- When you feel alone, remember that the Demodex mite lives on your face, and to it, you are everything
- The Demodex mite shown on the left is a cute AI version. If you want to see what real Demodex mites look like on iNaturalist, then click the links below:
- Human Face Mite Demodex brevis
- Human Follicle Mite Demodex folliculorum
I’m trying to decide if the cute AI version mixed Tardigrade with a rabbit or a Manatee.
Love this, altho remember you are also an ecosystem with your gut microbes!
These Demodex mites don’t actually cause any problems right? They are just neutral or is it a symbiotic relationship?
I think you’re using symbiosis to mean mutualism, where both animals benefit?
It’s not completely clear, but Demodex might help healthy humans by eating dead skins cells and sebum, by eating certain bacteria on the surface of the skin, and by keeping the immune system “in shape” by creating a constant, low-level threat.
wah??? Symbiosis means something else? I’ve always thought Symbiosis meant 2 organisms that mutually benefit each other such as Flower + pollinator, Edible Plants + Gardener, Gut bacteria + human health, Dog + Human, and many many more (both direct mutual benefit like a deep relationship between pet & human & indirect mutual benefits such as plants making oxygen to benefit all that breath it)!
Thanks, @ltdbjd–I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use this one.
To be fair, though, I understand that Baboon Spiders are pretty darned scary.
@GothHobbit Ha! I don’t know a whole lot about spiders other than the common ones in the pet trade, but with a name like “Baboon Spider,” I can imagine they’d be a bit on the scary side! Even for lions! I like small spiders. I have ten in their little jumping spider homes, and probably four or five more that have escaped over the past couple of years floating around the house somewhere. Unless a cat or something else had them for a snack. I’m not much of a fan of bigger spiders like tarantulas. I don’t mind them, but I’d never have one on my own.
Fun fact: philologist, author, and keen amateur botanist Professor J.R.R. Tolkien was bitten by a baboon spider as a young child in Bloemfontein. You can guess how that experience informed the development of his legendarium. 
Sme-gull is frying me lmao