Creepy crawlies roamin' in your home?

A client told me recently that he had read an article that stated that if you keep a bed pillow for five years, up to 1/20th of the weight of that pillow could be made up of accumulated tiny creepy crawlies called house dust mites and their waste.  Not a restful bedtime thought, and maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but these tiny parasites that live in your home are a reality.  And, they are a frequent cause of dog and cat allergies.

House dust mites exist throughout even the cleanest home.  They feed on human and animal dander, hair, and dead flakes of skin.  They are commonly found on beds, couches, carpets, and - yes, in your pillows.  Tiny enough to be seen only under a microscope (and boy, are they ugly creatures!), they can crawl through seams in chairs. Couches, mattresses, and pet beds and rapidly infest an entire houseful of furniture.  House dust mites multiply especially rapidly when we close our windows in preparation for winter.  Vacuuming and dusting doesn't remove them, unless special precautions are taken (more about that, later).

Most of us are all too ready to show the door to unwelcome company.  But you can't do that when you can't even see your unwelcome guest!  The best bet with house dust mites and similar critters is to not let them get too comfy in the first place. Here are some tips from Heska (one of the companies that has developed a test for house dust mites) to keep them from feeling at home, slow down their rate of multiplication and minimize their effect on allergic pets:

1. If you have a choice, imitation or real hardwood, vinyl, or tile floors are always better than carpet, because they provide less hiding room for mites and are easier to keep clean.

2. "Dust collectors" like piles of newspapers, stuffed animals, fabric wall hangings, and dozens of knick-knacks are favored by house dust mites.  Reducing the numbers of dust-catchers in your home makes sense.

3.  Washing your, and your pets, bedding in HOT water every week or two kills mites.  If you have fancy bedding that doesn't tolerate frequent hot water washing, tumble it in the dryer under high heat if possible.

4. Since bedrooms always have the highest concentrations of mites, it makes good sense to keep allergic pets out of the bedroom.  It is a nuisance (but it works!) to encase mattresses, box springs, and pillows in available "mite-proof" covers.  Just make sure that the label states that the pore size of each cover is less than 10 micrometers, or the mites will crawl right through!  All mattress pads and blankets should be washable - and washed often.  And what's the most mite-free type of bed?  A waterbed.

5. Houseplants should be "showered" when they get dusty, or mites will feel right at home, living on your plants.

6. Furnace filters should be changed frequently.  The electrostatic kind are better at filtering out tiny mites and their waste, which "goes airborne" whenever you dust or vacuum.

7. Speaking of vacuums...it's not a very appealing thought, but every time you vacuum, literally millions of pieces of house dust mites and their poop spew from the vacuum's exhaust system back into the air and onto your freshly cleaned floors and furniture.  This is where the (usually expensive) vacuums with HEPA filters come in - they really do help reduce particulates in the air.  Damp mopping and damp dusting after each vacuuming helps, too.

8. Lastly, lowering the humidity in your home slows those mites down.  While many of us like higher humidity in the winter, mites LOVE it, and they reproduce at astounding rates in wintertime in our homes.  Keeping the humidity to 30-50% is a happy medium that keeps us comfortable and the mites uncomfortable.

Because we can test for house dust mite allergies using a simple blood test, we can find out which pets in your household are most at risk of developing allergies to mites.  It's estimated that 50-80% of all dogs with allergies to other things also have allergies to house dust mites - so trying to control them makes sense.  Allergy shots, or hyposensitization helps many pets, but allergy shots take time to work.  The simple environmental controls we've listed may be your best bet to make itchy pets feel more comfortable right away.