About

Since the discovery of their role in allergies house dust mites have been extensively studied. The first part of this book is an easy to read but complete compilation of our knowledge. It also outlines the state of the art of dust mite allergen control. The text is purely biological except for the first chapter where medical and historical backgrounds are briefly described.

 

The book brings together the outstanding studies on dust mite biology; not only data but also in splendid drawings, photographs and graphics. It places the accumulated biological information in an ecological and evolutionary perspective. And there is some original research included, namely computer simulations of population developments. The author himself has contributed more than twenty original research papers on the subject to the international scientific literature.

 

This book could be labeled a synthesis. On the other hand it is argued that the time for a synthesis has not yet arrived. Some urgent questions are still unanswered and suggestions are given for new investigations. The second part (Appendices) is for professionals who wish to do research on dust mites themselves.

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backgrounds

During the years 1975 until 2000, I was, with interruptions, employed by the University of Amsterdam. My workstation was the Laboratory of Experimental Entomology. The laboratory has been renamed several times, but the word ‘acarology’ never formed part of the name. Yet most of the research going on there concerned mites. I worked on spider mites, ticks and, during the years 1987 to 2000, on house dust mites. For my employment I depended on financial support from external funding organizations. Satisfying the demands of these organizations had priority of course. There was little time to go into interesting side ways or delve into underlying, more theoretical questions. Eventually lack of funds forced me to stop working on dust mites. But the fascination was still there. Through the scientific literature I had meticulously followed the ongoing research on dust mites and I felt the need to organize and summarize the overwhelming accumulation of information and to clarify topics that are not so easy to understand. Not before my retirement in 2012, I found time for an attempt to do that. It was only an attempt but, I believe, not a complete failure. In fact I was quite content with it myself.

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Explaining something to someone else is often the best way to test whether you really understand it yourself. I had nobody. But an anonymous reader is a rather satisfactory alternative. So I wrote this book primarily for myself, but others could certainly benefit. Dust mites are important for human health, albeit in a negative way. That is why they received much attention of acarologists. It is quite rare that so much research has been done and so much information has accumulated concerning one single animal species. Mites in general never received much attention of the general public. In fact they are quite obscure creatures for most people. Yet they have some remarkable, even unique properties, interesting for anyone with an interest in natural history.