Don't
freak out, but you probably have a few dozen arachnids grinding up on the tiny shafts
of hair lodged inside your face, quietly gorging themselves on your natural
oils.
OK,
you can freak out if you want. But there's nothing wrong with you. These
tick-like arachnids are known as face mites
(in the genus Demodex) and, according to a skin-tingling new video
created by the folks at KQED San Francisco, they live a peaceful life buried in
the facial pores of most human adults. (The mites are not found on babies, and
they are thought to be transmitted through motherly contact.)
These
creepy-crawlies are eight-legged, mostly transparent and microscopic in size,
measuring about 0.01 inches (0.3 millimeters) apiece, according
to an NPR article accompanying the new video. They live near the roots of
facial hair follicles on both men and women, hidden away inside your pores.
What's
the draw of these cramped living quarters? Consider it easy access to an
all-you-can-slurp buffet
of sebum — the waxy oil your face excretes to keep hydrated. Sebum is
produced by glands tucked inside your pores, near the bottom of your hair
follicles; Demodex mites seek out this greasy meal ticket by burrowing
face-first into those pores, where they sleep by day. At night, when you're
asleep, they crawl onto the surface of your skin to mate. That's right —
there's a nightly mite party on your face, and you're not invited.
Read
more here.