[did you know?] bedbugs and dustmites

"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!"

Bedbugs could be as large as 4mm (~1/8")! But they hide in the dark. The rash you get is an allergic reaction. They suck your blood! (Oops, I'm not sure about that.) But definitely, a bedbug bite could get itchy.

"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the dustmites bite!"

Dustmite bites could be mistaken as bedbug bites. They're very different. An allergic reaction (a rash) from a dustmite bite looks... weird. They're like bubble-shaped. Dustmites though are hard to see with the naked eye. But like bedbugs, they hide in dark places, but they can't live under sunlight or open-air conditions. Dustmites actually feed off of your dead skin cells - which you almost can't stop because you need to replenish your skin cells (and your body automatically does this).

I know all this because I had a "bedbug scare." I thought I had bedbugs at home. But it turned out to be dustmites. I was "insulating" my place to keep the "cool" in (from airconditioning) and the hot tropical humid climate out. And that was how them dustmites were able to propagate. I now regularly leave at least one window open when I leave home. By the way, I need to keep my main windows closed to keep the dust out, and to keep the rain out if it does rain. That's how poorly designed my place is.

That also happened because for the longest time, I wasn't washing my bed linen and I wasn't having such problems, so that's why I tried the "enclosed" enclave thing. A close friend of mine suggests to replace the bed sheets and pillowcases every week as they do. I am thinking that is too much. Well, new bed sheets do feel very comfy, so I'll see...