They are not necessarily eating our skin rather they feed on the greasy oil, sebum, that our skin secretes. These little critters are called face mites and they burrow underneath our pores waiting for the right time to gorge on a buffet of sebum.
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.
Scientists say we have nothing to worry about though as these mites have not elicited any harmful response or allergic reaction from humans. It's probably just good to know that they exist and our face is full of them.
(Image credit: Joel Mills/Wikimedia Commons)
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Who needs horror movies? I dreamed about this last night! So, I came back and commented.
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I wonder how many different species (species?) hang out on our faces. Eyelash bugs are different, right? Do they live peacefully together in their own zones, or get into struggles?
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sounds about right
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