Hey, You May Have Dermodex, Too!

[sandgrubber]

A curious, sensationalized bit of natural history . . . . relevant in reminding us that we don't understand Dermodex mange very well.

http://www.vox.com/2014/6/11/5799992/these-mites-live-on-your-face-and-come-out-to-have-sex-at-night

These mites live on your face and come out to have sex at night

Updated by Joseph Stromberg on June 11, 2014, 3:10 p.m. ET @josephstromberg [email protected]

Demodex folliculorum, a type of mite that naturally lives on the human face. Meet Your Mites

Right now, there are thousands of mites on your face. They're microscopic, but closely related to spiders and ticks. And despite your reaction to hearing this news, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you.

"99.9 percent of humans carry them," says Ron Ochoa, a mite scientist at the US Department of Agriculture. They're most abundant on our faces, but live in the hair follicles all over our bodies, and a single person may harbor more than one million of them in total.

99.9 PERCENT OF HUMANS CARRY FACE MITES

During the day, the animals stay hidden in your follicles, feeding on oils naturally secreted by your glands. At night, they use their stubby legs to climb to the surface to find mates.

Perhaps the most startling fact about these mites: they were first identified in 1842, but scientists still know surprisingly little about them.

"These are things that live on us — they're intimately associated with us — but they've not really been studied," says Holly Menninger, who's part of a North Carolina State project that's sampling the mites that live on hundreds of volunteers. "It's kind of crazy."

Her team is among the few that trying to learn more. Here's what little we do know so far about the mites you carry everyday.

....article goes on . .. .

[The Spotted Devil]

Great. Now I feel itchy.

:laugh:

[Kirislin]

I watched that program Life on Us, I think it was called. It said the lice we get on our heads are very different to pubic lice. Pubic lice are most closely related to the lice found on..............gorillas!!!! What does that tell us!!

[denali]

Great. Now I feel itchy.

:laugh:

Me too! :laugh:

[OSoSwift]

Eeewwwwwww

I know they live on us but i prefer the head in tha sand way of dealing with it :)

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

There's some sort of eyelash follicle critter...

We are all supposed to have.

I just think of myself as a gigantic specialised bacterial colony... a bit like an ant colony - all these cells cooperating to live.

And then I carefully not-think about it. Like not-thinking about sharks when you're at the beach.

[cavNrott]

I wonder how those Demodex mites who come out at night to procreate on our faces manage with the face creams most women use at night. Do they find the face cream like having to walk though a vat or oil or are we adding a totally new dimension to products like KY Jelly.

[The Spotted Devil]

Nooooooooooooo! Not listening!!!!!!!!!!!!! :laugh:

[Whiskered]

I wonder how those Demodex mites who come out at night to procreate on our faces manage with the face creams most women use at night. Do they find the face cream like having to walk though a vat or oil or are we adding a totally new dimension to products like KY Jelly.

:laugh:

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I wonder how hairy we'd all look if we didn't have mange? Maybe some cultures / countries have less mange (thinking of Greece...)