What are dust mites, anyway?

Dust mites are tiny insects, so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye, which are shaped similarly to ticks but with much shorter legs. These bugs are called dust mites because they feed off of dead skin, which is the main ingredient in dust. Because the skin they ingest is already dead, dust mites are not known to bite people or pets, but that doesn’t mean that their inhabitance in your home isn’t harmful: The feces that they leave in your carpet and upholstery can cause many people to have allergic reactions. One dust mite produces up to 20 droppings a day, and thousands of dust mites can live in just one piece of furniture. That’s a lot of potential for illness, which is why it’s best to be proactive and work to remove dust mites from your home.

What can I do to prevent or reduce dust mites?

Although ridding your home of dust mites altogether is best left to the professionals (read: us), there are a few things that you can do to prevent or reduce dust mite infestations in your home: You can start by washing any loose fabrics—such as sheets, pet bedding, sofa covers, etc.—in hot water, and then drying them either in the sun or in the dryer. The extreme heat will not harbor a habitable environment for pesky dust mites.

While you’re washing your bedding and other fabrics, you can vacuum your stationary upholstery (your mattresses and sofas) thoroughly. You could use a hand-held vacuum, but we recommend using the detachable handle on your full-size vacuum because it has better suction and can provide better results. For added protection, you can also sheath your mattresses and pillows in dust mite covers.

Rather than using a dry rag or paper towel to dust your wooden furniture, you can use furniture polish to simultaneously ward off dust mites and keep your home looking fresh and inviting. It’s best to choose a furniture polish that has been designed specifically for removing allergens. You can also purchase and set up an air purifier in the busiest rooms in your home to thin the allergens and dust in the air before it even begins to settle on your furniture.

How do carpet cleaners get rid of dust mites?

Your efforts are not in vain. By following all the above steps, you can significantly diminish the number of dust mites throughout your dwelling. However, the only guarantee to rid your home of dust mites altogether is to hire a professional carpet cleaning company, like Aqualux.

We use a similar tactic to eliminate dust mites in your floors and upholstery as you use to reduce them in your loose fabrics: Hot water. The hot water we use though far exceeds the temperatures used in your washing machine and dryer; our exclusive machinery heats our cleaning water between 230 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. This level of heat does more than make dust mites a little uncomfortable; it disintegrates them. What’s more, our hot water extraction methods can also remove bacteria, other allergens and various other types of contamination.

To make our hot water extraction that much more effective, we pair this carpet cleaning method with our unique, brand-specific sanitizing solution, AquaMaxx, to disinfect your floors and fabrics. Once our highly-trained team of professionals leaves your home, you can rest easy knowing that illness-inducing bacteria and dust mites no longer pose a danger to you and your family.

Schedule an appointment today with Aqualux carpet cleaning. You can call the phone number at the bottom of the screen or email us at sales@aqualuxcarpetcleaning.com. We offer a number of monthly specials that can appease any budget.