Your home is hopping with bunnies -- and not the fluffy kind with pink noses and floppy ears. We're talking dust bunnies -- those fuzzy but not particularly cute balls of dust that hide in dark places like room corners and under beds.
Generally, dust bunnies are more unsightly than dangerous. But they do harbor dust mites – the little buggers that cause allergy woes to 20 million Americans who are allergic to them.
Dust bunnies do contain dust -- hence the name -- but these little tumbleweeds also collect all sorts of other stuff as they roll around your house. Pick one up and you might immediately spot a few pieces of hair – either yours or your pet’s -- entwined in it. Attached to the hair might be some dirt, lint, paint flakes, stray clothing, carpet fibers, and even pieces of a dead insect.
Read on to learn the best ways to rid yourself of dust bunnies and dust mites.
Prevent Allergies With Dust Bunny Control
What you can't see if you look at a dust bunny are all the microscopic particles that attach themselves to it – like pollen, mold spores, and dead skin cells.
But the big problem with dust bunnies is dust mites -- tiny, eight-legged bugs that live off the microscopic scraps of shed skin lying around your house. Look under a microscope at a gram of dust and you could see hundreds or even thousands of dust mites inside.
Dust bunnies, and dust mites, tend to be found in places like pillows and mattresses or the cracks between the carpet and floor. Everywhere dust mites go, they leave behind wastes. Those wastes are what trigger the sneezes and sniffles in people who are allergic.
Even if you're not allergic to dust mites, it's good practice to dust, mop, and vacuum regularly to keep dust bunnies from taking over your house. As you clean, use this list of common dust bunny locations as your guide.
8 Dust Bunny Hiding Places
Don't just do a quick sweep of your floors and move on. Where possible, get deep into each of these spots where dust tends to collect:
- Under and behind furniture -- the bed, refrigerator, and couch
- In the corners of molding
- Under carpets
- Inside mattresses and pillows
- In the stuffing of upholstered furniture
- Inside the pleated tops of curtains
- In between lampshade pleats
- Between appliances
Ridding Your Home of Dust Bunnies
Dusting and vacuuming regularly are the obvious ways to banish dust bunnies, but that's easier said than done. Dust is tricky to clean. The mere hint of a breeze -- even the air from your vacuum cleaner -- can send dust blowing from one spot to another.
Don't be surprised if you've vacuumed your entire floor and still spot an errant dust bunny or two tumbling around. A vacuum cleaner with a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter is better at sucking up dust so you don't just spread it around.
