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DID YOU KNOW ?
Whether you look in the carpet, on
upholstered chairs or sofas, or in the
bed, you will find them everywhere
that dust accumulates — tiny
creatures known as dust mites. They
are essentially harmless little
animals that feed primarily on flakes
of dead skin. They really only
become a problem for those of us
who suffer from dust mite allergies.
If you are allergic, dust mite
excrement can trigger a sneezing
attack or even breathing problems.
On a “carpet safari” in
your house dust
YOU WILL NEED
› 1 Slide, 1 cover slip, pipette, tweezers
›
Water, 1 sheet of white letter-size paper,
“sample” from the vacuum cleaner bag,
desk lamp, kitchen sieve
HERE’S HOW
1. Place a dust sample in a fine-meshed kitchen
sieve and shake the sieve gently over the
sheet of paper. Little dust particles and a few
mites will fall onto the sheet when you do
that.
2. House mites don’t like air that is too warm or
dry. As soon as you warm the sheet with the
desk lamp, they will escape from the dust
and gather themselves into little heaps.
3. Use the tweezers to transfer the escapees to a
drop of water on the slide, and then cover
them with a cover slip and study them under
the microscope.
EXPERIMENT 9
House dust m
ite
