MIAMI (CBSMiami) — Millions of people have eye mites and most of them don’t even know it, according to CBS Miami.

CBS Miami’s Ted Scouten was diagnosed with what a doctor says is Demodex Mites, also known as eye mites along the base and the lid of Ted’s eyelashes.

The mites, which are spread by pets and people, spend most of their time buried in our hair follicles. They love bodily real-estate that is flooded with oils, which explains why they love our faces – to crawl, eat and reproduce!

Dr. Norman Herskovich of Elite Family Eye Care said to CBS Miaimi they are most active while we’re sleeping.

“They try to avoid light, so what ends up happening as awkward as this sounds, when we go to bed at night they come out and they mate, and they will actually reproduce. They have a 2-3 week cycle and will eventually die, but their off spring will continue the process.”

Dr. Herskovich said to CBS Miami “The actual procedure allows me to exfoliate debris that would otherwise obstruct the Meibomian glands which produce a component of our tears known as the lipid layer or oily layer. The oily layer is critical to keeping our tears from prematurely evaporating.”

The procedure takes about 20 minutes, but as Herskvoich tells us, it’s easy to get in contact with these critters.

“These little mites, Demodex, are found everywhere so they are without question on floors. So we will step on these mites – transfer them from one location to another.  And as far as pet owners, as I have seen in my experience, pet owners tend to have more Demodex in their eyes than non-pet owners although it’s totally possible to not have contact with pets and still get these.”

Read more information about eye mites and the procedure here.