Dust mites typically live in, on and around your bed. The typical used mattress may have between 100,000 to 10 million mites inside. Their favorite food is human and pet dander, which 80 percent of the material you see floating in the air is skin flakes.
While for most people dust mites can be harmless, they can still bring on allergies and other breathing problems even if you haven't experienced them before. Your best solution to helping control these little critters is to use a pleated furnace filter and to help control them in the bedroom use a air purifier.
Here are some of the typical symptoms of dust mite allergies.
- Hay fever
- Watering eyes
- Runny nose
- Sneezing
- Asthma, difficulty in breathing
- Infantile eczema
- Itchy, red or watery eyes
- Nasal congestion
- Itchy nose, roof of mouth or throat
- Postnasal drip
- Cough
- Facial pressure and pain
- Frequent awakening
- Swollen, blue-colored skin under your eyes
- In a child, frequent upward rubbing of the nose
