What we breathe: dust mites in mattresses, sofas and car seats
We are used to mopping floors and dusting shelves, but the dirtiest things at home are usually invisible. Mattresses, upholstery and car seats work as filters for years and collect dust.
Who lives in dust
Household dust is not just dirt from outside. It contains dander, hair, skin flakes, bacteria, mold spores and dust mites. The most common ones are Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae, Latin for “skin eater”.
A dust mite is up to 0.4 mm long, too small to see with the naked eye. Yet one gram of dust can contain hundreds or even thousands of them.
Where they live
Mites need food, warmth, moisture and darkness. Their food is dead skin flakes, which a person sheds by the millions every day. The best conditions for them are about 25 °C and 70–80 % humidity. So they live where we spend a lot of time:
- mattresses, pillows, blankets and bedding;
- sofas, armchairs and other upholstered furniture;
- carpets;
- soft toys;
- car seats;
- the vacuum cleaner bag.
A mattress that has been used for several years and never cleaned builds up a huge number of mites and their waste inside.
Why they matter
Dust mites do not bite and do not carry infections. The problem is not the mites themselves but the allergens: their droppings and the fragments of dead mites’ shells.
These particles are very light. Once in the air, they stay there for a long time and easily get into the airways. In sensitive people they can cause a runny nose (even chronic), allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis, dermatitis and bronchial asthma.
How to get rid of mites and allergens
Mites die from heat: in a day at 40 °C, in 8 hours at 45 °C, in 2 hours at 50 °C and in 10 minutes at 60 °C. Frost and direct sunlight also harm them.
But heat only kills living mites. The allergens, meaning their remains and droppings, stay in the material afterwards. So the key is to physically remove them from deep inside:
- vacuum mattresses and upholstered furniture regularly, preferably dry, so as not to add moisture;
- wash bedding at 60 °C or higher;
- replace pillows, blankets and mattresses in time;
- have mattresses, furniture and your car interior professionally cleaned from time to time.
How Cleanavy does it
When cleaning furniture and mattresses, we do a dry cleanup, then a 4-level Aqua cleaning with an extractor that washes dirt out from deep inside the material, and turbo drying. This removes not only visible dirt from a mattress or sofa, but also what has built up inside over the years.