2005-01-20 02:23:29.043196+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments
Leaving your bed unmade could help kill dust mites:
"We know that mites can only survive by taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their body," Dr Pretlove said. "Something as simple as leaving a bed unmade during the day can remove moisture from the sheets and mattress so the mites will dehydrate and eventually die."
(Thanks to Michael Kelley.)
[ related topics: Cool Science Current Events ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-20 13:28:26.118879+00 by: meuon
Justified! - At long last I have been justifed! Yippee!!
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-20 17:33:27.280779+00 by: flushy
why couldn't you just wash your sheets once a week instead?
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-20 19:56:34.279194+00 by: Dan Lyke
Unless you're using bleach, a commercial washer, or an extremely high-end home washer, your water temperature isn't high enough to kill off the baddies.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-20 22:35:50.590255+00 by: DaveP
And they nest in your mattress, too. Tough to fit that into a washer.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-21 16:55:00.920461+00 by: flushy
considering we contact several trillion microbes an hour during our normal lives, how do these mites affect us anyways?
What makes them "baddies" in other words.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-21 18:10:45.169627+00 by: Diane Reese
Do they nest in waterbed mattresses? (Um, I don't mean *in*, of course, I mean *on and around*.)
Everyone in my family was quite pleased to read this article and insisted we continue our healthy lifestyle into the foreseeable future.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-22 19:13:57.02236+00 by: polly
this is just plain nasty....although, i do wish this scientific breakthrough had been made when i was still living at home as a teen..."make up your bed, now!"