Methods in house dust mite ecology and biology

Abstract

This chapter deals with methods for sampling dust mite populations in the ‘wild’, rearing mites for experimental purposes as well as some basic techniques for manipulating dust mites in the laboratory. When it comes to methods, scientists are at their least objective and most obdurate. Personal preference for a particular technique, which becomes communicated to co-workers as the ‘right way of doing things’ can easily become ‘the only way of doing things’.