Posted on 09/13/2004 4:39:41 PM PDT by B4Ranch
Great lice debate comes to a head
17:31 13 September 04
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A new genetic analysis may finally settle the question, and even help when it comes to getting rid of the little parasites, which are staging a comeback in rich countries.
Linnaeus named the human louse Pediculus humanus in 1758, but later realised there might be two sorts. Debate has gone on ever since. Those who regard body lice as a separate species point out that they are bigger than head lice and live in clothes rather than in head hair.
They can also transmit diseases such typhus and trench fever, something head lice have never been shown to do.
Other experts dismiss these differences and argue that, because head and body lice interbreed if kept together in the lab, they must be the same species. Then again, breeding under artificial conditions is a poor test of a species.
Two big families
To find out if head and body lice interbreed in the "wild", Natalie Leo and Stephen Barker of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, collected lice from seven boys in Nepal and four girls in Inner Mongolia in China.
A form of DNA fingerprinting of 443 lice showed there were two genetically distinct populations. "The head lice were one big family; the body lice were one big family," says Barker.
Further studies on children who shared sleeping quarters showed that the lice travelled from the body of one child to the body of another, or from head to head, but never between the body and head - evidence that the two populations were not interbreeding and that head and body lice are different species.
The best way to treat head lice is hotly contested. Many health authorities, including the US Centers for Disease Control, advise treating clothes and sheets. Other experts say parents should not waste time boiling clothes.
The latest findings, reported at an entomology conference in Brisbane in August, support the idea that the parents of children with head lice should concentrate on their heads. "For a head louse, shifting to clothes would be like setting out across the desert," says Barker.
Rachel Nowak, Melbourne
Wash your head first, then your butt. Do not put the same clothes back on.
Try some clean freshly washed ones for the first time in months and you'll be surprised that people downwind from you don't give you a dirty look and walk away anymore.
They may call the Border Patrol or the ICE office but they won't be offended because you stink.
ping your friends
Can anybody say ewwwwwwwwwwwwww?
Ok, Let me get this straight: head first, than bottom? Oh, dang I have been doing it all wrong for years.
I've got to say it...........cooties!
Or as I was told in Japan, chisai tomodachi!
Little friends.
What? Filthy Rich folks have Lice??
Well thats One to SCRATCH my head over and think about.....hmmmm.....
The M1-A1 flamethrower is the ideal parasite tool. If you suspect someone is a parasite or is infected with parasites this is the tool to defend yourself.
BOO YAA !!!!!!!
I say we stand off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be SURE.
hehe!
Ditto on the grade school. My kids only had it twice the whole time they were in grade school but that was enough for me. The first time I shaved their heads. Things got better after the school got a nit lamp.
The only time we got lice was after a trip to Disneyland.
It was awful!
Actually, it makes sense. Lice actually like clean hair. One way to help prevent lice is to use lots of hair products: hairspray, gel, etc.
Who wasted the money to study this?? If you got them get rid of them. yuck!
If you're Dan Rather, you can wash both at the same time.
It was often reported in the KZ lagers and the camps of the
Gulag that the inmates and zeks could tell when a person died because the lice would leave the body in a wave to find new hosts.
Have to go now, and try and find my bottle of Pyronite.
Yes, John Kerry IS a louse!
Aren't we nit-picking here?
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