Beijing is grimy, dusty place, but perhaps the dustiest place of all is right under your nose. A few years ago I posted this blog about about how dust mites living in your bed can cause allergies:

These nasty little eight-legged buggers thrive in humidity and love to munch on the dead skin cells that collect in your bed sheets and furniture. Fortunately there are ways to counter these microscopic menaces through the use of air purifiers, encasements, sprays and special vacuum cleaners …

After writing that blog my intention was to buy a bed vacuum and see if it would make any difference. Being the procrastinator that I am, it took me a while to get around to it. So now, after three years, many allergy attacks and another baby later, I have finally done so and care share some initial results.

At the recommendation of a colleague, I went on Jingdong and bought this LG Model bed vac.

Here is what the filter looked like before I used it for the first time:

And here is what it looked like after I vacuumed by sheets, pillowcases, headboard and bedspread:

And I didn’t even touch the mattress (my next target). Bear in mind that the gunk in the photo above doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s been wriggling around where I lay my head – according to this article, only 5% of dust mites are on the surface of your bed: 

Vacuuming your mattress, however, may not do as much to relieve a dust mite problem as you may hope. As it turns out, mites are hearty — not only can they survive a trip through the wash if the water isn’t hot enough, they can also survive your attempts at vacuuming them up. As many as 95 percent of dust mites continue to lead their lives after you’ve tried to vacuum them from your mattress [source: Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America]. How can this be? Because they don’t live on the surface; rather, they live deep within the stuffing of the mattress.

So unless I tear apart my mattress and go all in, it seems that my vacuuming can only go so far. Nevertheless I’m still impressed – if not merely for the psychological and superficial reassurance that at least my sheets and pillowcases will be ever-so-slightly cleaner.

What are your experiences with bed vacs?

Nasty bugs abound in Beijing these sweaty, summer days (and by that I don’t just mean mosquitoes) – lately it seems that every day yet another of my daughter’s classmates or a colleague at work falls victim to some form of seasonal illness — be it a simple summer cold or strep throat.

The latter (and its related ailment Scarlet Fever) has reportedly been spreading around many Beijing offices and schools (those that are still in session, that is), as has the annual summer outbreak of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.

Fortunately our daughter has yet to succumb to any of these more serious ailments (knock on wood), but the constant humidity and highly unhealthy air quality has meant a summer of non-stop sniffling, sneezing and coughing for both my daughter and me.

Although these symptoms have not amounted to anything serious, we’ve been suffering nonetheless – especially at night and in the early mornings when both of us wake up in a chorus of coughing, sniffling and sneezing.

Aside from the more obvious environmental factors, my minimal medical knowledge makes speculating about what’s behind all this (much less what to do about it) seem futile, but I’m willing to bet that our mutual misery is the net result of a steady intake of allergens from our compound garden and the millions of dust mites burrowed deep in our bedsheets. 

These nasty little eight-legged buggers thrive in humidity and love to munch on the dead skin cells that collect in your bed sheets and furniture. Fortunately there are ways to counter these microscopic menaces through the use of air purifiers, encasements, sprays and special vacuum cleaners – a variety of which are available on taobao. Do a search for the term "尘螨" [chen(2) man(1)] for a list of local and imported product options.

We are planning on ordering a few of these items, for which I am awaiting (quite literally) with baited breath — I’ll let you know in forthcoming post how they work.

Click here and here to learn about how to use Taobao on thebeijinger.com and on the taobaofieldguide.

More on Dust Mites here.

And check out this Popular Mechanics Article, 5 Places in Your Home that are Breeding Superbugs, here.