor: — It is necessary to get rid of dust mites. These are strong allergens. There are special disinfection chambers at city disinfection stations, where you can bring pillows, blankets, etc. If you are fighting household insects using chemicals, be sure to read the instructions and follow safety precautions: some products are very poisonous. In general, it is better not to be present during processing; entrust it to specialists.

Stuffed Toys

• Keep the number of stuffed animals to a minimum and store them in a closet.
• Get rid of books that collect dust, dried flowers, thick curtains, blinds, upholstered furniture or keep them completely clean.
• Choose closed cabinets for books and other supplies.
• Wash soft toys every month at a temperature of at least 60°C.
• Place them in the refrigerator for six hours every week.
• After this, vacuum the stuffed toys to remove any dead dust mites.

How to find out about the existence of an insect in your home

The symptoms experienced by residents of the apartment are as follows:

• persistent nasal discharge;
• lacrimation;
• itching, appearance of eczema;
• cough, sore throat;
• choking, sneezing;
• inflammatory phenomena in the intestines.

The dust mite, if its presence is not combated, begins to occupy more and more space, including cribs and beds. Allergies in children and adolescents quickly make themselves felt. A serious complication will be an attack of bronchial asthma, suffocation.

Household dust mites are characterized by extremely small sizes, which do not exceed 0.4 mm. It is included in dust along with various fibers, fungal spores, cellulose, particles of epidermis and other components. The number of insects around each person is very large: from several hundred to tens of thousands of species in 1 gram of soap.

Where do dust mites live? Insects can be found in any part of the apartment, but most often they can live in the following places:

1. Vacuum cleaner. If you do not change the bag or wash the dust container after each cleaning of the premises, a huge number of mites accumulate in it. And if the dust remains there for a long time, they will begin to multiply intensively.
2. Mattress. It creates ideal conditions for the reproduction of ticks: elevated temperature, necessary humidity and the presence of food (dead particles of the human epidermis). Mites in a mattress are a problem that simply cleaning will not be enough to solve.
3. Cushioned furniture. A huge number of insects accumulate in the sofa, armchairs, kitchen corners and other places. After all, complete cleaning of furniture is carried out very rarely, and they are hidden in hard-to-reach places - seams and joints.
4. Carpets and rugs. Household mites spread throughout the room with air currents and very often settle on floor coverings, hiding at the base of the villi.
5. Stuffed Toys.
6. Pet hair.

Dust mites can accumulate in many other places: on shelves, books, flowerpots and other surfaces.

Frequently asked questions and answers

Where do dust mites live?

Dust mites are considered an integral part of house dust; they are always present where people live. It’s impossible to see what a dust mite looks like without a microscope, but these insects definitely live in the following places:

• dust collectors in vacuum cleaners;
• upholstered furniture, toys;
• bed linen, pillows, mattresses;
• items of clothing;
• carpets;
• pet fur.

In addition, dust mites live on human skin and hair.

Do dust mites bite?

Parasites, contrary to popular belief, do not bite. Redness of the skin, itching and swelling appear due to an allergic reaction to the protein secreted by insects. People sensitive to this substance should be sure to combat dust mites.

At what temperature do dust mites die?

It has already been said how to get rid of bed mites, but let us remind you: washing should be done in water with a temperature of at least 60 degrees, since it is destructive to such insects.

Does UV light kill dust mites?

Yes, in order to get rid of linen mites, it is worth purchasing an air purifier with an ultraviolet lamp, since the parasites cannot tolerate its effects.

Why are ticks dangerous?

Allergic reactions
Dust mites, or rather their feces and the shells of dead insects, contain digestive enzymes (harmful proteins) that destroy human skin cells and cause severe allergies in some people. The antigens of these arachnid representatives can cause the development of atopic dermatitis, bronchial asthma, conjunctivitis and allergic rhinitis.

People with low immunity, city residents, and children are most prone to allergic reactions. Symptoms most often appear at night or during cleaning, as well as upon contact with old cotton items.

Dust mite allergy symptoms:

• Persistent or recurrent runny nose;
• Constant or periodic suffocating cough;
• Rapid breathing;
• Redness and itching of the skin;
• Tearfulness and redness of the cornea.

Important! At the first sign of an allergy, you should contact your family doctor. Self-treatment can only temporarily relieve symptoms or aggravate the allergy sufferer’s condition.

Reducing humidity

• Make sure that there is not a lot of steam accumulating in the bathroom. To do this, first run cold water and do not open the door.
• Open the windows.
• Do not use air conditioners or ionizers.
• In winter, electric blankets can help kill dust mites.
• To reduce increasing humidity levels in your home, install dryers that are vented to the outside.
• Turn on hoods while cooking or open windows and close doors to all other rooms.

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