House dust mites hate light and dry air. Keep beds and bedding aired and dry as much as possible. You will deter mites and even kill them. You will not remove old allergens this way, but if you combine this with a bout of intensive vacuuming with filters, this will remove a high proportion of them. If you subsequently keep to an airing and drying regime, plus weekly vacuuming, you will keep mites at bay, if not totally absent.

Do not make beds in the morning. Turn back duvets or blankets to allow them and the mattress to dry. Prop pillows up to allow air to circulate. Open windows and let the bedroom ventilate – for a short time only if it is a damp day, but let the air pass through.

Make up beds in the late afternoon or early evening. One really worthwhile thing to do is to use hot water bottles for a few hours before bedtime to air and dry the beds. (Alternatively, use an electric blanket, if you tolerate one.) Wrap pillows over a hot water bottle to dry them. Get the bed really dry – house dust mites absolutely hate dryness. Do this even in summer to dry the bed.

The above measures will reduce and control the level of mites a great deal. If you want to go further and air bedding during the day, try any of the following.

Allow light to get to bedding as much as you can. In Continental Europe, people hang bedding out of windows to air in the early morning, and this works well if you can do it. Alternatively, lie pillows and other bedding just behind windows, to get the light. In summer, if you have energy and favourable weather, hang duvets and blankets outside to air. Lie pillows in the sun.

Another method of airing bedding during the day, particularly in winter or on damp days, is to put as much as you can in an airing cupboard, close to a hot water tank, or close to a boiler, or hang it over a towel rail or other heat source. Do just the pillows if you have limited space.

Again, you can do these things intensively for a while to get things under control, then ease off to see how things go. Some people need to keep doing them – other people do them just in winter, or on damp days – some people stop altogether after a while. Do what is right for you.

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