Parasites that live in and near your bed

My home is my castle, and the bed in it is the main bastion. So say real homebody and make a terrible mistake. Indeed, besides them, millions of microorganisms live in their “fortress”, many of which can provoke serious diseases. So, before you hide from the horrors of the crisis, problems at work and love failures under the covers, make sure that there is no infection waiting for you.
Bacteria in bedding
Parasites that live in and near your bed
Each of us has ever heard of a variety of bacteria that accumulate in bed linen during use. But few people think about exactly what threatens to sleep on stale pillowcases and sheets. American researchers decided to fill this gap in education and took on the analysis of 50 pillows of students from 25 colleges. And in each of them, 350,000 (!) Bacteria colonies and 91,000 clusters of fungi were found.
Most of the pillows found shigella dysentery pathogens, Moraxella catarrhalis nasopharyngeal bacteria that cause bronchitis and pneumonia, and Cladosporium molds, which are fungal microorganisms that trigger allergic reactions. By the way, on average, men’s pillows were dirtier than women’s – 480,000 bacterial colonies versus 290,000, respectively. And in the dirtiest specimen found 170 million microorganisms. This is worse than a Petri dish!
You can fight with such colonies by boiling or prolonged ironing of bed linen. However, anxiety is worth beating only to those who have weakened immunity – healthy people from such bacteria will not get sick so easily. But the children, the sick and the elderly should change the bedding at least once a week, and be sure to carry out heat treatment of linen or take it in the dry cleaning.
Dust mite in the mattress
Parasites that live in and near your bed
This parasite probably settled in your mattress, pillows and blankets. After all, a warm, wet place for him is a real paradise. No wonder, according to statistics, an average of 2 million of these insects live in each bed. They are not visible to the eye (only under a microscope), so do not try to shake up your mattress and find them under the pillow. Blood is also not drunk and does not bite, but cause severe allergies, conjunctivitis, runny nose, cough, and skin diseases accompanied by rash and itching.
The best conditions for a tick are humidity over 60 percent and hot air. Therefore, in summer there are always more of them than in winter, and indoors they are more common than on the street. Even in the most greenhouse conditions, the dust mite is unlikely to last longer than 30 days, but during this time the female will lay 30 eggs, and the male will produce feces 200 times more than its own weight. By the way, because of this, for 10 years of use, the weight of the mattress increases by 2 times – kilograms add dust, dead dust mites and their excrement.
Fighting dust mites in your bed can and should be. To do this, maintain the humidity of the air in the room at a level of 30-50 percent, regularly carry out wet cleaning with a 20 percent solution of common salt or chlorine-containing detergents. And in the winter you can hang blankets and pillows on the balcony for a few hours – in the cold, dust mites die or fall into hibernation. Keep clothes out of season in cellophane bags and use smaller bedspreads and upholstered furniture in the bedroom – there is no need for extra dust collectors.
Black mold on the wall
Parasites that live in and near your bed
Is the bed close to the wall? And do you have a black mold under your wallpaper or behind a hinged ceiling? In many apartments, especially in prefabricated houses, Aspergillus niger microorganisms that cause allergies, asthma and other serious respiratory diseases populated the walls.
Of course, it is best to think about this before moving and cover the walls with an antiseptic primer. But if you don’t have money for a major overhaul, but you still don’t want to live with fungi, you can get rid of them and improvised means. For example, sprinkle moldy part of the wall from a spray with a solution of tea tree oil – a spoon in a glass of water. In addition, vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and a concentrated solution of household soap containing alkali help to eliminate mold. The main thing is to wear not only gloves during cleaning, but also a respirator and, if possible, cover up all the carpets and sofas in which the spores can be hidden.
Fungus in slippers
Parasites that live in and near your bed
We pulled the legs out of bed and put them in fluffy slippers? Here you are waiting for the fungi Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton rubrum, Epidermophyton floccosum. According to the World Health Organization, every fifth inhabitant of the planet suffers from fungal diseases, and the most common of them are mycoses of the feet and hands. It is very easy to infect a fungus – a sick person has a lot of controversy in the epithelium, parts of which enter the environment. The most dangerous places in terms of the probability of infection are swimming pools and public saunas.