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Bed Bugs - How to get rid of bed bugs

Bed Bugs Pillow Allergy

Bed bugs pillow allergy accumulate over time. Excrement and the bodies of expired bed bugs gradually build up to an ever increasing concentration in bedding, upholstered furniture and carpets. In the bedroom, frequent cleaning can keep the accumulated level low. But getting a puff of the accumulated dust from an old pillow as you lay down for the night is not a pleasant prospect - similarly for the bedding that you flip up to cover yourself. Cleaning is helpful but only partially effective. With periodic replacement with inexpensive pillows and covers, you start with a low level of exposure to accumulated allergens and limit the total level of accumulation. Of course the usual attention to cleanliness of sheet and mattress should still be observed.

the typical 1-2 year old hollow fiber pillow will be saturated with sub-micron sized bed bugs allergen particles along with the skin scales and the bed bugs, I doubt that vacuuming the surface will pull it all out of the wadding, although it will reduce it to some extent. Sub-micron particles in particular adhere to surfaces by molecular cohesion and the only way to remove them is scrubbing, so vacuuming the pillow surface is likely to be only partially effective.

allergen load in "hypo-allergenic" synthetic pillows was no better than in feather ones. Interestingly they say in their discussion that synthetic pillows may release volatile organic compounds that may exacerbate the allergic response, so perhaps feather pillows would be better in that respect; but of course feather pillows are a lot more expensive.

The synthetic pillows are extremely cheap nowadays in supermarkets; That's probably cheaper than the cost of washing those same pillows once a month at 60 degrees C, particularly in England where electricity and water charges are high.

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