April 7th, 2020 by Becky Calvert

Dust mites can cause a lot of irritation for many people. However, the frustrating this is, you can’t actually see them and therefore, this can cause many allergy sufferers to be unsure about what has kickstarted their allergy symptoms. Here’s what you need to know about dust mites and what you can do to prevent them from causing you any irritation:

What Are Dust Mites?

Dust mites are extremely small creatures that feast on our dead skin cells. Although they’re extremely small, they make up for it in numbers with the average person’s bed housing between 100,000 to 10 million mites dust mites! It’s actually been noted that a tenth of the weight of a used mattress is made up of dust mites and their droppings!

What Do They Look Like?

As previously mentioned, you can’t actually see dust mites as they’re only between 0.1-0.5 mm big! Their appearance is definitely not something that you’d want to see either. They're a type of arachnid, they don’t have a head and where their head would be is two pincers! They also have 4 legs and suckers – making them very unattractive creates… so it’s probably for the best that we can’t see them!

Their bodies are also covered in a water-repellent layer which helps to make them hard to get rid of. This layer prevents them from being wiped or washed away without soap detergent or other special products that we’ll get into later. Therefore, they can be quite tricky to remove.  

Where Do They Live?

Dust mites can be found all over the world and they love to live near humans. Their ideal place to live is somewhere warm and dry with their ideal climate being between 23 – 26°C and humidity of more than 55%. Although their favourite place to live is your bed, they can also live in carpets, towels, blankets and even books!

They actually only live for around 75 days, however, the females lay a lot of eggs during this time (around 300) and therefore, they keep breeding and producing more – hence the average bed containing so many!

What do They Eat?

Dust mites feast off of you! A person loses up to 1.5 g of epidermal scales each day, which is what the majority of dust particles are made up of, and dust mites love to feast off of this (hence their name)! However, they don’t cause any serious harm (unless you’re extremely allergic) and most people won’t even notice it happening.

Can They Bite?

Like we mentioned, dust mites are relatively harmless. They do not bite, extract blood or try to puncture our skin in any way, they simply feed on the dead skin that has already fallen off. Dust mites are actually too small to be able to bite you even if the wanted to – so there’s no need to worry about them causing any harm in this way.

Why Do they Cause so Much Irritation?

Although they can’t bite, they can be extremely irritating for many people – especially allergy sufferers. It’s been proven that a whopping 80% of people who suffer from bronchial asthma are allergic to dust mites and that 1 in 4 people without asthma are allergic to dust mites too! If you are allergic, your body is constantly trying to fight with the irritation the dust mites are causing which can make you feel tired, as well as being prone to developing one of these symptoms:

1. Asthma

As we’ve mentioned, dust mites can be dangerous for asthma sufferers. They can make asthma side effects a lot worse and can even cause sufferers to have asthma attacks if the dust mites are not treated or removed regularly.

2. Allergies

If you suffer from Hayfever or other common allergies, you’re likely to have these symptoms kickstarted due to dust mites. This can cause itchy and sore eyes, a runny nose and even sore patches on the skin.

3. Eczema

Eczema is a skin condition that causes red, sore and itchy patches on the skin. Dust mites can really irritate and even kick start eczema patches – which can cause the areas on the skin to become even more inflamed and itchy.

4. Polyps

Some sufferers can even develop polyps on the eyes or inside their nose due to dust mite irritation.

How to Get Rid of Dust Mites

If you’re allergic to dust mites or even if you aren’t, you’ll want to be able to remove dust mites to prevent you sleeping with thousands of unpleasant creatures and to prevent any unwanted symptoms!

Wash Your Sheets

Firstly, we’d recommend that you wash your bedding on a medium to high temperature regularly. This will kill any dust mites (just using water won’t work due to their water-repellent layer). This also kills and removes the dead skin cells and dust that they love to feats on – making them less likely to come back as quickly.

Get a Spray

Invest in a dust mite spray to us in-between washes and on areas where you can’t easily wash (carpets and rugs etc). This Xterminate spray has no nasty smell and will not stain your bedding or any other surface – perfect for regular use. We recommend that you use the treatment monthly to remove the dust mites and reduce the likelihood of any nasty side effects.

Xterminate Dust Mite Killer Spray 1L

Price: £13.96

Buy Now

This spray treatment contains 0.1% Cypermethrin that quickly gets to work on dust mites. This active ingredient effects the dust mite’s nervous system and quickly leads to their death – making it a super effective product. All you need to do is spray the product onto the place you want to kill and remove the dust mites and one treatment can last up to 6 weeks!