Chris asks about the Demodex mites:

>How small are these bugs, where are they? I've been plucking out
>my eyebrow hairs and examining them  through a lens and under
>a microscope. Not one eyebrow mite have I found. I am sure
>they are there, but where?  

The mites are 0.1 to 0.4 mm in length. Their preferred sites are facial skin,
forehead, cheeks, eyelashes and external ear channels, sometimes burrowing 2 or
3 mm into the skin and hair follicles. 

Like the worst of the horror movies, they rise out of their ghostly sebaceous
tombs at night, while you are asleep, wandering the length and breadth of your
face. Only at dawn, when you first began to reattain some semblence of
conciousness, do these tiniest of arthropods return to the safe havens in your
skin, making themselves invisible for another day.

For more information on these ectoparasites from the "universe beyond
sight",
see:

     http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artmay00/demodex.html

For a simple description of their environment, see:

     http://1stholistic.com/Beauty/skin/skin_parts-of-the-skin.htm

Pleasant dreams.

Wirt Atmar
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 1/16/03 9:37:37 PM