13 creepy photos of the microscopic world around us that will make your skin crawl

Get the Full StoryThe Nikon Small World contest highlights the best microscope images taken each year.

Some of the photos in the 2019 cohort showcase spiders, lice, larvae, and fish skeletons in rarely seen detail.

Here are the creepiest microscope photos from this year's contest.

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Most days, we don't think about the tiny world bustling right under our noses.

Small organisms live out their lives, catching prey, laying eggs, and doing their best to survive. Usually, we can't see any of this.

But skilled photographers can use microscopes to reveal the hidden and sometimes disturbing world beyond what the eye can see. To celebrate that microscopic mastery, the Nikon Small World contest has awarded the best photographs taken through a microscope each year for decades.

Read more: The best microscope photos of the year reveal a strange and hidden universe in astonishing detail

For the 45th year of the contest, four judges reviewed more than 2,000 pictures submitted from nearly 100 countries. A little more than 100 photos stood out from the pack. Some of them capture the beauty of tiny flowers or reveal the complex, dazzling patterns behind something as simple as a water droplet.

Others reveal up close the creepies and crawlies that lurk below the surfaces of lakes and in the corners of your home.

Here are the 13 creepiest microscopic photos of 2019. Spiders strike many people as creepy when seen with the naked eye. Under a microscope, the effect is far more dramatic.

Antoine Franck Nikon Small World

This photo a female lynx spider took 14th place in the Nikon contest.

Even fewer people are cool with lice especially when they cling to strands of hair, as this one is.

Walter Ferrari Nikon Small World

Head lice feed on blood from the human scalp. Feeling itchy yet?

Outi Paloheimo Nikon Small World

See the rest of the story at Business InsiderSee Also:The best microscope photos of the year reveal a strange and hidden universe in astonishing detailVintage photos of San Francisco reveal what the city looked like before the catastrophic 1906 earthquake and how it compares to todayWe kayaked to an abandoned fort in Portland, Maine, that's only accessible by private boat, and it's now completely overrun by nature

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