Latin: Glycyphagus domesticus
The furniture mite with the Latin name Glycyphagus domesticus is a rather small animal. The furniture mite is often compared with other mites such as the meal mite or the stock mite. However, there are different mites with different characteristics.
Appearance
The furniture mite is not easy to spot with the naked eye. Often the mites must appear in large numbers before you notice them. The largest furniture mite are only 0.7 millimeters long and have a whitish color.
The furniture mite shares many similarities with the mites that go into food. It is fair to mention that it takes a magnifying glass to spot these common features. This includes the long hair of the furniture mite, which is located on its back and which is feather shaped.
Biology and behavior
The furniture mites are fungal eaters and prefer to live in places with high humidity. This is where they can make a living by grazing the fungi that develop in such places. If the conditions are to be ideal for the house mite, the humidity must be around 80-90% in combination with a sufficiently high temperature of around 23-25 ° C.
If temperature and humidity are in favor of the furniture mite, they can occur in extremely large numbers. It is also often only here that one notices them, as a single mite or two does not make much of a difference. The furniture mite can spread in millions and they can be an indication that the humidity is too high in the home.
In the home, the furniture mite appears in damp places, such as on damp walls. They also like to live in padded furniture, where you can often find them in places where the furniture is lined up against a poorly insulated wall. Here, the stuffing material will start to mold, and the furniture mite, which just live on mold, have crowned days in relation to being able to reproduce. They will also be able to spread to other areas, such as what is called “living dust”. [KR1] It is also not unheard of for furniture mite to be found in bird nests, hives, cheese, moist straw, grain stores or similar places.
Damage
It is rare that the furniture mite poses a major risk in modern homes where there is a focus on a healthy indoor climate. On the other hand, they can cause problems in unheated holiday homes or in newly built houses that are still damp. Here it is first and foremost about drying out the house as much as possible, with which you can get rid of the mites.
For some people, the presence of furniture mite can be a major nuisance. It is due to a hypersensitivity to furniture mite that triggers colds or asthma attacks as soon as the person enters a room where the furniture mite resides.
Prevention and pest control
Unfortunately, it is not possible to control furniture mite with chemical agents. The most effective way to avoid furniture mites is by making sure that the humidity in the home does not exceed 60%. Such a low humidity will result in the mites dying. However, a proportion of the mites will be able to go into a form of dormancy and thus survive. If the humidity is kept constantly below 60% in the following months, these mites will also become extinct.
In the event of an attack on furniture, padded furniture should be moved away from the walls so that good air circulation can be created. To help the process along the way, extra heat is applied to the room – the higher, the better – and at the same time a window is left in a tight space for a few days. These measures can remedy an immediate situation, but there is a risk that the mites will reappear until the room is completely dry.
It can help to sweep, vacuum and wipe dust off, but cleaning can in no way get to the bottom of the problem. At the same time, floor washing will only aggravate the situation, as it in turn creates a higher humidity in the room and creates ideal conditions for furniture mites.
Sometimes the humid conditions in the home can be so difficult to repair yourself that it can be helpful to consult a construction expert, such as an architect or engineer, who can assist with advice and guidance. These measures may, for instance, be due to better ventilation, heating, or insulation in the home.
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