Death to Dustmites

 

Creepy, crawly dustmites

Deadly Dustmites

I have always been badly affected by dust. I hate the stuff, but on the other hand I am not a fastidious housewife. To be honest I hate to dust.

One of the reasons I hate to dust is because disturbing the dust means that little particles of dust go flying through the air. You can see them floating in the sunbeams when the sun shines through the window. The other reason is that there are so many more interesting things to be doing in life than dusting. 

Dust Under the Bed

When I was a little girl my Mum kept a couple of suitcases under my bed. They were filled with spare linen - sheets and pillowcases etc. We did not have linen presses in those days. There were not many places in older houses to store necessities.

It was always an excitement when Mum pulled those cases out from under the bed. We could peer inside them to see what wonders were there. Honestly there was nothing special, but they had been a mystery for the last six months.

On top of the suitcases was a layer of dust an inch thick. Well, of course this was disturbed as the lid was opened. Dust floated into the air. Along with the excitement of looking at something that had been hidden for so long, the musty smell of the goods inside and the dust floating in the air, I always had another asthma attack with lots of wheezing, coughing and sneezing. 

Helping Out at Home

When I was a teenager I had to dust the lounge room every week. I hated it. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that I did not want to help. It was the dust!

In those days my Mum would give me a fluffy duster made of fluffed out natural wool nailed on a stick - called a fluffy duster - to get rid of all the dust on the cupboards, shelves, skirting boards and venetian blinds. All it did was chase the dust from one resting place, sent it flying through the air until it settled on another resting place and waited for me to shift it again the next week. 

Well, you know the outcome of that. Yes another wheezy chest, coughing and LOTS of sneezing. I hated dusting. 

Capturing the Dust

So when I got married I experimented how to capture that dust and not have it transfer from one resting place to another. I dampened a piece of cotton toweling, wrung it out well and captured all that horrible dust. Yeah! Wash out the cloth and start again on the next section. Gradually I kept that build up of dust under control.

Science and Dustmites

These days we know that dustmites live in this dust and it is really, so they tell us, the droppings of the dustmite that affect us! On with technology!

I still hate to dust.
Down with dust!