I have pretty serious allergies to many things like pollen & dust mites. In order to be green, I have to hang my clothes inside in the basement due to pollen in all but winter. It is a pain, but I do it. The biggest issue I have is dust mites in bed sheets. I was told before I need to wash them in hot water and dry them in the dryer at least once a week to kill them. Is this the only way, or will washing them w/ eco soap in cold water and line drying be okay? Would adding washing soda or baking soda help? Vinegar? Does anything kill dust mites besides heat?
Thanks in advance.
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Sun, Sep. 21, 2008
Dust Mites & Washing Bed Linens
Posted by
poodle
poodle
Comments (9)
just one little question
Yes, that is right that adding vinegar to your dishwasher makes the dishes clean and sparkly, but what about the smell?? Vinegar smells pretty sharply and unpleasantly!!
Fighting mites is difficult...
Fighting mites is difficult and in principle doomed for failure.
Even after the elimination of the temporarily available means of life for mites through chemicals - the remaining excreta is the main cause allergic reactions. Instead, we should observe a few rules of prevention which, although they do not lead to a radical elimination of mites from our environment, they do decrease the concentration of allergens. These are:
frequent change of linen, a change of mattress every two years (in August they gather the human epidermis, the principal source of food for the mites), and maintaining humidity at around 60%.
Mark
I have heard that ten
I have heard that ten minutes in a household clothes dryer, at lethal temperatures (over 60 °C), should be sufficient to kill all the dust mites in bedding but i am not sure about it since i have never tried it. You might clean your bed sheets that way but it is a lot more difficult to get rid of all the dust mites in your mattress. Actually i am not sure if this is even possible, unless perhaps you would cover it in some impermeable sheet.
Jessica, discount tempurpedic
Reply to juicysmo
I think that as we all make choices for ourselves and the environment,that our health has to be considered. If you need to wash in HOT water for this one load, go for it. And I would encourage you to try the vinegar mentioned above, it is truly an amazing item to have in your home.
I wash all of my sheets in
I wash all of my sheets in hot water. That is the only laundry I use hot water for, but it's worth it. I have allergies, too, and although I have heard about using Eucalyptus oil to kill dust mites, it is expensive and you have to use a good bit of it. As long as I use cold water for the rest of my laundry, I think one or two loads a week in hot water are fine.
Dust Mites
Natural means to kill them are Vinegar and Simple Green. Although, I'm not sure how 'natural' Simple Green is. Vinegar will clean almost anything! I add it to every load I wash to kill dust mites, bacteria, etc.
I also add vinegar to my dishwasher which is a cheap way of getting very clean dishes (as a rinse) and also cleans out the dishwasher at the same time. I just pour some in the bottom when I load up and let it work with the water.
You can use this on your counters, sinks, etc. For tuff stains, add some baking soda first, then add the vinegar to activate and it should get out anything. Great combo for getting rid of hard water build up too.
I wash my linens weekly and
I wash my linens weekly and have a few sets to change out, i also spray my mattress down with anti bacterial on each side as well. I can't imagine beds with bugs in them thats just so gross.
- I should also add that you
- I should also add that you probably should change your bed sheets midway through the week, or twice a week (so you use three different sets each week), to help keep your bedroom free of dust mites.
- Another important investment is to buy an allergen encasing for your mattress, pillow and comforter. I bought mine at AllergyControl.com and have been quite pleased with them. It was a little bit of an investment but it has been well worth it.
- You can add Eucalyptus
- You can add Eucalyptus essential oil to the water when you're doing your laundry, and this supposedly also helps to kill dust mites. Just run a Google search on "Eucalyptus oil laundry dust mites" and you should find some helpful links.
- You can also create a spray with 2 cups of distilled water, 3 drops of Seventh Generation Free & Clear Dish Liquid, and 15 or so drops of Eucalyptus oil. Put it in a Seventh Generation spray bottle set to "spray" and you can spray that on your sheets each night to help kill the dust mites too. I recommend using purified water because tap water may contain chlorine and other contaminants which may bother your allergies. I do think it's a good idea to wash your laundry in hot water, but you may want to research whether using Eucalyptus oil would be sufficient. You can find the oil at Whole Foods Market or other natural foods and products stores.
- Another good idea is to add some plants to your bedroom. Plants like the Boston fern, Areca palm, Rubber plant, and spider plant help to remove pollutants in the air, but more specifically, they also help to regulate the level of humidity in the room which in turn can help to reduce dust mites quite noticeably. Be sure to water the plants regularly and repot them. Three plants in your bedroom would make a noticeable difference. A great book on this is "How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Office" by Dr. B.C. Wolverton. It's available at Amazon.com. The book outlines how best to care for your plants and which plants work best.
- Lastly, if you can keep the temperature in your bedroom relatively cool, this should also help some.
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