Look at these pore souls.
Dr. Scott Walter — a board-certified dermatologist in the Denver area — is raising awareness about Demodex, a type of tiny eight-legged mite that resides in hair follicles and oil glands on our face, chest and neck.
“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.
They tend to be more prevalent in older people and less common in kids under 5, though the mites can be transmitted through contact with hair and eyebrows and the sharing of personal hygiene products such as makeup brushes, tweezers, eyeliner and mascara.
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.
To demonstrate the pervasiveness of these peculiar pests, Walter placed pieces of clear packing tape on his forehead and cheeks and examined the remains under a microscope.
He spotted one mighty mite with a “full belly.”
“Fun fact — Demodex mites don’t poop because they don’t have the other end, so they just eat and eat and eat,” Walter explained.
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.
Most people don’t experience Demodex symptoms and aren’t even aware of these nauseating nuisances.
However, they have been linked to skin conditions like rosacea, acne and dermatitis, and they can worsen vision problems and damage eyelids and eyelashes.
Mark Sandeman, an honorary professor at Federation University Australia, recommends seeing a doctor if you experience eyelid inflammation.
“Controlling such reactions might be as easy as limiting mite numbers with a wash or treatment prescribed by a medical professional — just know that entirely getting rid of our mite friends is probably impossible,” Sandeman wrote on The Conversation site in 2022.
