Meet your housemates: Incredible images show the PARASITES hiding in your home

By Shivali Best For Mailonline

Published: 07:20 EST, 29 November 2016 | Updated: 11:04 EST, 29 November 2016

The images show dust mites that can be found hiding on furniture

Includes images chigger mites that can be found in your garden

A scanning electron microscope was used to take the intricate images

Psoroptes cuniculi mites are non-burrowing parasites that chew the skin in the ear canal of rabbits. Rabbits kept outside in hutches are most likely get ear mites, which if left untreated, can eat the entire ear away

These frightening mini beasts that lurk in sofas and carpets on a mission to eat human skin will inspire you to give your home a good clean this winter.

Stunning images scrutinising the nasty parasites that could be lurking around your home have been revealed by a British scientist who collected samples from his own back garden in Milton Keynes.

The brightly coloured series of images show enlarged dust mites that can be found hiding on furniture and in carpets, and chigger mites that can be found in fields and parks tucking into human skin.

Other coloured scanning electron micrographs (SEM) show how these nasties could infiltrate our homes through our beloved pets. A dog tapeworm has been closely inspected as well as American dog ticks and a rabbit ear mite.

Another image shows what could be hanging out in our ponds and gardens, as a close-up of a bloodworm seemingly baring its teeth has also been captured.

In one picture, the bacteria on our seemingly clean chopping boards and kitchen sponges have also been magnified. … READ MORE HERE