Carpets create warmth and coziness in your apartment, but when choosing a carpet be prepared to take proper care of it. The usual cleaning with a vacuum cleaner (even if you do it every day) is not enough to remove all the dust. Over time, it becomes a hospitable environment for a variety of intruders that you have never thought of.
Dust mites
Carpets, especially those with long pile, accumulate a huge amount of dust, where dust mites called dermatophagoides can live. Our apartments are a gastronomic paradise for them: these microscopic parasites consume dead human skin scales, which are deposited in carpets. Suppose one could tolerate the existence of dust mites themselves and their eating the dead cells of family members, but the problem is that these creatures produce 200 times more excrement than their own weight during their lifetime. Along with their toxic waste products, they are present in the air we breathe. This causes sneezing, coughing, dizziness and other allergic reactions, which are especially dangerous for children. Constant contacts with dust mites can deteriorate the condition of the immune system and contribute to a complete allergy.
To deal with dust mites on your own is difficult, but possible. The problem is that they breed very quickly – they lay about 300 eggs in four months. The population density in such a large colony is about 100 thousand microscopic parasites per square meter of carpet. To get rid of mites and their offspring, it is necessary to ventilate the room with carpets every day, clean them regularly outside and even use an ultraviolet lamp.
Mold
Another unpleasant and dangerous carpet dweller is mold. It appears in places with high humidity, for example, if your neighbors flooded you, or you have not fully dried the carpet – when the pile has dried out, and the bottom remained wet. This fungus can develop in wet environments in just one or two days. Its appearance will not go unnoticed: the mold spreads an unpleasant musty odor. Numerous spores get into the air and fly around the apartment. In addition, breathing them in is dangerous for health, it can weaken your immune defenses, so you need to get rid of it immediately.
Take out your moldy carpet and remove the mold with a stiff brush. Then, the place should be treated with a special anti-mold product, which is sold in household stores, or you can use folk remedies, such as a soda solution. After treatment, the carpet should be thoroughly rinsed on both sides, and both must be dried. After that, the room needs to be aired for another few days to get rid of any remaining spores.
Fleas
Carpets can be a comfortable living environment for ordinary fleas. In contrast to mold, they prefer drier places and only leave their larvae in a moist environment. This neighborhood is very dangerous and unpleasant because these parasites drink human blood. A flea bite can cause itching and dermatitis, transmit parasites and even some dangerous diseases, such as the bubonic plague.
Extirpating fleas living on a pet is much easier than those living in the carpet. A vacuum cleaner is not very helpful, and, if you do not take out the dust bag immediately after cleaning, the bouncy parasites will quickly return to the shaggy paradise.
Homemade methods of dealing with carpet fleas are very harsh: we’ll have to either use poisonous chemicals like an insect repellent or make an infusion of wormwood and tansy.
Black carpet beetle
The carpet can become home for other insects, such as black carpet beetle. Usually, they get into our homes from the street, crawl through the open windows in the summer, or the owners themselves bring them in with clothes. They especially like fur and fleece garments; they settle in the furniture and books. Black carpet beetle is very hardy; it thrives both in cold and damp areas, feeling well in basements and sunny living rooms alike. The carpet can become home not only for bugs but also for their larvae, which are very dangerous. They love to eat products made of wool, and if they get to the closet, they may try your fur coats and leather goods. Black carpet beetles pose a real danger to people; they carry a lot of harmful microorganisms and helminth eggs, which can infect humans through biting.
The fight against carpet beetles and their larvae requires a lot of strength and perseverance – it will be long and tedious. Treating the affected carpet is not enough – you will also have to disinfect the whole room, as the larvae spread quickly and hide behind baseboards, under the furniture, and in other dark places. In addition, it is necessary to vacuum the carpets 1-2 times a day, until we get rid of the unwanted guests. Instead of insecticides, you can use boric acid solution, it is not toxic to humans and pets, but has a bleaching effect and can leave marks on dark things and surfaces.
Malignant bacteria
The carpets, even those that are regularly vacuumed, contain a huge number of pathogenic bacteria. Scientists have found a wide variety of microorganisms there – from E. coli and S. aureus to pneumonia pathogens. Walking on the carpet in street shoes once is already enough for it to become home for the diversity of microorganisms, which you have brought from the street. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to completely disinfect the carpet at home, even if you use household chemicals to clean it: they simply do not penetrate deep enough to kill all the bacteria.
To prevent your carpet from housing all these unpleasant neighbors, you need to regularly take care of it. Of course, you can use household cleaning techniques, but they cannot completely solve the problem, and insects, mold, and mites will return again. In order to never face such troubles, we recommend getting your carpets dry-cleaned at least once a year. Only professional products can penetrate deeply into the carpet, remove dirt and dust, mold spores, insect eggs and larvae, as well as disinfect it. There are various dry cleaning services, so you will not have to carry the carpets yourself, simply fold and pass them to the courier.
