What Lives in Your Mattress
You lose up to 2 pints of body moisture every night, creating a perfect breeding ground in your mattress for bacteria and dust mites. The dust mite is found in every home, particularly in bedding, mattresses and sheets where they thrive in large numbers. They eat microscopic flakes of human skin which we shed every night during our sleep.

Your mattress can't be washed, and, if unprotected, its inhabitants and dust can cause various allergies such as asthma, runny nose, watery eyes, morning congestion, eczema and hay fever.

The Root Cause of Allergies
A speck of dust may contain fabric fibers, human skin scales, animal dander, insect parts, bacteria, moulds, pollens and other organic and synthetic materials. A person may be allergic to one or more of these substances.

Of the many components of house dust, microscopic creatures called house dust mites cause the most trouble. They feed on skin scales and dander shed by humans and are proving to be the major allergen in house dust.

Most recent studies show that as much as 30% of the population are allergic and 80% of allergic asthmatics had a positive skin test to mites.

People become allergic to proteins in mites and mite feces, each mite producing 10-20 waste particles per day. The proteins are so light that they float in the air when disturbed, releasing large amounts of mite proteins, causing some people to have an allergic reaction.

Mites are members of the arachnid family (related to ticks and spiders) and cannot be seen without a microscope. They are hardy and thrive in warm, humid conditions, surviving and multiplying best when relative humidity is 75-80% and the temperature is 68°F or more. The life cycle from egg to adult is 30 days and their numbers reach a peak in mid summer. They love bedding and survive vacuuming because they burrow deep in the bed and pillow fibers and are equipped with sucking, sticking pads on their feet.

Unprotected mattresses.

As many as 2 million mites have been counted in unprotected mattresses and it only takes 4 months for an unprotected mattress to become infested.