Friday, April 5, 2013

The letter E stands for "EW"

EW
It is what we say when we yankee-types see something gross or yucky.

To wit:  Eyelash Mites.

E is also for Eyelash Mites.

Which make me go "ew".
And you will too.  Once you see what they do.
But they're still good for you.
So long as you wash out your eyes
with something that won't make you cry
like a very small dab of baby shampoo.

The green ones are the butts of the eyelash mites.  They're burrowing into an eyelash follicle.  The yellow is the eyelash and the pink is the skin. Before you go and scrape your eyes out with a spoon - remember that these guys eat dead skin and gross stuff in your eyes so as long as you haven't got a situation that causes too many of 'em (like days-old makeup) they're perfectly healthy and actually good for your eyes.  Baby shampoo in your eyelashes can help clean up in there too to keep populations down to a bare minimum.  Everyone has 'em.  As far as I can tell, we need them too.  But, as I said before...  ew.
p.s.  they don't appear to poo - so at least you don't have to worry about poop in your eye.

If you'd like to learn more about these little devils - and I encourage you to do so - please check out the following link:
http://people.tribe.net/annann/blog/b08bb5ee-726e-44b1-8c5a-bf89b7303c0f

and here's a fun but horrifying little interactive PBS link to learn about the other things that live on the jungle known as "us":
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/bugs-that-live-on-you.html

6 comments:

Poke The Rock said...

my eyes...they are itchy...so itchy!

Sanderella said...

Ew!! Those little bugs on the eyelashes!! Ha Ha I once went to a seminar, dental...they blew up a tooth, really big after it was washed, flossed and rinsed....millions of bugs! Ew!! Cute post! www.sandysanderellasmusings.blogspot.com

Kristen said...

Ew! There are also Demodex mites, which live in hair follicles anywhere on your body, including on your arms and eyelashes. I wonder if they are the same. Again, ew!

The A to Z blog said in the latest post to add a link to your own A to Z blog in the comments, so here's mine: kristenhead.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Oh, ick! I could've lived the rest of my days ignorant of those - why???

Unknown said...

Itchy....itchy.... My most irritated feelig...:P

- A fellow blogger from A to Z!

Spanj said...

I have very itchy eyebrows now too! Hate the idea of bugs living on/in me, but I know there are squillions of them. At least these are good guys.
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