What if I told you there were hundreds of tiny arachnids
crawling on your face right now?
I hate to be the bearer of disgusting news.
But your eyebrows, eyelashes and hairline are home
to Demodex, a mite invisible to the naked eye.
And thank goodness for that.
Imagine looking into the mirror to see your reflection
swarmed with creepy crawlies.
The fact remains that you go about your daily life
with bugs that are distantly related
to spiders and scorpions
all over your face.
I mean, it probably wouldn't hurt to get
the know the little guys better right?
After all you are sharing the face.
Demodex are an ectoparasite,
meaning they live off the skin of mammals.
They make their home in your hair follicles
and feed on dead skin cells. Yum.
Their mite-y body is perfectly equipped with scales
that allow them to grip the rough terrain of your skin.
Demodex have a pin-like mouth,
perfect for sucking up your facial secretions.
Before you get too grossed out and start ripping your face off,
you should know that these mini mites
provide a free exfoliating treatment.
They keep your skin clear of debris that clogs pores.
While your relationship
with these mites is mutually beneficial,
sometimes things get a little bit off balance.
Coming up are conditions that can blur your vision
and have mites burrowing under your skin.
And don't forget about demodicosis,
caused by having too many bugs on your face.
The symptoms include inflammation and discomfort.
Luckily, a simple hygiene routine of cleansing your face
twice daily is sure to get the bugs under control.
Another condition, called blepharitis,
occurs when there’s an infestation of mites
around your eyelids.
Cue the dry eye, flaky eyelids and blurred vision.
In severe cases,
a doctor might have to remove the bugs under a microscope.
However, holding a compress
to the eye area and flushing with warm water
usually does the trick.
While you are currently crawling with Demodex,
and don’t worry this is completely normal,
there are plenty of other species of mites out there that
could do you harm.
Like the northern fowl mite
that primarily lives on chickens and birds.
It can hop onto human skin
and cause itchy, irritating bites.
If you have a green thumb, beware of the chigger.
They live in soil
and can latch on to human skin for several days.
Their bite causes itchy red bumps that resemble pimples
or hives.
But my least favorite mite is responsible for scabies.
They really get under your skin. Literally.
Scabies mites lay their eggs right
beneath the skin’s surface.
They cause intense itching,
unsightly rashes and even sores.
Just talking about them makes my skin crawl.
So, at the end of the day, Demodex aren’t that bad.
Really, they’re just doing their part to keep your skin
clean and healthy.
It’s best to just forget they're even there and let
them do their job.
Yeah good luck with that.
If you can let go of the ick factor,
Demodex are actually pretty cool.
Entomologists from the California Academy
of Sciences in San Francisco
are even researching the genetic
variations of Demodex.
Their work highlights the differences of face mites
living on people from all over the world.
Since Demodex have been thriving on humans forever,
this research could link the bug to our ancestral DNA.
You could potentially track the migration
history of a population
based on the mites found on their face.
That’s pretty cool.
You know what is absolutely not cool?
Ticks. If you want more mites in your life,
we have a whole video about some of the most horrifying
tick infestations of all time.
Calling your hair follicles home
and snacking on your dead skin cells
are what Demodex do.
And that’s what makes them