The Mites that Live on Your Eyelashes #Demodex #Eyes #Mites #Shorts

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]There are tiny animals living on your eyelashes, possibly watching this video with you. Living deep within your hair follicles are microscopic mites called Demodex. They're about a third of a millimeter long, too small to see, but perfectly adapted to life on your face.

[00:00:17]Humans usually host at least two species. Demodex folliculorum tends [music] to live on clusters at the base of hair follicles, especially around your eyelashes. While Demodex brevis lives near your oil glands, deep in your hair follicles. They feed on your oils and dead skin cells. They're nocturnal and at night they crawl [music] out of your pores to mate. They can actually only survive on humans, so they can thank us for their entire existence.

[00:00:49]They spend their entire lives on you until [music] the end, which isn't pretty. They don't seem to have an anus, so they hold [music] their feces their entire lives until they explode and die.

[00:01:02]And yes, this is all happening around your eyes. They're passed between people over time, often through close contact.

[00:01:10]So at some point, you probably picked up your mites from someone else, even if you don't remember locking eyelashes with anyone. This might be a lot to process, but under normal conditions eyelash mites are completely harmless [music] and almost every adult human has them.

[00:01:28]If you enjoyed this short, check out our full episode, linked in the caption.