Dust bunnies (or dustbunnies), also called dust mice, are small clumps of dust that form under furniture and in corners that are not cleaned regularly. They are made of hair, lint, dead skin, spider web, dust, and sometimes light rubbish and debris, and are held together by static electricity and felt-like entanglement. They can house dust mites or other parasites, and can lower the efficiency of dust filters by clogging.[1] The movement of a single large particle can start the formation of a dust bunny.[2]
Dust bunnies are harmful to electronics, as they can obstruct air flow through heat sinks, severely raising temperatures and shortening the life of electronic components.[3]
A trademark for "Dustbunny" was registered in 2006 for the "Dustbunny Cleaner", a robotic ball with an electrostatic sleeve that rolls around under furniture to collect dustbunnies and other material.[4][5]
Dust bunnies have been used as an analogy for the accretion of cosmic matter in planetoids.[6][7]
In Jude Deveroux series, dust-bunnies are small, but deadly, little creatures resembling fuzz and was described as looking like "something that rolled out from under the bed."