Carpets are wonderfully warm under foot, but they provide a haven for house dust mites. You can cut the number of dust mites dramatically by taking up the carpet and replacing it with cork tiles, lingo or vinyl flooring. Stripped, sealed floorboards look wonderful anywhere in the home and they can be enlivened by short pile rugs. But some scientists now believe that many people have gone too far, ripping up their carpets and reducing their bedrooms to bare, prison like cells.
While admitting that carpets are dwelling places for dust mites, many doctors are now saying that ventilation is just as important. If possible, sleep with your window open, the fresh air will help keep your chest decongested and kill off dust mites. Tiled flooring, wipe clean surfaces and the absence of soft furnishings contribute to an allergen free environment.
Everyday thousands of people scrub and vacuum their homes from top to bottom to make their house mite proof, but their efforts may be in the vain. The dust mite sticks stubbornly to its chosen habitat and no matter how thorough you are with your vacuuming, the remainder breeds rapidly and will make up their losses within a week. Vacuuming may not remove mites, but it is better to vacuum than not, if only to remove the droppings and dead mites.
Invest in a vacuum cleaner designed for the job, there are plenty to choose from and vacuum when the person with asthma is not around. Vacuuming stirs dust into the air for about half an hour. Ordinary vacuum cleaners often have bags that are porous, and the mite droppings that escape the bag are blown out via the exhaust. Some models of vacuum cleaner have tougher bags and exhaust filters. These catch the mites droppings and seal them inside the vacuum cleaner.
