10/29/2012

Pediculosis Biebitis or Please Stop Wasting Your Time!



Last month, Justin Bieber came to my city.  I didn't go to see him because he's a bit young for me and my daughters are more into those fabricated bands from the Disney Channel. All of this, of course, made me think of head lice...
Imagine if you will, that an Internet meme spread where people were encouraged or challenged to "noogie" the Justin Bieber (aka, give him a friendly knuckle rub on the top of his head).  Let's say it became something that every Bieber fan or foe wanted to try.  Let's say that it had become a problem.

Now let's say Justin is coming to your town and you have been hired as head of security.  How would you deal with this threat?  Would you spend time sending all your security personnel all over the city trying to sniff out those noogie-seeking Justin fans?  Would you send your best people driving down alleyways and around high-schools in the hopes of maybe, just maybe, finding someone wearing a "Noogie Bieber" t-shirt? Or, would you focus your efforts and put all of your security personnel around Justin Bieber to deal with those crazed fans who were actually getting close enough to the Bieb to try a noogie? 

Of course, it would make no sense to spend energy looking for those people that MAY be around and MAY be a threat.  It would make perfect sense to focus manpower and energy into surrounding the object of desire and protecting him from actual harm from known threats.

Ok, follow me now.  Your scalp is the Bieb.  Your home is the city.  Lice don't want to hang out anywhere in your home, except on your scalp. And if they do leave the scalp, they are probably not well enough to return. To quote this research, "In addition, fully active lice usually do not leave the head without any reason. Lice leaving the head may be close to dying, and it can be assumed that a high fraction of lice found off-head are not capable of infesting a person or surviving for very long".

So, it is highly unlikely that the lice will be anywhere else, but even if you had the possibility of having lice throughout your home, most of them would never even be able to get to your head. It's a waste of time to try and find these lice.  And if by chance, they got to your head, so what?  If you put your attention on combing the head, you will stop that louse in its tracks. So, I beg you to stop the house cleaning and excessive laundering.  Focus your precious time and energy on the heads in the house. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I found this blog! I have two girls, and lice has been a bad friend in our house on several occasions. The first time my older daughter got it, I did one treatment of the Rid shampoo and one comb through of her hair. Not surprisingly, it came back after the eggs/nits I didn't get rid of progressed through the life cycle.
Fast forward a few years, and both of my girls got lice. My older daughter had a mild case, while my younger daughter (who has gorgeous hair) had a raging case. I think her head of hair may be the Club Med to lice everywhere. My younger daughter had lice off and on throughout her entire fourth grade year. I was ready to go to therapy at the end of it all. But, I developed some valuable skills in the process.
Now, we are at it again. Summer camp left my daughter with memories and yet another case of head lice. But, the one thing I learned most from my daughter's Year of the Lice is that people don't understand that they are PARASITES. Which means they are completely dependent on their host. I hear Moms saying "They can live 36 hours off the head", etc, etc. Ok. They may be alive in the most technical sense of the word, but they aren't just chilling on the couch waiting for some unsuspecting person to lie down while watching a movie. They need our blood, and the heat from our head to live. End of story. They will die quickly without us.
I have seen Moms panic and clean everything in the house to the point of wiping down kitchens and bathrooms with bleach. If a louse is on your kitchen counter, they are as good as dead. They are of no concern. I have seen Moms convinced that if they're child was lying on that pillow this morning, the lice are there just waiting for their little angel to come back to bed.
Lice are annoying, and believe me, if someone came out with a lice vaccine or pill similar to the flea medication, I would be the first in line to get it for my kids. But, they are not able to survive without us. Get rid of them at the source. You will have to comb through. But, in the end, you can get rid of them.