http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/meyebrowmites.html
“While debating the existence of bedbugs …”? What’s the debate, that they’re a conspiracy of mattress makers?
I’ve been in debates about the existence of bedbugs before. Most modern-day Western civilization dwellers have never encountered them, and so bedbugs sometimes take on an almost apocryphal “back in the Bad Old Days” aura, along with things like catching the bubonic plague from rats that live in your house.
There is no way that I am telling Mr. toes about critters living on his skin, eyebrows, eyelashes and everywhere else. He is deathly afraid of aracnids and would spend the rest of his life in a fumigation tent.
Is there also a possibility that some of my mites have transferred to Mr. Toes? I have always had great, clear skin and after we moved in together, Mr. Toes’ skin cleared up considerably. I had always considered it a side-effect to being in love. Perhaps there is a more scientific explaination after all?
So how many of these critters do I have living in my eyebrows, covering my face, and crawling over every inch of my body and clothing? I mean, are there a few dust mites which eventually make it around to every (square) inch? Or are there enough of them that every square inch is populated at all times? Or are there hundreds of them per square inch? What’s the density?
Two things to contribute:
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Bedbugs do exist, cuz I had 'em! After moving crosscountry, for a couple of weeks I would wake up with these red marks up and down my back. Finally lifted up the mattress to see a bunch of the little blood sucker between the mattress and boxspring. :eek: Most disgusting thing ever! Moral of the story: seal mattresses in plastic before moving and/or just buy new stuff in the new city.
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there’s a great independent comic called Sandwalk Adventures by Jay Hosler, dealing with mites. The gist is Charles Darwin discovers the follicle mites in his eyebrows, and begins having a Socratic dialog with them regarding the nature of myth and, of course, evolution. Actually quite charming, and may be a good way to get the kids introduced to some science.
An opthomologist advised we that there was a microorganism in the foliciles of my eyelashes. Advises washing carefully and often. Must have been not often enough. Eyelashes are all gone now.
As to bed bugs they do exist and are persistent buggers. Once lived in a place that had to be fumigated with hydrocyanic acid gas, hyrocyanide, to get rid of them. They had a firm foothold on that place.
The dust mites supposedly can just barely be seen by the naked eye. I’ve looked and searched with a powerful magnifying glass to no avail.
To read some of the mattress ads you would think that if you had one of their mattresses and it covered with one of their covers the mites couldn’t get to you, and Cecil & staff say there already on your skin.
What???
“Beware of the Cog”
There’s a a picture of a follicle mite on this page.
http://www.andrewlost.com/hair_k1.htm
Yeesh.
fontor