Your skin hosts tiny mites—and that’s usually normal.
Most adults carry mites like demodex on their skin; they live in hair follicles and pores, feed on skin oils and dead cells, and are typically harmless symbionts. A shift in balance due to immune suppression or damaged skin can be linked to conditions such as rosacea and blepharitis, but the mites are usually not the main culprits. Dust mites in bedding can trigger allergies, scabies is a disease caused by a mite that requires treatment, and head lice are insects, not mites. Humans are ecosystems, and most of the microscopic life on skin is harmless or beneficial.
