Tiny demodex mites live in the pores of your skin

[William Gaatjes]

Do not read this if you are a hypochondriac.

Was reading here and there and learned something interesting. We are all infested with tiny mites 0.2-0.4mm in length. They crawl into your hair follicles and pores, feast there on dead skin cells and sebum, the oil substance in your skin. The males crawl over your skin at night to find females to mate with. The females lay eggs in hair follicles that hatch. With a normal healthy person, the amount of demodex mites per square inch or mm is very low. Lower than 3, i read. But when you have a compromised immune system or an unhealthy life style, the mites might become more common and this can result in serious skin diseases. Also because when they die and are numerous in numbers, they decompose and release bacterial substances that can trigger severe immune reactions which shows as itching, red skin and other issues. Even rosacea is linked to these eight legged little critters.

They do not defecate in your hair follicle, they just live for about 14 days, die and decompose. Usually our bacterial friends take care of the rest together with us having a regular shower and wash. Every adult has them.


Have a nice day...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demodex

Nice movie :

 

[Linux23]

what?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I AM LEGION.

 

[DrunkenSano]

Oh gawd they're all over me!

 

[MongGrel]

😱

 

[Crono]

 

[Mike64]

I'm too lazy to Google for strict verification, but I'm fairly sure there also mites that live in our respiratory tracts, down to and including our lungs?

And of course most of us would be dead in a couple of months or so if we didn't have millions (billions?) of bacteria inhabiting our digestive tracts doing various helpful things as they go about their itty-bitty lives, presumably just as oblivious to their place in the universe as we are...😀 And for that matter, there's a lot of evidence that we owe a fair degree of our immunity against various chronic/degenerative ailments to the "stimulating" effect parasites that either do, or at least until the modern "germophobe" era did for eons, have the habit of hitching a ride in us have/had on our immune systems... (Plus there are many less well-documented hypotheses/theories that the big increase in various allergies in the US over the past few decades might be due at least in part to the greatly increased, widespread use of stuff like antibacterial/antiseptic soaps and cleaners...)

Welcome to life on Planet Earth - "mostly harmless".😉

 

[Mike64]

I AM LEGION.

Oh, dear. Now they've developed the ability to communicate via the Interwebz?.😱/😀 I can't quite put my finger on why🙄, but somehow that doesn't strike me as a Good Thing...<hmm>

 

[William Gaatjes]

There do exist bacteria that do strip electrons in a special way and communicate over (for bacteria) large distances on the bottom of some oceans.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/phage-the-virus-that-cures.330409/page-11

But yes, we are covered with little critters.
In nature there are only two demands. Where is my food and where is my house. When both conditions are satisfied, it is time for multiplication.
Every mammal is just a home and food for little single celled critters.
From a certain viewpoint you could say we are the vessels that allow those tiny critters to move around in a way faster then they ever could as a collective entity.
When alone, a draft of air can be enough.

 

[shortylickens]

Do not read this if you are a hypochondriac.

Was reading here and there and learned something interesting. We are all infested with tiny mites 0.2-0.4mm in length. They crawl into your hair follicles and pores, feast there on dead skin cells and sebum, the oil substance in your skin. The males crawl over your skin at night to find females to mate with. The females lay eggs in hair follicles that hatch. With a normal healthy person, the amount of demodex mites per square inch or mm is very low. Lower than 3, i read. But when you have a compromised immune system or an unhealthy life style, the mites might become more common and this can result in serious skin diseases. Also because when they die and are numerous in numbers, they decompose and release bacterial substances that can trigger severe immune reactions which shows as itching, red skin and other issues. Even rosacea is linked to these eight legged little critters.

They do not defecate in your hair follicle, they just live for about 14 days, die and decompose. Usually our bacterial friends take care of the rest together with us having a regular shower and wash. Every adult has them.


Have a nice day...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demodex

Nice movie :

So like, did you not pay attention at all in the 7th grade?

 

[Skeeedunt]

0.2-0.4mm seems kind of big. That's large enough to observe without a microscope isn't it? I look at my nose plenty and ain't never seen one. Maybe I'm not a hospitable host.

 

[KMFJD]

germaphobes drive me insane....

 

[Schmide]

Ribbed for his and her pleasure

 

[Mike64]

There do exist bacteria that do strip electrons in a special way and communicate over (for bacteria) large distances on the bottom of some oceans.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/phage-the-virus-that-cures.330409/page-11

Wow, that's amazing, and very cool! Thanks for the link...

0.2-0.4mm seems kind of big. That's large enough to observe without a microscope isn't it? I look at my nose plenty and ain't never seen one. Maybe I'm not a hospitable host.

That is what the Wikipedia page says but yeah, it does seem odd since that's definitely big enough to see without any sort of magnification and I also can't remember ever seeing anything that big crawling around anywhere on me or anyone else whose body I've been in a position to observe closely enough.... At least not since I was a little kid and managed to pick up head lice that one time..🙄

 

[Eug]

Wow, that's amazing, and very cool! Thanks for the link...

That is what the Wikipedia page says but yeah, it does seem odd since that's definitely big enough to see without any sort of magnification and I also can't remember ever seeing anything that big crawling around anywhere on me or anyone else whose body I've been in a position to observe closely enough.... At least not since I was a little kid and managed to pick up head lice that one time...😀

Well, head lice are like 10X the length of demodex. And demodex often live right inside the hair follicle or in that waxy gunk on the skin. They love oily skin, and eat the skin until they die after a couple of weeks, releasing a poo explosion.

BTW, I found this observation by a student amusing:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/n...crawl-and-have-sex-on-your-face/#.V6lTgZMrK3A

“One can conclude that wherever mankind is found, hair follicle mites will be found and that the transfer mechanism is 100% effective! (One of my students noted it was undoubtedly the first invertebrate metazoan to visit the moon!)”

 

[Linux23]

Anyone else bathe in bleach after reading this? Now I'm 100% demodex free and white as snow at the same time

 

[Slacker]

We call them midichlorian.

 

[dainthomas]

Fun fact: there are more cells in your body that aren't human than are human.

 

[Mike64]

Well, head lice are like 10X the length of demodex. And demodex often live right inside the hair follicle or in that waxy gunk on the skin. They love oily skin, and eat the skin until they die after a couple of weeks, releasing a poo explosion.

BTW, I found this observation by a student amusing:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/n...crawl-and-have-sex-on-your-face/#.V6lTgZMrK3A

“One can conclude that wherever mankind is found, hair follicle mites will be found and that the transfer mechanism is 100% effective! (One of my students noted it was undoubtedly the first invertebrate metazoan to visit the moon!)”

Head lice are 2-4 mm long? That's huge for a "tiny insect." It was more than a few decades ago that I had them, but while I do recall them definitely being visible (once one managed to dislodge them with a comb), but not exactly "easily" visible - more on the order of what I would now describe as .5 mm-ish? TIcks, on the other hand, which I also haven't given much if any thought since I moved back to NYC as an early-teen, were on the order of 2-4mm, but those were way bigger than any lice I recall...

 

[Mike64]

Anyone else bathe in bleach after reading this?

<roflmao>😀

Now I'm 100% demodex free

Are you sure? How long did you keep your head under water? Hmmm? Remember, these little buggers live in hair follicles, not on the scalp.😛

 

[Eug]

Head lice are 2-4 mm long? That's huge for a "tiny insect." It was more than a few decades ago that I had them, but while I do recall them definitely being visible (once one managed to dislodge them with a comb), but not exactly "easily" visible - more on the order of what I would now describe as .5 mm-ish? TIcks, on the other hand, which I also haven't given much if any thought since I moved back to NYC as an early-teen, were on the order of 2-4mm, but those were way bigger than any lice I recall...

Are you sure you didn't just see the eggs?

Cuz the fully grown ones are like 3 mm (1/8th inch).

 

[Mike64]

Cuz the fully grown ones are like 3 mm (1/8th inch).

Eeeeww😱 I definitely would remember (and probably still be having nightmares about) that...

Are you sure you didn't just see the eggs?

Those or hatchlings probably were all I ever saw. My mother was quite the demon with that little comb (not to mention that yellow shampoo, whatever it was/is called), so they probably didn't get much chance to make out it out of louse-infancy.😀 (That's how long ago it was, I was too young to be responsible for/trusted with dealing with them myself...)

 

[Ruptga]

CRAAAAAAAAAWLING IINNN MY SKIINNNN