2005-01-20 03:23:29.043196+01 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 descending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-22 20:13:57.02236+01 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!"
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-21 19:10:45.169627+01 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: 2005-01-21 17:55:00.920461+01 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: 2005-01-20 23:35:50.590255+01 by: DaveP
And they nest in your mattress, too. Tough to fit that into a washer.
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-20 20:56:34.279194+01 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 18:33:27.280779+01 by: flushy
why couldn't you just wash your sheets once a week instead?
#Comment Re: made: 2005-01-20 14:28:26.118879+01 by: meuon
Justified! - At long last I have been justifed! Yippee!!
We will not edit your comments. However, we may delete your comments, or cause them to be hidden behind another link, if we feel they detract from the conversation. Commercial plugs are fine, if they are relevant to the conversation, and if you don't try to pretend to be a consumer. Annoying endorsements will be deleted if you're lucky, if you're not a whole bunch of people smarter and more articulate than you will ridicule you, and we will leave such ridicule in place.
Flutterby™ is a trademark claimed by
Dan Lyke for the web publications at www.flutterby.com and www.flutterby.net.