We know carpets harbour lurgies and we know they should be properly cleaned on a regular basis; but we’re often either too busy to arrange for carpet cleaning or we think ‘oh, it can’t be that bad surely?!’ Whether you fall into the procrastinator or denialist category, this extract taken from Fact Retriever ‘Interesting Facts About Carpets ’ is for you, and trust us, it is that bad.
1. Even if you regularly vacuum your carpets, that doesn’t mean it’s clean. Studies have shown that air blown from a running vacuum cleaner is one of the five places in the home that has the highest numbers of germs – other hot spots are dish sponges, washing machines, toilets during a flush, and kitchen bins.
2. The Norovirus (the one that causes stomach flu) can survive on an uncleaned carpet for a month or more.
3. Each year, several pounds of soil can accumulate in and under a carpet.
4. Bed bugs can live in carpet fibres and wooden floorboards. Despite being small they are very fast and can crawl more than 30 metres to obtain a blood meal, usually at night from people who are sleeping.
5. A person sheds about 1.5 million skin flakes an hour, most of which remains trapped in our carpets.
6. Scientists believe that more than 43 million tons of dust falls over the U.S. every year. Indoor air usually contains about twice as much dust as the air outside. That’s a million microscopic particles in a cubic inch of air. About 2,000 dust mites can live happily on one ounce of carpet dust.
7. Wall-to-wall carpeting is less healthy than smaller rugs because full carpets tend to be more permanent and harder-to-clean, so the messes and spills that invariably happen provide the necessary nutrients for all forms of moulds, mildew and bacteria to survive.
8. Some modern carpets are made from artificial plastic fibre, but other carpets are made from knotted wool, which can house beetle grubs or ‘woolly bears.’ Special chemicals in their stomachs convert wool into sugar so they will munch through carpet like cotton candy.
9. Dust mites thrive in warm, humid environments, eating dead skin cells and nesting in dust-collecting carpet. The residue that mites leave behind can mix with dust and become airborne, which may cause allergies.
10. And the five-second rule is a myth: bacteria can live after four weeks on carpet. And, thanks to “microbial adhesion,” germs
such as the following are immediately transferred to food: Salmonella typhimurium, Campylobacter, and Salmonella enteritis, a nasty bacterium that causes horrible diarrhoea and vomiting.
Convinced yet? Experts suggest carpets should be professionally cleaned at least every 12 to 18 months, so don’t put it off any longer – call QClean today for dry carpet cleaning that will leave your carpets hygienically clean and instantly usable.
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