When your health is wrecked by dust mites allergy, you’ll want to be zealous in reducing dust mites population in your surrounding area. Besides your home, you’ll want to take a look into your car, as it’s an overlooked suspect of dust mites breeding spot.

It isn’t exaggerating to claim that there may be hundreds of thousands of dust mites or more within the confine of your car. As these microscopic creatures aren’t visible to your eyes, it’s easy to dismiss their presence, until you start developing allergic symptoms.

Why The Car Is A Perfect Breeding Spot For Dust Mites

If you are driving your car frequently and on a daily basis, you could be setting up a perfect breeding spot dust mites. Dust mites growth is fueled by the surrounding environment and ample supply of food.

As you drive around in the car, you’re shedding ten of thousands of dead skin cells or more, depending on how long you’re on the road. If you have family members on board, you’ll have more dead skin cells to feed the dust mites in the car.

Of course, for dust mites to grow, the car needs to have a temperature of 20°C to 25° C (68 to 77 F) and relative humidity between 70% to 90%. If your car is parked in shaded areas or a garage, the environment may be ideal for dust mites growth.

How Do You Know If There Are Dust Mites In The Car

How To Get Rid Of Dust Mites In The Car

As dust mites are as small as a 0.3 millimeters (0.01″) in dimension, you can’t spot dust mites with bare eyes. Unless you have a digital microscope, you can’t be sure if there are dust mites in the car.

At least, not visually.

However, if you start developing symptoms like teary eyes, sneezing, coughing, irritated throat, and nasal inflammation, it’s fair to assume that there are dust mites in the car. The numbers of dust mites must be considerably huge to trigger such symptoms.

It wasn’t dust mites that are directly causing the allergies. Instead, it is a type of protein found in dust mites feces and carcasses that are triggering the allergic response in our body.

Often, dust mites will grow in areas that are attracting and trapping dust, specifically flakes of skin cells that fuel their growth. Car mats, fabric seats, or a dusty dashboard may have thousands of dust mites that escaped your attention.

Getting Rid Of Dust Mites In The Car

While you can remove or kill dust mites, it is impossible to ensure that there isn’t a single dust mite in the car. However, reducing the dust mites population to a minimal level will help to reduce or stop allergic symptoms that you’re suffering.

Removing dust mites and their fecal pellets in the car is fairly easy compared to the larger area of a house. If you suspect that you have a car filled with dust mites, here are some helpful tips.

1. Reduce Humidity

At times, you can wind down the window and let the sun heats up the car. Dust mites’ growth is hampered when the temperature increases and the humidity decreases. Exposing your car to sunlight does both.

2. Wipe Your Car With Damp Cloth

Wiping your car can do wonder in reducing dust mites’ growth. It keeps your car dust-free and dead-skin-free, essentially starving dust mites in the car.

3. Vacuum The Car

If you have a portable car vacuum cleaner, you’ll want to make a habit of vacuuming the seats and carpets. Both items can trap dust easily and become the perfect hiding spot for dust mites.

4. Be A Minimalist

Stuffed toys and pillows may brighten up the interior of the car, but they become magnets for dust and dust mites. Unless you have a habit in cleaning the items frequently, you’ll want to keep your car as bare as possible.

5. Sprinkle Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous earth is made of fossilized oceanic organisms and is effective in killing dust mites. The powdery substance will break into the exoskeleton of dust mites and absorb water from the body. Remember to use food grade diatomaceous earth. Sprinkle and leave the diatomaceous earth overnight before vacuuming the surface.

6. Use Essential Oils

Some essential oils are proven to be effective in killing dust mites. You can mix a few drops of eucalyptus oil or clove oil with water and spray it over the car mats or seats.

7. Shampoo The Carpets

You’ll also want to shampoo the carpets or mats to make removing dust mites and skin flakes more effective.

Bottom Line

It isn’t fun driving with a huge colony of dust mites in the car. The journey can only get uncomfortable if you are highly sensitive to the tiny creatures. Hopefully, you’ll find this article helpful in getting rid of dust mites in the car.

Are you suffering from dust mites allergy? Did it ever occur to you that dust mites could be growing rampantly in your car? 

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