The Microbial World Inside Your Home: Discovering the Fascinating Facts About the Microbes Living With You

It’s a fact that houses can contain a lot of dirt and grime. They are filled with dead skin cells, dust, and around 200,000 different bugs, bacteria, and fungi species. You might think that most of these microorganisms live in your toilet, but the truth is that the dirtiest place in your house is actually you. That’s right, you’re a walking petri dish!

Microbes can be found in the most unexpected places in your home. For example, a heat-loving bacteria called Thermus aquaticus can only be found in two environments: hot geysers like Old Faithful at Yellowstone and your hot water heater. So next time you take a hot shower, remember you’re sharing it with some heat-loving bacteria.

Another example is Penicillium fungi, which can enter your air conditioner from outside and spread their spores throughout your house when you turn on the AC. These fungi cause allergies in 2-6% of people. So if you’re feeling sneezy, it might not be the pollen outside but the fungi inside.

But it’s not just your appliances that harbor microbes. Every time you take a shower, you are exposing yourself to trillions of organisms that live in your showerhead. These microbes form a slimy layer half a millimeter thick. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Researchers have found that a type of micro bacterium that lives in showers can actually boost levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that is thought to lower stress and increase happiness. So next time you’re feeling down, just hop in the shower and let those feel-good microbes do their thing.

When these micro bacteria land on your skin, they join the tens of thousands of other microbe species that live on your body. For example, Corynebacterium is a microbe that gives your armpits their characteristic odor while also fighting off harmful pathogens like E. Coli. So next time someone complains about your body odor, just tell them it’s for their own good.

In addition to bacteria, other types of microbes also live on your body. For example, microscopic mites live on your face and mold can colonize between your toes. While the thought of these microbes might make you feel uneasy, they actually help keep you safe by outnumbering harmful microbial species by a trillion to one.

In fact, less than 0.00000001% of microbial species account for nearly all infectious diseases in the world. The presence of harmless bacteria on your skin means there is less room and resources for pathogens like antibiotic-resistant microbes to take over and make you sick.

So even when antibiotics fail, it could be all those other microbes crawling on and inside you that keep you safe. In a way, you need to get a little dirty to stay healthy. But don’t use this as an excuse to skip showers - you don’t want to miss out on the feel-good micro bacterium!

Here are some more interesting facts about microbes: • Microbes are incredibly diverse and can be found in almost every environment on Earth, from the depths of the ocean to the tops of mountains. • Some microbes are capable of photosynthesis, using sunlight to produce energy just like plants do. • Microbes play a crucial role in many natural processes, such as breaking down organic matter and recycling nutrients in the soil. • Many microbes have formed symbiotic relationships with other organisms. For example, the bacteria that live in our gut help us digest food and synthesize vitamins. • Some microbes are capable of producing antibiotics, which are used to fight bacterial infections in humans and animals.

These are just a few examples of the many fascinating facts about microbes. There is still much to learn and discover about these tiny but important organisms.