The mite can move on the warm surface of the skin, traversing as much as 2.5 cm in a minute. The parasite exercises some selection in the part of the body into which it burrows, but it may be related to the body part contacting another infected individual. The female mite takes approximately one hour to bury itself in the horny layer of the skin, and it never tunnels deeper than this. The mite usually remains in her burrow for the rest of her life. The mites feed by consuming the host's lymph and lysed tissue.
Victims frequently scratch out mites with their finger nails.
Although a mite may be transferred by finger nails, more often the scratching will remove the roof of the burrow and the parasite will walk away. Usually only dead mites are found under the nails. Within a few hours of starting the burrow, the gravid female mite begins egg-laying. Two or three eggs are laid each day for up to two months. Typically the female mite is in the anterior end of the burrow and the eggs are in the burrow behind her.