How many dust mites live in your bed?
Dust mites are nasty little critters that eat, you guessed it, dust. And their favourite delicacy? Your dead skin. As you sleep you shed enough skin to feed a whole colony of dust mites and the warm and moist comfort of your bed is the perfect breeding ground.
Close up, they look pretty evil, with fearsome mandibles and a hunger for fresh, flakey flesh. But, unlike bed bugs, they don't actually bite. The most annoying thing about them is actually their excreta. Millions of people are allergic to it and they produce a lot of the stuff.
More dust = more dust mites = more poo = sore eyes, itchy throat and sneezing fits galore.
These questions use various facts about the preferred habitats of dust mites to work out 'precisely' how many of the little buggers you have sharing your bed.
FACT: “Though these mites live in many homes, only people who are allergic to them know they are there. Dust mites are second only to pollen in causing allergic reactions. When dust mites grow, they shed their skin. The shed skin and faeces are what cause allergic reactions in people. Allergic reactions range from itchy noses and eyes to severe asthma attacks.” Clemson University
FACT: “A recent study in England showed that 10 percent of the general population and 90 percent of people with allergic asthma have positive skin test for allergy to dust mites. Recent studies in the U.S. suggest that at least 45 percent of young people with asthma are allergic to dust mites.” University of Oregon
FACT: “As many as 18,875 dust mites can live in one gram of dust, but the usual population is about 100 to 500 mites per gram. (A gram is about the weight of a paper clip). Each mite produces about 10-20 waste particles each day and lives for 30 days. Egg-laying females can add 25-30 new mites to the population.” University of Oregon