01 August 2005

Monsters in Your Bed

Last weekend my wife reminded me that I hadn't cleaned the air conditioning unit for quite sometime. I usually clean the filters at least twice a month but had neglected to do so.

I lifted up the cover and was shocked at the state of the filter. It was so filthy. No wonder the aircon was noisy and didn't seem as cold as before. On closer inspection there was something like black fungus growth inside the unit. Uugh!

My wife washed the filters with water and soap and the basin was all covered with a black layer of grime. That's how dirty it was. I took some tissue, cotton and brush and did my best to clean the inside of the unit. The amount of stuff that had accumulated inside was amazing.

When I was done, the whole floor was littered with black stuff and I was gatal, gatal (itchy, not naughty)all over. My wife was sneezing a lot too. We had the maid come up, vacuum and mop the entire room.

Not good! With Rahil growing up fast, I can't afford to be complacent. What with organisms crawling all around.



I had read about house dust mites (Dermatophagoides sp.). These are microscopic organisms that feed on dead human skin. Their prime habitats are indoor beds. According to this site, 'a typical used mattress may have anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million mites inside'.

They are strongly allergenic and are considered to be one of the causes of asthma in infants.

And you thought the picture was scary.

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USEFUL LINKS

Click here for more information about babies and allergies

Click here for more information about babies and risk of asthma.

7 comments:

AK said...

Here we have a saying "dont let the bed bugs bite", which does seem to have an origin in reality in the past

as for picture not a pretty sight

Alina said...

Hi, Adam, thank you for visiting my blog! What is BlogDay about? Can you give me some more information?

BTW, I am really amazed by how cautious you are with your child! Congrats on being such a considerate Daddy!

Jack Golf Addix said...

Adam
There is two way of making sure those problems doesnt bother u again. At our home , we do have the pro air cond cleaners to come and clean the ac unit. In addition to that , we do spray some of those sprays that can be used on your ac unit.
Anyway , Hanie and Sha Sha has really grown up. Was asking the mother a couple of days ago...you with two beautiful gals...I m blessed.

BabyPink said...

i actually had the same problem as my dorm bed and matress are really old. i also had allergies. since then, i've become OC with my bed/space!:)

and, btw, about gatal, itch is gatel in my language (the meranao language which is one of the languages here in the philippines).:)

Dilip Mutum said...

Hi Alan. I have more pics but choose this one as it looks nasty.

Kayla: BlogDay is on August 31st 2005 and bloggers all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs.

You can check out this site for more information : http://blogday.wikispaces.org/

Jack: What type of spray is that?

Babypink: Yes! I also discovered a lot of other similar words (maybe pointing to a similar origin between Malays and Filipinas).

Lrong Lim said...

Scary enough, man... lucky I don' t use air con so much...

sweetspirits said...

It's a yucky thought bed bugs

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