Dust Mites and Allergy Videos and Slideshows
Dust Mite Avoidance
This 10-minute video teaches you what dust mites are, where they live, and how their excretions cause allergy. It demonstrates the simple steps that you can take to decrease your and your family’s exposure to their allergy-causing substances, and is essential viewing for anyone suffering from nasal allergy, allergic asthma, or allergic eczema where dust mite allergy is a contributing factor.
You will see that dust mites do not live on hard exposed surfaces, but rather are burrowed deep into soft fabrics—such as pillows, mattresses, blankets, carpets, upholstered furniture, stuffed toys, clothing, and other soft materials—where they can get away from the light. Wipeable surfaces can simply be wiped clean to remove mite allergen. Blankets and clothing can be washed in hot or warm water to remove dust mites. Pillows, mattresses and boxsprings, which are neither wipeable nor washable, should be encased in special covers made from a very tightly woven barrier-fabric that prevents the escape of the tiny dust mite allergen particles. Carpeting, upholstered furniture, and other items that cannot be wiped, washed, or encased, should ideally be removed from the bedroom. And because dust mites need adequate humidity to survive, the use of air-conditioning and dehumidifiers can decrease dust mite levels.
View the Dust Mite Avoidance Video
House dust mites under the microscope
This 2-minute video, recorded in high-definition through a microscope, shows live active dust mites. Life stages including adults, nymphs, and eggs are visible, as are the mite waste particles, the main source of their allergens. Filmed by Dr. Jeffrey Miller for Mission: Allergy, this video has had 140,000 views on YouTube.
View the House Dust Mites Under the Microscope Video
House dust mites and allergy
House dust mites excrete waste particles that contain the most important indoor allergen in the world, responsible for asthma, nasal allergy, eye allergy, and eczema. This slide show, containing amazing photographs of dust mites taken with both standard and electron microscopes, will teach you about the anatomy, physiology, and life cycle of house dust mites. It is suitable for allergy patients, students and medical professionals.
You will learn about the size of dust mites, their structure, what they look like, where they live, what they eat, what they need to survive, and how they reproduce. You will also see the products and parts of dust mites that contain the actual “allergens” that provoke the allergic reactions, and learn about the associated mite products that direct the body to elicit an immune response to those allergens. And finally, you can see what happens when someone looks at too many pictures of dust mites!
View the House Dust Mites and Allergy Slideshow
Mission: Allergy is dedicated to providing scientifically accurate information on allergens and allergen-avoidance, and manufactures the highest quality pillow and mattress encasings and other products for allergen avoidance.