So, you wake up sneezing every morning and you lay there wondering what it is in your bedroom that is causing your allergic reaction. Sorry to tell you, it’s probably the dust mites in your mattress that are making you sneeze. But how do you remove dust mites from your mattress?

About 10 percent of Americans have a severe allergic reaction to Dust Mites but countless others have slight to moderate reactions which include annoying sneezing fits.

So if the typical used mattress contains anywhere from 100 thousand to 10 million dust mites inside of it, what are we supposed to do? Well before you go throwing out all of your mattresses and sleeping on the floor, there are several techniques that can be used to greatly reduce the amount of dust mites that live in your mattress.

If you are a parent you have probably learned by now how to clean a mattress when life’s little oopses happen. But what you probably haven’t learned is how to properly protect your mattresses from dust mites.

Facts About Dust Mites

Knowledge is power right? Educating yourself is the first step in combating dust mites. Here are a few facts about dust mites that you should know:

  • The dust mites prime habitat is in a mattress
  • The dust mites main food supply is human dander. That’s right people, dust mites are munching on the dead skin that we shed
  • Dust mites also inhabit pillows, carpets, and upholstered furniture.
  • Dust mites cannot be seen with the naked eye so just cause you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
  • The dust mites feces and their shed skin is what causes allergic reactions in humans
  • The dust mites feces and their shed skin is a large part of what makes up household dust
  • Dust mites prefer warm moist surroundings such as the inside of a mattress with YOU on it

How To Control Dust Mites

There is no eliminating dust mites from your home…you can only hope to control them. The techniques I’m going to be listing are geared towards the bedroom but as we stated earlier, dust mites can be found in carpets and couches to you may want to adapt these techniques to fit other areas of your home.

  • Dust Mite Impervious Covers – The best way of protecting your mattress or pillow from dust mite inhabitation is to cover the entire surface with a dust mite impervious cover. This cover will not allow dust mites to work their way into the mattress or pillow case.
  • Sanitize Sheets And Blankets – This is done by washing your sheets and blankets in very hot water. This can be done bi-weekly along with your regular weekly washing of your bed linen.
  • Reduce Humidity – Ensuring that your household humidity is below 50% is required if you hope to control dust mites. Humidifier in the winter? I’m guilty of that. You can still use the humidifier but only use it at night and make sure that the bedroom is somehow ventilated during the day.
  • Weekly Cleaning – Change all bed linen once per week. Vacuum very well around the base of your mattress as well as the mattress itself. When cleaning floors make sure to use a damp mop or damp cloth as brooms and dry cloths just move the dust around and stirs the dust mites into the air.
  • Let Their Be Light – Prolonged exposure to sunlight kills dust mites. If you have a window or two in your bedroom make sure you open the shades and allow it to shine in. Remember, sunlight kills the dust mites but does not remove their residue. Cleaning is the only thing that removes the dust mite residue.

So there you have it, a few recommendations for you to follow which will greatly reduce the amount of dust mites that you have in your home. The key to making this work is to follow these steps repeatedly. Make them part of your weekly stay at home mom duties.

For me, finding out a few facts about dust mites and just how disgusting they are was all it took for me to add dust mite controller into my repertoire. I have removed dust mites from my mattress and I work hard at keeping them out. You should do the same.