improve their genetic diversity by providing evolutionary pressure (industrial antiseptic face wash), and introducing to different population (rub your face against other people).

IIRC they actually like it when you wash your face; more of your natural skin oils for them to eat that isn't tainted by unholy substances.

Might just be making than up though. Thinking of a Demodex Skin Oil Priest rn.

I like the meta of this comment

Shut up Stallman lmao

My penis: "First time?"

Not as reassuring as it could be, but it helps.

aaa mutant waterbear

Its important to remember that human bodies are effectively an environment unto themselves, and that there really isnt a distinct “you” and then other things like this.

For example, there are trillions upon trillions more cells of bacteria on/in you than there are human cells. Every person’s overall existence is composed primarily of stuff that isnt technically “you”, although it is inseparable from you. While people’s bodily ecology can be modified, you couldnt possibly remove every quasi-foreign substance from yourself and still survive.

Its part of why seemingly horrific stuff like fecal transplants can be very helpful. If youve cultivated a very mean ecology for one reason or another then resetting that to a healthier state is essential. Its like the gut version of you being a country suffering from unrest. But even though we think of negative or positive bacteria as being totally distinct from us, we are strongly defined by those bacteria. It affects your brain and emotions far more than most people realize. Scientists are still just beginning to understand the complexities of these systems, too.

These little dudes I would assume are a similar situation. They probably have some form of essential symbiosis with us that we may not even understand yet. Killing them off would likely be bad. And even if you did, you would be creating a vacuum that could be filled by something worse. Our bodies are fertile ground for such tiny individuals. Better to have benign ones or helpful ones than it is to have bad ones

The other commenters are well meaning but don't really know what they're talking about. I have chronic dry eye from staring at screens too much (remember to blink!). My tear ducts have gotten overworked and started to produce thicker, gunkier, tears which blocked them and cause styes. I've lost a bunch of my tear ducts. Once they're gone they don't grow back.

These little mites eat the gunk my eyes produce and, when they get overpopulated, leave a ton of gunk on your eye. It's called blepharitis

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/demodex-blepharitis

I've had it so bad that I've had trouble opening my eyes in the morning. There's a relatively new eyedrop that clears them out. Combining that with hot dye compresses and lid scrubs have helped keep them under control and has drastically increased my eyelid health

I hope that helps answer your question

I have rosacea and apply a 1% ivermectin cream to my face every night to kill the mites. It costs 300 dollars a tube.

Not a doctor but I watch YouTube sometimes.

You can remove them with some oils and it helps some people with things like acne.

If you did this, they would just come back after a while. If you don't have any skin issues, they are harmless to you.

Tardigrades don't have visible eyes like that in the left picture. That's some ai-generated slop image of a demodex mite.

So ugly it's wrapping back around to cute, Imo.

Your face mites don't reveal the secrets of the universe to you?