Is there any such thing as an eyelid parasite?

[yvr girl]

Sometimes I get this weird feeling in my right eyelid.

[Orrex]

1. Whatever you do, don't blink

It excites them, and they'll gnaw their way up your optic nerve, straight into your brain.


True fact.

[yvr girl]

2. that's comforting

[Orrex]

5. Yeah. Well.

At least I didn't include a pic...

[mcctatas]

3. Here ya go...

[RevolutionaryActs]

4. Do you look like this?

:shrug:

[mcctatas]

6. like a square with a red dot in it?

[Critters2]

7. I don't even see a red dot in the square.

Maybe I should have my eyes checked.

[RevolutionaryActs]

8. One day I will learn not to hotlink.

In the meantime it has been edited. :D

[FloridaJudy]

9. Yup.

They're extremely common, but harmless. Most people have them. They're more like what's called a "commensal": a critter that lives in/on your body, but does no damage whatsoever. They live off the oils on your lashes/eyelids and just hang out there.

Do not under any circumstances Google an image of them! They're microscopic, but you really don't want to know what they look like.

Of course some unfortunate folks have been known to get crab lice on their eyelashes (use your imagination). Those aren't normal, and can be really itchy. And there are some nasty tropical parasites, but they're pretty well unheard of here in the US.

[yvr girl]

11. Can they be shooed away

?

[FloridaJudy]

13. Ask an opthamologist

Though most would be try to discourage you from treating something that harmless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demodex_mite

edited for spelling: "opthamologist" is not something that trips easily off my keyboard!

[MsTryska]

10. i dunno, byt my psycho ex-roommate

used to get the Herp on her eye.

I never asked how, altho I have my suspicions.

[FloridaJudy]

12. In a perfectly innocuous way, probably.

Most herpes above the neck is good old Herpes Type 1 - the kind that causes fever blisters/cold sores on the lips. The eye's a particularly nasty place to get it, though. Most of us who have it (and that's more than 50% of the population) are luckier than that.