Eyelash Mite

The eyelash mite, Demodex folliculorum, is a microscopic mite that lives within human hair follicles, most densely around the face, nose, eyelashes and eyebrows, and is one of about sixty-five described species in the genus Demodex found across mammals. It has an elongated, semitransparent body about 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters long with eight short legs clustered near the front, and feeds on skin cells and oils using pin-like mouthparts. It is extremely common in humans, carried by roughly a third of children and young adults, about half of middle-aged adults, and around two-thirds of the elderly.