277 samples of house dust collected in 1996-1998 from 17 flats, three hospitals, two hotels and one students' hostel situated in the cities of Gdansk and Gdynia were subjected to acarological examination. Acari were found in 50 (37.3%) of 134 samples from the flats, in 11 (15.5%) of 71 samples from the hospitals and in 13 (18.1%) of 72 samples from the hotels. The majority of mites (91.6%) was found in samples that originated from the private flats. 95.0% of mites from the flats, 35.0% mites from the hotels and 8.0% mites from the hospitals belonged to two dust mite species of the family Pyroglyphidae: Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae. D. farinae was significantly predominant and composed 82.8% of the whole pyroglyphid collection. Samples from private flats contained significantly more mites than those from hospitals and hotels: mean mites densities per 1 gram of dust were 13.07, 1.03 and 1.00, respectively. The authors suggest that only density of house dust mites in private flats may be clinically important.