The main aim of the present work was to study the abundance and species diversity of house dust mites at three sampling sites in Saudi Arabia. The samples were taken in autumn 2007 from Al-Sulymania, Al-Nasim and Al-Fayhaa in the middle region of Jeddah. The house dust mites were surveyed at twenty random homes of asthmatic suffering patients and other twenty homes of healthy people in each of the three studied sites. The analysis of the house dust mites was made on the basis of relative abundance, species diversity and similarity indices. This study revealed that the most common mite speacies were Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and D. farinae in both allergic and non-allergic personal homes. However the relative population abundance of the total mites was two times higher in allergic personal homes than in non-allergic personal homes. Species diversity figure in HHP showed a marked increase but a sharp decrease was obtained in (HAP) homes. The quantitative similarity of mites between (HAP) and (HHP) was relatively low (52.7% - 54.9%), however such similarity between (HAP) or between (HHP) were found to be high (86.7% - 91.2% and 77.6% - 84.2%, respectively). In conclusion, the basic housing characteristics are the main factors affect the house dust mite flourishing.
Key words: Bermuda grass, irrigation levels, mowing dates
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