Chlorine Bleach & Dust Mites

Dust mites (or pyroglyphidae) belong to the spider family. The naked human eye generally cannot see them. Dust mites love moist, warm controlled environments, such as your home. They eat naturally shed human and animal skin flakes. Dust mites and their feces often cause human allergies.

Misconceptions

• Hot water washing more effective than just clorine bleach

  As the name suggests, household dust mites live in dust; often found in carpet, upholstery, soft toys, and bedding. Washing laundry with chlorine bleach does not increase the effectiveness of eradicating dust mites from bedding and clothes; however, establishing a regular cleaning regime helps to reduce mite population.

Treatment

• While chlorine bleach is a great disinfectant, to kill dust mites you simply need to wash your laundry every seven to 14 days in water temperatures around 140° F (60° C). Let laundry soak for about 12-minutes then wash for at least 30-minutes.

Alternative Treatment

• An alternative to hot water washing is cold water washing at temperatures around 84° F (30° C) then rinsing two times in cold water for about three minutes each.

Tips

• Vacuum regularly

  To control dust mite population, reduce indoor humidity to between 30% to 50%, open windows to ventilate with fresh air, vacuum weekly with a HEPA/ULPA vacuum; consider replacing wall-to-wall carpet with tile, wood or other flooring; replace pillows every five years; vacuum mattress periodically to get rid of skin flakes and/or use mattress and pillow covers.

Warnings

• Consider buying organic mattress, pillow, and covers; otherwise, you may be spending eight hours laying in chemically treated materials each night.