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House Dust Mites
Today mattresses are the ideal environments for house dust mites at a room temperature of 20-28 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of 70-80%
Bacteria infested flakes of dry skin offer mites a rich source of food. Their reproductive rates are high. Up to 2500 mites have been counted on one gram of dust. That means 1million mites in a double mattress. This then can produce a corresponding amount of excrement which contains guanine.
Scientific evidence indicates that this guanine is the cause of allergies and the problems that arise from them like Asthma , Bronchitis inflammation of the mucosa membrane , reddening of the eyes and itching. With every movement of the body in the bed the dust and dust mite excrement is churned up. The mattress acts as a bellow blowing dirt into the mouth, nose , eyes and onto the skin.
Bacteria
Several species of these tiny one-celled life forms often called bacillus cause disease and are in some cases resistant to antibiotics.
Viruses
The members of this class of micro-organisms are without exception pathogenic causing among other things infections with various symptoms, generally accompanied by fever. Some types of viruses have become more aggressive in the past several decades
Spores
These spread in the form of fungi. They too cause disease, fungal infections of the skin ,which can then be hard to treat.
Flakes of dry skin
As much as 1.5g of dry skin flake off the human body per night, that is 0.5 kg per year. People with psoriasis lose many times more . A large amount of dead skin ends up in the mattress and grows bacteria, becoming rancid and causing an unpleasant rancid
odour. That typical bedroom odour!
Dust / particles
Up to 200g in a single mattress they can be as small a 1/1000mm up to 1/10 mm . A mixture of organic and inorganic particles , flakes of dry skin ,salt from perspiration ,mite excrement and so on , dust is a carrier of the mite excrement and bacteria.
Habitat
Temperatures of 20 – 30 degrees Celsius and a relative humidity of approximately 70-80% are ideal for the house dust mite development.
An altitude of more than 1200m above sea level, temperatures of more than 60 degrees Celsius and less than 4 degrees Celcius and very dry air are FATAL to the house dust mite.
Reproduction
They have a life span of 60-150 days. During this period of time the female lays 300 eggs.
Nutrition
Flakes of dry human skin are a major source of food for the house dust
mite. Since a person loses on average 1.5g of dry skin per night which settles on the mattress or is drawn into it , there it provides constant, rich source of food for the house dust mite. House dust mites eat fungi and there is one theory according to Manchester University that fungi in turn are using the excrement of the house dust mite as a major source of nitrogen and nutrition along with human skin. There could therefore be a ‘miniature ecosystem’ at work.
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