DUST-MITES

Mites can double in numbers in less than 10 hours,
and produce between 10 and 20 pieces of feces
per day. That is 100,000 dead bodies, and 30
million pieces of feces added to your home each
and every day!

No home is immune.

Microscopic mite feces and corpses are small
enough to be airborne and get into your lungs. 80%
of the 11 million Americans who suffer from allergies
are allergic to airborne mite refuse. How bad is it?
Well, one tenth of the weight of a 2 year old pillow is
dust mite feces. Your home is a dust mite nursery,
and you could be swimming in their unhealthy mire.
They blow in from the outside, thrive on dead skin
cells and moisture from our breathing and
perspiration They love bedrooms

* A gram of house dust (approximately half of a
teaspoon) contains as many as 1,000 dust mites.
That same gram of dust holds 250,000 of their fecal
pellets.

* House dust mites are arachnids, not insects they
are related to spiders. They are microscopic, eight
legged creatures, 0.3 mm in length, and invisible to
the human eye.

* House dust mites are found in virtually all homes,
no matter how clean. They live in the dust that
accumulates in carpets, fabrics, furniture and
bedding.

* A Primary source of dust mite exposure in the
home is in the bedroom, which provides the best
conditions of warmth, humidity, and food for their
growth. They are present in mattresses, pillows,
blankets, carpets, upholstered furniture, curtains,
and similar fabrics. The average bedroom can be
infested by millions of microscopic dust mites. We
spend around one third of our lives in the bedroom
so we are in close and prolonged contact with dust
mites.

* The house dust mite survive by eating our dead
skin cells, which make up to 80% of house dust.
They also live off water vapor, which we provide for
them through perspiring and breathing
approximately one pint per person per night.

* A dust mite will produce 20 fecal pellets per day
that is 200 times its own body weight in feces during
its short lifetime. With millions of dust mites living in
one bed this means there are vast amounts of
droppings there. These levels mean that virtually all
dust mite sensitive people will experience problems
as a direct result of the dust mites and their
droppings in their mattress, pillow and duvet.

* Research shows that during one nights sleep most
people toss and turn up to 60 or 70 times meaning
the dust mite droppings are frequently expelled into
the air from bedding. Researchers have also
discovered that the allergens can then stay in the
air for up to 2 hours. Once airborne, dried dust mite
droppings are easily inhaled into our airways thus
causing allergic reactions in asthmatics. These
allergens can cause wheezing, coughs, itchy eyes,
sniffles and, in more serious cases, asthma,
eczema, and allergic rhinitis.

* The development of the house dust mite from an
egg to an adult takes just three to four weeks.
Adults live for about six weeks, during which time
the females produce forty to eighty eggs.

* It is not the dust mite themselves that causes the
problems. The allergen which causes asthma
attacks, allergies and eczema is actually a protein
found in their droppings and their carcasses.