Dust Mites 101
What are dust mites?
Dust mites are very small creatures that live indoors in warm, moist places like the insides of pillows and mattresses. These creatures are not the kind of bugs that you can spot and crush, being invisible to the unaided eye. Their translucent bodies further hinder their visibility. Dust mites have no eyes or antennae, just eight legs and a mouth-like appendage.
The Dermatophagoides farinae (commonly known as dust mites) live off of dead skin cells that are shed from humans and pets, also called dander, they make their homes in mattresses, couches, and other frequently used furniture or carpeting. One square yard of your rug can contain as many as 100,000 dust mites.
To give you an idea of their size, up to 100,000 dust mites are able to live within one square yard, and on average a single dust mite is able to produce approximately 20 waste droppings each and every day. It is the protein, and the combination of feces, that are found inside these droppings that typically cause allergic reactions in humans.
When humans and animals shed their skin, the flakes are often referred to as dander, and it is estimated that humans will shed approximately one fifth of an ounce of dander every week. We can actually see skin flakes every day, and about 80% of the floating materials that can be seen in a sunbeam are skin flakes.
Your bed may be housing as many as 10 million. The dust mite favors a warm, almost moist surrounding, which is the condition of your mattress while you are sleeping on it. If you’ve never noticed you have bugs living in your house, don’t worry. Dust mites are microscopic and can not be seen without a microscopic lens. Unless you have an allergic reaction caused by the dust mite’s waste droppings, you’d probably never know they were there.
The fact is dust mites are not dangerous to anyone, however, if one does experience allergic reactions, they will often experience itching, sneezing, and water eyes or in more severe cases, asthma attacks. Many individuals who have indoor-allergies are actually allergic to the waste from dust mites. If you notice these symptoms, you will want to talk to your doctor or allergist.
Why don’t we like dust mites?
These creatures are indeed trouble, considering that exposure as a child or baby can cause a lifelong allergy to dust mites. Exposure as a young child can also cause other complications including asthma, eczema, and hay fever that will last for a lifetime. Paired with cat dander, cockroach droppings, and grass pollen, these allergic reactions and side effects can become almost unbearable for many people.
If dust mites cause you to wheeze, blame their digestive proteins. These secretions are very hard on the respiratory systems of us unwitting hosts. This secretion from the guts of the dust mites is extremely potent. There is no cure for allergies to dust mites. The only way to avoid allergy symptoms when it comes to dust mites is to prevent exposure in the first place. This means that it is important to learn a few things about them.
How do dust mites live?
Dust Mites have a life cycle of just 10 to 70 days. Females which have mated typically live for 50 - 70 days. And the average life cycle for a male is just 15 days.
Female dust mites will typically lay 75 - 100 eggs in the final weeks of her life cycle. Some dust mites lay their eggs in groups of up to 5 other females. Others do so alone. Once an egg hatches a larva with six legs is produced. The dust mite larva then transforms into a nymph with eight legs. After the nymph stages, an adult is produced with eight legs. At this point it looks like a microscopic spider.
Dust mites survive in mattresses and other warm, dusty environments. They consume the dander (flakes of skin) that are shed by humans and animals alike, making the dusty corner under the bed where the cat sleeps just as friendly to these creatures as the inside of a pillow. Dust mites tend to spend a third of their lives or more within the comfortable confines of a mattress.
A typical used mattress may have up to ten million dust mites living in it, and a pillow of only two years old can be composed of up to ten percent dust mite feces and carcasses. Carpets also tend to house large colonies of these household pests, making just about anything porous liable to support the life of these most abrasive of creatures.
Symptoms of Dust Mite Allergies
One of the most strongly allergenic materials that is found in the average household is dust. This allergy is often made a lot worse by the addition of the dropping and carcasses of microscopic creatures called dust mites. These creatures are solely responsible for the suffering of thousands of people across the world.
Since dust mites thrive mainly by embedding themselves into carpet, clothing, and other fabric fibers, they inhabit the same areas as humans. Human allergies to these pests stem mostly from the residue left from dust mites. As the colony of dust mites grows, so does the amount of decaying body parts and fecal waste left behind from them. These waste products are the root cause for the allergy and asthma symptoms caused by dust mites.
Symptoms of dust mites include a wide variety of sinus related problems. The most common symptoms are itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, itching and clogging of the ear canals, asthma, and many other respiratory related problems. Many of these symptoms appear at night, while a person sleeps. This is because millions of dust mites can live in a person’s bed by inhabiting the mattresses and pillows. When a person sleeps, they are in very close proximity to the agents that cause allergies, and by moving around in bed, people are unknowingly causing these particles to become airborne.
People who suffer from asthma often have a difficult time with dust mites. If they have allergies to dust mites, the allergy symptoms can often bring on severe asthmatic reactions. These reactions can present with symptoms such as respiratory congestion, wheezing, and even severe shortness of breath. Anyone suffering these conditions should be treated by a licensed physician or asthma specialist. More on dust mites allergies.
The adult female dermatophagoides farinae can lay up to eighty eggs, either one at a time or in small groups of about three to five eggs each. When the larva first comes out of the egg, it has six legs. However, after the first time they molt, they will have eight legs. This is their nymph stage and they actually go through two nymphal stages before reaching adulthood. The time period between the hatching and adulthood is approximately one month and the adult will survive up to another three months. Their life cycle is approximately four months in total.
While house dust mites will find haven in carpeting, mattresses, and sofas, they need to have water to survive. Without water or moistness, they will not survive and the dust mites tend to thrive in the humid months of the summer and in regions with high humidity. During the dry winter months or in areas of dry climates, the population of the dust mite diminishes.
As humans tend to shed approximately .20 ounces of dead skin a week, the dust mites are never lacking for food. When you add in pets to the household, the dust mites surely are in heaven. The mattress is one of the dust mites favorite places is due to the fact this is where humans, as well as some pets, spend almost a third of their time. Most go to bed with little clothing and the skin cells are shed, supplying the dust mites with plenty of food.
More info on dust mites allergies.
Dust Mites and Their Impact on Society
Dust mites, though small and microscopic little animals have made a huge impact on society. Because such a large percentage of the population has reactions to these creatures, multiple industries have developed to produce a wide variety of products for treatment and reduction of dust mites. Everything from pharmaceuticals and therapies, to cleaning products and dust protection devices has been created. Many industries have a hand in helping to reduce the number of people that suffer from symptoms associated with dust mites.
As mentioned, dust mites are not particularly harmful, although we are now aware that their microscopic skin casts and feces are responsible for allergic reactions in certain individuals. The National Institute of Environmental Health Services in the United States claim that up to 30% of Americans are allergic to the waste produced by dust mites, whereas up to 50% of American homes have enough dust mite waste products to cause allergic reactions in people who have never previously complained of any allergies.
Is It A Dust Mite Or A Bed Bug?
Not only are dust mites found in beds, but so are bed bugs. Both attempt to feed from either skin or blood, although it is important to be able to tell the difference between them. Bed bugs will actively bite people in order to feed on their blood. Admittedly, the bites are painless, although they will leave red and itchy scars the following morning.
The symptoms of a bed bug bite will typically be small red spots, and once again different people will react differently to these bites. Some people will exhibit no symptoms whatsoever, whereas others may have severe skin reactions. However, it is a known fact that people will become increasingly sensitive to bed bug bites if they are repeatedly bitten over a period of time.
As mentioned, dust mites do not bite, but we are now aware that they are a major cause of indoor allergies. We are also aware that dust mites themselves will never produce symptoms, but their protein and fecal matter can cause asthma, and indeed aggravate existing asthma symptoms.
It is also easy to spot the difference, as bed bugs are far larger than dust mites. A bed bug is still extremely small, and will typically be 1.5 to 7 millimetres, but this can be considered huge when compared to a dust mite, which generally measures no more than a quarter of a millimetre. Therefore, if you’re able to see a creature with your naked eye, you will know immediately that it is not a dust mite.
In conclusion, there is actual little point in testing whether a home has dust mites. The likelihood is that every single home, no matter how clean, will have dust mites. And there are many services offered that will test homes for dust mites, but this testing is not particularly necessary, as we are now aware that dust mites are very common in household areas. Rather than worrying about whether there are dust mites present, people should actively use the above methods to control or remove them.
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