A
female
age
51-59,
anonymous
writes:A friend of mine stopped over today to help me move a piece of furniture and while he was sitting on my couch he mentioned that he has bed bugs in his apartment. I am horrified and I have been itching ever since. Can bed bugs be spread from a person coming from an infested house into my house or is this all in my head? Reply to this Question
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reader, anonymous, writes (6 February 2012):
bed bugs aren't the same as dust mites, they're less common and much larger- they bite you and live on blood. dust mites are microscopic, every home has them and you control them by using special mattress and pillow covers, vacuuming regularly and dusting etc. Wash linens etc. weekly in hot water to kill them. dust mites feed on dead pieces of flesh from our skin and hair and they're feces causes an allergic reaction in many people. they live in warm, humid environments and they like places such as mattresses, bedding, carpets and so on. bed bugs live in cracks in furniture etc. and they come out at night.
this site gives you info on bed bugs. If he had them in his clothes he could have brought them to your home and that could be why you're itching. Good luck.
http://www.badbedbugs.com/bed-bug-faq/
http://www.google.com/searchclient=safari&rls=en&q=are+bed+bugs+the+same+as+dustmites%3F&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
A
female
reader, Dorothy Dix  +, writes (6 February 2012):
Hi there. I'm not sure bed bugs or dust mites, which are the same thing, actually stay on people.
They usually hang out among the dust.
Unless they could have been on his clothes.
You could have got some of them on your clothes if you got close to him or hugged him, I guess.
The other way is if you went to his house and got some in your clothes, while you were there.
So yes, I suppose it is possible to get some of them pass from his clothes to yours.
You will have to get some insect spray and spray over your clothes, just to get rid of any that are on there.
Then once the clothes are thoroughly washed, then the problem is gone.
It's not a serious problem, however they can give you some very itchy bites on your skin.
In the meantime, some calamine lotion on cotton wool, dabbed directly onto the bites 2 or 3 times a day - whenever they start itching again - will help alleviate the itchiness. In a couple of days, they will heal completely.
Wherever there is dust, there probably are dust mites, so it's fairly hard to avoid them entirely.
Anywhere there is stuff piled up on top of each other, books, clothes etc. there will be dust and eventually some dust mites as well.
And it depends on if you disturb the dust, as to whether you get any of them on you. Most of the time you don't.
Dust mites eat the dead skin that falls off our bodies, while we are in bed. So they do serve a purpose in life.
They won't always bite though. Perhaps he had vacuumed his mattress lately, and he deprived them of a meal!
Nothing too much to worry about really. No great health risk, just getting a bit itchy now and then.
You can keep dust mites under control, by keeping the dust under control. Regular vacuuming - at least once a week, will definitely help control the problem.
Maybe once a month you could vacuum your mattress, which will keep the dead skin level down.
Probably more of a problem though, would definitely have o be stuff lying around not be moved for some time, and the dust that builds up over and around it. That's far more likely to be the culprit.
The dust mites he says he has, probably aren't just on his mattress, but amongst other stuff that could be lying around cluttering up the floor space and gathering dust as well. And that's where they breed.
So no dust - means no dust mite problem.
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