Quote:“If you’re unfamiliar, Demodex are little, tiny mites that live inside our hair follicles and oil glands — and get this, they come out at night to eat our dead skin cells and mate,” Walter said Thursday on TikTok. “And even wilder, they can sense light with their primitive eyes, which is how they know the coast is clear to come out and play.”
 
Almost all adults have these shameless squatters, research has found.

Two species affect humans — Demodex folliculorum, which measures about a third of a millimeter in length and lives mostly in facial hair follicles, particularly around the eyelashes and eyebrows, and Demodex brevis, which spans less than a quarter of a millimeter and lingers in oil glands. 

Demodex tend to live about two weeks. One study reported that the mites lay their eggs inside the follicles or oil glands. They hatch after three or four days and develop into adults in about a week. When the mites die, their bodies decompose inside the follicle or gland.

(11-02-2024, 07:43 AM)Quantum12 Wrote: They are cute! Not that cute!
[Image: https://i.imgur.com/yXDquzh.jpeg]

(11-02-2024, 08:07 AM)Kurokage Wrote: Thats definitely a face only a mother could love!!!

(11-02-2024, 09:46 AM)FlyersFan Wrote: These things are small, but they aren't microscopic.
You would think that we'd notice them with our naked eye.
Or that we'd feel them crawling around and eating our skin flakes,
and we'd feel them laying their eggs .... but  no, they are there
and we go on, unaware.

(11-02-2024, 07:09 AM)Maxmars Wrote: Humans are an ecosystem.  (Probably most other animals are too.)

When we "go to the stars' and/or 'colonize other planets" we are going to have to face that reality... or we won't make it.