How to Kill Dust Mites

Learning how to kill dust mites is an important part of a dust mite avoidance strategy.

Dust mites are the leading cause of nasal allergies along with ragweed pollen. Unlike ragweed which is seasonal, dust mite allergy symptoms last all year long. Because they find their ideal living environment in our homes, they are very difficult to eradicate. Dust Mite Avoidance strategies must be the cornerstone to treatment.

My daughter suffers from dust mite allergies. It became essential for us to gain control over the dust mite situation. She acted like she always had a cold. She wasn’t getting a good sleep at night and her symptoms were worse in her bedroom. She could never get control over her symptoms and kept taking more and more allergy medication.

We tried many things. Some worked. Some didn’t.

Below are some suggestions that you might find helpful.

Eliminating Dust Mites

1. Laundry

One of the most effective ways to kill dust mites is by killing them in the laundry. Not only are the dust mites destroyed, their allergens that cause the allergic reaction is also eliminated. Three different methods to try;

A. Hot water

Hot water will kill dust mites. To be effective, the water temperature must be over 131 F (55 C). Water temperature below 130 degrees will not get the job done. Obtaining water temperature this hot can be a problem for many households. First and foremost is the danger involved in having the hot water heater turned up this high. Water temperature above 120 F (48.9 C) can scald children (and adults). For this reason, many apartment complexes and some city codes do not allow water heaters to be turned up this high. If on the other hand washing clothes in these high temperatures are right for you, this method is very effective.

B. Laundry Additive

Not all fabrics will hold up to constant washings in extreme high temperatures. Many people prefer to wash clothes in cooler water temperatures. De-Mite laundry additive is an effective way to kill dust mites in any water temperature because it contains the active ingredient benzyl benzoate. Substances that contain tannic acid and benzyl benzoate have been proven effective to kill dust mites. There are various brands of laundry detergent to buy that will neutralize the protein.

C. Laundry Detergent

The problem for people with dust mite allergies is the allergen that the dust mite produces. Eliminating the protein that causes the allergic response eliminates the problem.

D. Dry Cleaning

Dry cleaning will kill dust mites. It is very effective at killing dust mites. The down-side to dry cleaning is that the allergen may still remain behind and cause allergy symptoms.

2. Freezing

Freezing may be an effective way to kill dust mites. It may not be practical to wash all the items in hot water. Your child may not appreciate you washing their favorite Teddy Bear in 140 degrees water. The Teddy Bear may not come out as soft and as cuddly as it started out to be. Freezing items that cannot be washed is effective at killing dust mites. This is because 70% to 80% of the weight of the dust mite is water. A dust mite cannot survive being frozen as hard as an ice cube. Vacuum the items the best you can after thawing to remove the dust mite themselves and the fecal waste matter that is still left behind. After all, it is the dust mite dropping that is the main culprit in causing the allergy symptoms.

3. Sunlight

Sunlight will kill dust mites. Dust mites live in dark, humid places. They hate the sunlight. Putting blankets, comforters and other articles outside in direct sunlight for an extended period of time will kill dust mites. The direct sunlight and heat that is generated will kill dust mites. Whether this is appropriate to do or not will depend on if you are allergic to pollen and mold spores that can collect on the articles as they are hung outside.

4. Dryness

Dryness (low relative humidity) is an effective way of eliminating dust mites. Dust mites thrive in higher temperatures and high humidity. This is because dust mites do not drink water. Their water source is the humidity in the air and they absorb this water through their skin. With 70% to 80% of their body weight being made up of water, they need moisture to survive. This explains why our beds provide such a good environment for them to thrive because we provide this moisture at night through perspiration, our breath, and our drool while we sleep.

Taking away the water source from the air will kill dust mites by drying them out. They will die of dehydration. To accomplish this, relative humidity needs to be maintained below 45% and it needs to be maintained at this level for an extended period of time. It can take as long as a week for the dust mites to begin dying of dehydration. The temperature is also important when maintaining the relative humidity at this level.

At higher temperatures, the dust mites will begin dying off faster. At lower temperatures, dust mites slow down in their growth rate and can tolerate dryer and less humid conditions. A higher temperature at lower humidity levels is the best way of eliminating dust mites.

The list above are effective ways that we learned to kill dust mites. But in the battle against dust mite allergies, the above suggestions are not the only things that should be done in the fight against dust mite symptoms. The key to addressing the problem of dust mites and the symptoms they cause is to make your home inhospitable to them.

Below are some ideas that can make your home better for you and not so good for the dust mites.

A. Use your air conditioning

Dust mites thrive in warmer temperatures. These higher temperatures speed up the life cycle of the dust mite. By using your air conditioner and keeping your home at lower temperatures, the growth rate of the dust mite will be slowed down. This is helpful because it will decrease their reproduction rate. Less dust mites means less droppings and less decaying bodies. These are the real cause of producing allergic rhinitis symptoms.

B. Use your Vacuum

Vacuuming can be an effective means for eliminating dust mites. The important point about vacuuming is that you must use one that has a HEPA filter. This type of filter is the only kind that is able to retain the small allergens once they are captured. This is an important point. If the vacuum you use does not hold onto the small allergens, the vacuum will put the allergens back into the air where it can be breathed in and cause allergic symptoms. The smaller the particle size of the allergen being put back into the air, the longer it will take to settle out of the air.

Vacuuming is an effective means of dust mite control. But no vacuum will get all of them. Dust mites have small suction cups on their feet. This, along with being buried deep in what they are living in, makes them impossible to get all of them. The dust mites left behind will reproduce and the population will come back. So the more often you use your vacuum, the better. Yet, on the other hand, the HEPA filter will do an excellent job at picking up the dust mite droppings and decaying bodies which is the main culprit for producing allergy symptoms.

C. Encase your Bedding with Allergen Proof Covers

Encasing your pillows, mattress, and box spring is one of the most important steps you can take in the fight against dust mite allergies. Even though this does not kill dust mites, it does put a barrier between your nose and the allergen. For most people, more benefits come from using allergen proof covers on their beds than taking any other step. The dust mite dropping that cause many of the allergic symptoms can be around 10 microns in size. So make sure that the pore size of the bedding that you are using is smaller than 8 microns. Because we spend around 1/3 of our time in the bedroom and the fact that the heaviest concentration of dust mites is in our beds, this should be the first room that we devote our efforts to.

D. Use a Room Air Purifier in the Bedroom

A room air purifier is not the first step in the fight against dust mite allergies but it should be apart of the over-all strategy. The size of a dust mite is around 200-300 microns. If they become airborne, they will settle rather quickly. The size of the dust mite dropping is around 10 microns. Even though this size is small, in the world of airborne particles, it is considered on the larger size. Never-the-less, they do become airborne and we do breathe them in which produces the allergic reaction. Because such a high concentration is found in our beds, we easily propel them into the air as we make our beds, sit on our beds, or do other normal household activities. We compress our pillows as we lay our head on it which can send the dust mite allergen into the air. As the droppings and dead bodies decay, they become smaller and smaller which results in the extended time that they stay airborne before settling. An air purifier with a HEPA filter is going to capture these particles. The more allergens taken out of our environment, the better we can manage our allergen load. An air purifier is an important part in the strategy in dust mite control.

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