There I was, innocently reading an article on Cracked about how gross stuff looks when hyper-magnified, when I ran into the description and picture of the Demodex, with this accompanying picture:
That is a close up of a Demodex. That nasty little sumbitch is a mite that lives in the follicles on your face. It particularly loves to dig down into the roots of your eyelashes. This is a magnified view of an eyelash with a cluster of Demodex asses sticking up out of it:
*whimper*
Everyone has them, but it turns out that people with oily skin, like me, often have the heaviest infestations of these bastards. Every time an eyelash falls out easily when you rub your eyelid, it probably did so because of a large congregation of mites around it’s root. Think about THAT next time you see and eyelash on someone’s cheek. Hell, think about that next time you go to kiss someone’s cheek. The odds are good that these mites just laid eggs on the kissee’s skin.
Urg.
I was aware, with my background in biology, that we are the natural hosts for many, MANY microscopic flora and fauna. Nevertheless, I did not need to see what the repugnant little critters looked like. I have OCD. I will dwell on this, much like the Demodex are currently dwelling in my pores.
Excuse me while I go wash my face. Repeatedly. Maybe with lye soap. Or bleach.
Gives me the heebie jeebies, too. Brings up my OCD. Urg. I will try to think of them as natural and, as Robing says, a cleaning crew. Yeah. But who cleans up after the cleaning crew, hmm?
It turns out that they have no anus, and cannot poop. I am really happy about that.
HAHAHA Thank you. This reply calmed my nerves and made me laugh simultaneously.
I got enough of this stuff in micro-biology. 20 years later and I still wash my hands obsessively sometimes. Ick.
Here’s a happier thought – think of it as an alien dildo.
Living alien dildos walking on my face is a “happier” thought??? Have you been eating the special brownies again??