#thescicommunity

So dear too-curious-for-your-own-good-darlings, recently it’s been brought to my knowledge (note: by my very beautiful and lovely girlfriend, while having lunch none the less) that we have several hundreds of skin mites living in our faces, which come up at night, mate and go right back into their designated holes (which just happen to be our skin pores). I’m sure most of you have heard this as well. So, naturally as curiously disturbed I was I decided to investigate further about this, and just let me tell you already fellow academics, the truth was pretty disgusting. (This is what happens in a relationship between scientists)

IT’S TRUE

These skin mites, usually Demodex mites, have been living across the human skin for about 20,000 years and almost EVERYBODY has them. On that jolly historical note, wouldn’t you like to know what they look like......spiders, tiny microscopic spiders/slugs. Demodex mites have eight short and stubby legs near their heads. Their bodies are elongated, almost worm-like. Under a microscope, they look as though they're swimming through oil, neither very far, nor very fast. (UGH thanks, honey, I’m never gonna touch your ugly mug again.)

BUT

However, before you rush out to buy the recently-launched-strongest-bacteria-killing-facewash I’ll have you know that these mites are apparently harmless. And we don’t exactly know what they eat, maybe dead skin cells, maybe bacteria or maybe they’re sipping on the oily cocktail in our oil glands but they’re still pretty harmless.

What’s going on when the dermatologist says we’ve got a mite infestation, they were harmless right? Well, darling that happens when firstly, it mite (I’m hilarious) be a different parasite in itself and secondly it may be due to the excessive increase in the mite population living on your face, genitals and other creasy areas. These mites maintain a balance with the host in order to coexist when this balance is disturbed the cause skin ailments like rosacea and blepharitis in humans, which might have happened in the first place due to the low immune system.

On that satisfactory note, I’ll end this beautifully informant post.

Laters Darlings

SAL