Member Since: 5/4/2011
Posts: 2,464
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WTF?? Eyelash mites??? :biblio:
Sorry if you are grossed out tonight but
Images
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demodex
http://people.tribe.net/annann/blog/...a-bf89b7303c0f
http://i-heart-bugs.livejournal.com/22625.html
These little guys are arachnids... they belong to the order Trombidiformes, an order of true mites related to spiders and other arachnids. While they look very worm-like, you can see in some of these pictures that they do actually have eight little stubby legs, all located close to the front of the body. They are anywhere from .1 to .4 mm in length, easily seen under a microscope, and their little colorless bodies are covered with a layer of scales that help them stay cozy in their follicles.
If the mites spent all their time in their follicles, though, they might have a hard time finding a member of the opposite sex. That, and follicles can occasionally become overcrowded. For those and other unknown reasons, eyelash mites will haul themselves out of their homes and make a slow but determined trek across the surface of your face. They don't like light, and will usually only crawl around in the dark, but when disturbed they can move at a surprisingly brisk pace of ten to fifteen cm per hour.
Eyelash mites don't attack any living parts of you; they generally eat sebum, which is the greasy mix of waxes, oils, and dead cells produced by sebaceous glands. We have these glands all over our skin, especially on the face, and a related mite, Demodex brevis, lives in the sebaceous glands themselves, but other than that the two species are quite similar.
It is entirely possible to have too many eyelash mites, as you can see in this picture. Some people are highly sensitive to the mites and will develop immune reactions to them, leading to itchy or irritated eyelashes [and also lashes that fall out]. Mites inhabiting the sebaceous glands of the face are also being blamed for some types of rosacea and other inflammatory skin problems, although in this situation it's not the mites but the body's immune system overreacting to the mites that does the damage. The mites have also been suggested to be responsible for thinning hair and baldness, although such an authority as the American Hair Loss Association has spoken up and declared that the mites may be responsible for irritation of the eyelashes, but they are not to blame for your shiny scalp.
Eyelash mites live about two or three weeks. They mate in your follicles and lay their eggs there. When the eggs hatch, the baby mites either settle in to start eating or crawl off to find a less crowded follicle to set up shop in.
For reference, while most people probably have eyelash mites, you are likely to have a larger population of them if you have oily skin (lots of sebum), or if you make a habit of wearing makeup and not washing it off thoroughly. I find myself wondering if an occasional mite manages to get its tail painted purple when I'm applying my favorite eyeliner, and if perhaps the other mites find this attractive. Anyway... don't bother to go scrub your face. One you have them, you have them for life, unless they become a problem and a dermatologist gives you what is basically an insecticide to apply to your face. I do not recommend trying this on your own.
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