Are There Actually Arachnids Residing In My Eyelashes?

There are a lot of microscopic 'mates' living in your eyelashes. But don't worry; everybody has them and so they're harmless. Cecile Lavabre/Getty Photos

It in all probability sounds more like a scene from a horror movie than a scientific reality, but human eyelashes are, the truth is, house to arachnids - oodles of them. Every hair follicle of the eyelids can comprise as many as 25 of the creatures, and it's believed that just about each person, no matter how properly-groomed, has them. Babies are born with out mites, but they pick them up nearly immediately from the individuals round them.

Since these tiny beings make themselves at house on our faces, let's get to know them a little higher.

Many of us routinely think of spiders once we see the phrase "arachnid," but there are different forms of eight-legged invertebrates, together with scorpions, ticks and mites. It is that final category that resides in your eyelashes. More particularly, they're Demodex mites: Demodex folliculorum and Demodex brevis. And in contrast to different mites - akin to mud mites, for example - Demodex mites have an unusual slug-like appearance.

These mites are in your lashes to munch on the oils and skin cells they find there. (D. folliculorum eats pores and skin cells whereas D. brevis prefers sebum, made by oil glands.) In addition they reside on small hairs throughout the face, including the nose and cheeks. They've eight legs - that is why they're thought-about arachnids, somewhat than insects. The explanation you don't know these follicle feeders exist is as a result of they're microscopic. In actual fact, they barely exceed the scale of some single-cell organisms, often 0.3 millimeters long. So, should you wanted to observe these arachnids, you'd need to look at one in all your eyelashes beneath a microscope.


A closeup of a Demodex folliculorum mite on pores and skin underneath a microscope.
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Demodex mites stay brief lives of solely about 14 to 20 days. Their mating habits contain a pace-relationship quality - the female stays on her lash and the males hop from follicle to follicle on the lookout for a accomplice.Shewin lash extensions factorymay also leap onto one other individual's face. So, when you spend time snuggling with a liked one, you are probably providing new mating opportunities for one another's eyelash mites. Once they die, they decompose in your hair follicles or sebaceous glands.

There's the difficulty of whether or not these critters pose a well being menace. Some consider that Demodex mites can occasionally trigger a kind of eyelid inflammation referred to as blepharitis, notably in people who are older or have compromised immune systems. The situation causes crusty, watery eyes and is normally treated by washing your eyes and using heat compresses. Not often, these mites additionally cause demodicosis, which occurs when face mites multiply out of control and create tiny pustules on your face and a lot of itching. This is handled with a cream or gel containing an ingredient that kills mites. The general assumption, however, is that the arachnids are harmless.

Lastly, you might be questioning if these face mites have any value to humans. Some scientists assume they help to maintain the pores on our faces unclogged. In June 2022, scientists finished sequencing the genome of the D. folliculorum mite. The outcomes were printed within the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. Amongst the various things they realized: On account of their remoted lives, with no competitors from different mites with totally different genes, these mites have turn into extremely simple organisms with tiny legs powered by simply three single-cell muscles. In addition they lack UV safety and can't make melatonin, which regulates when animals sleep and wake. Nevertheless, they use the melatonin discovered in their human hosts to power their night-long mating classes.


Originally Published: Jan 30, 2015
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Cleveland Clinic. "Demodex (Face Mites)" (June 29, 2022) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22775-demodex-face-mites

Mayo Clinic. "Blepharitis." (June 29, 2022) https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-situations/blepharitis/prognosis-remedy/drc-20370148

Slightly, Parvaiz Anwar and Iffat Hassan. "Human Demodex Mite: The Versatile Mite of Dermatological Significance." Indian Journal of Dermatology. Jan-Feb. 14., 2014. (June 29, 2022) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3884930/

Smith, Gilbert, et, al. "Human Follicular Mites: Ectoparasites Changing into Symbionts" Molecular Biology and Evolution. June 2022 (June 29, 2022). https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39/6/msac125/6604544