Face Mites

2.  Mites are relatives of ticks, spiders, scorpions and
other arachnids
 Over 48,000 species have been described. Around
65 of them belong to the genus Demodex, and two
of those live on your face:
1. D.folliculorum 2. D.brevis

3.  D.folliculorum is the bigger one of the two and it
was discovered independently in 1841 by two
scientists, but only properly described a year later
by Gustav Simon, a German dermatologist.
A year later, Richard Owen gave the mite its name,
from the Greek words:
‘demo’ - lard and ‘dex’ - boring worm.
 These mites are our most common ectoparasites.
They’ve been found in every ethnic group where
people have cared to look, from white Europeans
to Australian aborigines to Devon Island
Eskimos.

4.  What’s clearer is that age matters. The mites aren’t
inherited at birth, so each generation picks them up
anew, probably from direct contact with our parents.
French study from 1972 says that you’ve only got a 4
percent chance of carrying Demodex if you’re under
20. If you’re old, you’ve almost certainly
got Demodex somewhere.

5.  They’re most commonly found in our
eyelids, nose, cheeks, forehead and chin.
That’s not to say they’re restricted to the
face: Demodex has been found in the hairs
of the ear canal, nipple, groin, chest and
forearm too.

6.  Generally, dry skin is a turn-off for them. They prize
bodily real estate that’s flooded with oils (sebum). This
explains why they love your face.
 It might also explain why their numbers are apparently
higher in the summer, when hot temperatures ramp up
sebum production.

7.  On either side of the mouth, D.folliculorum has a
seven-clawed organ (a“palpus”) for securing itself
to what it’s eating.
 They move about in darkness and freeze in bright
lights.
P.S. D.brevis, with its five-clawed palpus, was branded as “less offensive”.

8.  Befere a day laying eggs, the female buries into the follicle (if
it’s D.folliculorum), or into a nearby sebaceous gland (if
it’s D.brevis). Two and a half days later, they hatch. The
young mites take six days to reach adulthood. Their entire
lives play out over the course of two weeks.

9.  Several studies, for example, have found
that they’re more common in people with
HIV, children with leukaemia, or patients on
immunosuppressive drugs. .

10.  In humans, these blooms have been
linked to skin diseases like acne, rosacea
and blepharitis (eyelid inflammation).

11.  Symptoms:
 There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence about
mite-killing treatments and clinical
improvements (here’s the latest
involving tea-tree oil), but very little in the
way of hard clinical trial evidence.