Oh man. From what I remember for the time my co-op had lice, nothing beats literal nitpicking -- a nice solid hour or so going through each head, hair by hair, with a nit comb. (I was so happy I had that unflattering boy-cut -- I made it through six months of lice in the house withoug getting them.)
see, I've been picking nits like crazy, and cutting husband X's hair, with the result that I'M the only one with lice now. husband x has got some nhitpicking in his future.
Cool shit like Apatosaurus or whatever goes extinct, and we're stuck with lice?
Small is beautiful (evolutionary-wise) baby! Or small is itchy, anyways. ITCHY ITCHY TAAVI!
Oh, well, at least I don't have scabies. Yet.
Somehow I have managed to avoid the ravages of the assorted skin parasites/diseases/poisonous plants, in spite of trucking through a great many wet & swampy locations. I do not know why, but I waft my skin affliction-free karma in your general direction.
And I'm not drunk or high!
Just think how bad the itching would be on an acid trip! 'They're tunneling through to my BRANE! AGH!'
Congrats and well-done on the absense of intoxication!
No no no. Pubic lice are not the worst. Imagine, just imagine, that you had lice for two fucking months before you gave up and shaved your head. Really, where would you rather have had those lice? On your crotch, where you could have easily covered them up and contained them? Or on your head, which would have made you a contaminant to everyone everywhere you went. For two months. When you'd just come back from Europe and didn't have your own apartment. What if, in your desparation to get rid of your lice, before you finally shaved your head, you dipped your head in turpentine because your mom read it was a home remedy on the internet? What then, hmm? The only compensation in this scenario is that for 15 minutes before the final head shave you had a pink mohawk.
When we picked up nits at school (or 'neets' as they are known in Scottish vernacular) there was some kind of vile smelling shampoo you could buy and the painful metal comb with the incredibly narrow prongs.
I don't remember it being that hard to get rid of 'em. A couple of treatments with the nit-poison and some painful combing.
I also remember that once the school nurse found out someone in a class had nits the whole class would be sent of to be inspected. However, as a point of principle, it was never revealed who was the 'source'. This would prompt hours of speculation among the kids, usually culminating in the blame being apportioned to whoever was poorest, dirtiest or most socially awkward.
When pubic lice go chemical-resistant, we'll have to go back to the time-honored method of delousing, requiring a razor, a lighter, and a fork. You shave off half, light the other side on fire, then stab the little buggers with the fork as they run out.
Alameida, what happened to the simple OTC remedy. I think it was called 'Quell'? Special shampoo sold with the fine-toothed-comb?
My mom always said I had to boil the sheets & pillowcases, and buy new pillows. The first time I ran that by other people's mothers; they looked at me like I was crazy.
So I didn't. And we turned out just fine. I'll get notices from the school once every year or so. It's just a proximity thing. No shame there.
If the Quell and the headshaving don't work out for you; 13 is the standard fall-back strategy.
alameida laughs mysteriously and hollowly at Miss Emily. we have been applying hideously powerful substances to the hair of everyone in the house once a week for about six weeks now, despite the fact that it says on the side of the bottle it is not safe to do so and everyone's hair is starting to resemble used brillo pads.. we have the little comb (can't find it just this minute, but somewhere.) I have spent weary hours picking nits from the girls. I have poured boiling water over sheets, pillowcases and stuffed animals soaking in bleach. they. will. not. die.
Tried the Smothering them in Vaseline method? I've heard it works, and the only problem is that the Vaseline takes a week or so to wash out. But it sounds as if you're at that point.
God, alameida, that fucking sucks. I had a horrible bout of lice in the fifth grade that would not go away. Unlike the kind folk at McGrattan's school, though, everyone in my whole class knew about it. I stayed home from school for like three days.
It was so traumatizing (and the ensuant refusal of them to fucking die) that now, every time my head itches a lot, I am like "OH MY GOD IT'S THE LICE." But it never is.
I don't know what kind of shampoo you're using, but I remember that when I was a kid, there were two kinds available in the US. One was over-the-counter, and it would only kill the lice. You had to be great at combing out the nits.
The other kind which you could only get with a prescription also killed the nits. You still had to comb them out, but it was much easier to et a handle on them.
oh, don't worry about the worms. I picked up girl x's deworming medicine last week, since we ran a series of tests on her (relative) failure to thrive, but she's too sick with bronchitis to take it right now. the GI specialist on tuesday will tell me if she's well enough from the bronchitis to be dewormed. and then I get to check her poo for a while and if I see any worms, the whole family has to get de-wormed too! AND A GIANT COCKROACH JUST CRAWLED ON MY BED!!! I never have cockroaches! and I chased it around and hit it like three times with a rolled up magazine but it got away under the bed and now I don't want to go to sleep in case it crawls on me! I'm demanding a refund from the management of the whole world! I'm not hallucinating or anything, either.
OK, I looked for it with a flashlight, couldn't find it, gave up. when I went to get some eye cream it ran out from under my dresser ONTO MY FOOT. but, I killed it with a well-placed vogue magazine dropped from 3 ft. it's dead, but I'm still totally freaked out. BUGZ!!!
I think one gets lice, crabs, fleas, ticks etc from being around people and other mammals or going outside. Or by not thoroughly sterilizing items like books or mail before they are allowed into your house. Closed windows sealed with thick polyethylene sheetsare good, as is duct tape sealing any gaps or crevices in the walls and doors. Full paper jumpsuits can be had for a couple dollars, and thick plastic painter overalls with hoods are only $5.99 at Home Depot for two layers of protection. Surgical gloves covered with canvas workgloves sealed at the wrists with duct tape aren't unbearably hot. I am also checking into various breathing filters and masks; again among the best are designed for spray painting.
We're lucky that we were fighting against the Soviets rather than the Cockroaches in the Cold War, because otherwise "mutual assured destruction" would have never worked.
Somehow I have managed to avoid the ravages of the assorted skin parasites/diseases/poisonous plants, in spite of trucking through a great many wet & swampy locations.
That reminds me of an acquaintance who swam in the Ganges on a vacation in India. He came back with 12 different parasite species. He ended up getting rid of 9 of them. The rest he just lives with.
Ivermectin, Alameida, 400 ug/kg oral and it's available over the counter for veterinary use.
also, either girl x is having a reaction to her new antibiotic or she has a ton of infected former lice bites on her head, with hideous pustules. smearing antibiotic ointment in her hair: real popular just now. I incline to the former explanation, since I pretty much eradicated her lice and she now just has a few (as per Miss Emily's suggestion) egg cases. the reason I know I still had some actual lice again till the other day is that I have teeny tiny eggs in my hair, the kind that just came out of a lady louse's butt. ok, maybe it has an ovipositor but I ain't finding out, since I might have to look at giant pictures of lice. fuck the po' lice!
this thread makes my head itch, bringing back memories of when my small children (both now in college) brought back lice from elementary school day camp. 15-20 years later its still vivid enough a memory to make me want to violently scratch my head. this is what "made my skin crawl" means.
I don't know how we avoided lice this year--some kid in the classroom had them, and god knows PK has long hair--but this thread is making me SO glad we did.
I am totally going to adopt the phrase "go all velveteen rabbit on some shit." Talk about your counterintuitive metaphors. Ha!
Alameida, I just wanted you to know that this morning's episode of Arthur is about the kids at Arthur's school having nits. And the opening sequence is the lice, like a little nit army, taking their orders to colonize every hair with its own nit.
And I totally went, "head lice! That makes me think of Alameida!"
Can't you just shave your head? That would be hot.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 8:56 PM
Next, cancer!
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 8:58 PM
Oh man. From what I remember for the time my co-op had lice, nothing beats literal nitpicking -- a nice solid hour or so going through each head, hair by hair, with a nit comb. (I was so happy I had that unflattering boy-cut -- I made it through six months of lice in the house withoug getting them.)
Or shave everyone's head -- it'll solve it.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 8:59 PM
They aren't pubic, are they? That's the worst.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 9:21 PM
I had lice as a kid. It fuckin' sucked.
Posted by dagger aleph | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 9:24 PM
see, I've been picking nits like crazy, and cutting husband X's hair, with the result that I'M the only one with lice now. husband x has got some nhitpicking in his future.
Posted by alameida | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 9:40 PM
Cool shit like Apatosaurus or whatever goes extinct, and we're stuck with lice?
Small is beautiful (evolutionary-wise) baby! Or small is itchy, anyways. ITCHY ITCHY TAAVI!
Oh, well, at least I don't have scabies. Yet.
Somehow I have managed to avoid the ravages of the assorted skin parasites/diseases/poisonous plants, in spite of trucking through a great many wet & swampy locations. I do not know why, but I waft my skin affliction-free karma in your general direction.
And I'm not drunk or high!
Just think how bad the itching would be on an acid trip! 'They're tunneling through to my BRANE! AGH!'
Congrats and well-done on the absense of intoxication!
max
['{HIGH FIVE}']
Posted by max | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 10:39 PM
No no no. Pubic lice are not the worst. Imagine, just imagine, that you had lice for two fucking months before you gave up and shaved your head. Really, where would you rather have had those lice? On your crotch, where you could have easily covered them up and contained them? Or on your head, which would have made you a contaminant to everyone everywhere you went. For two months. When you'd just come back from Europe and didn't have your own apartment. What if, in your desparation to get rid of your lice, before you finally shaved your head, you dipped your head in turpentine because your mom read it was a home remedy on the internet? What then, hmm? The only compensation in this scenario is that for 15 minutes before the final head shave you had a pink mohawk.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 06-30-06 11:04 PM
When we picked up nits at school (or 'neets' as they are known in Scottish vernacular) there was some kind of vile smelling shampoo you could buy and the painful metal comb with the incredibly narrow prongs.
I don't remember it being that hard to get rid of 'em. A couple of treatments with the nit-poison and some painful combing.
I also remember that once the school nurse found out someone in a class had nits the whole class would be sent of to be inspected. However, as a point of principle, it was never revealed who was the 'source'. This would prompt hours of speculation among the kids, usually culminating in the blame being apportioned to whoever was poorest, dirtiest or most socially awkward.
Posted by Matt McGrattan | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 12:43 AM
turpentine on the march
Posted by jr | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 1:21 AM
9: The head lice have joined the superbugs.
Posted by Mary | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 1:30 AM
This headline (sidebar of link in 11) is disconcerting for a Yank.
Greetings from Canberra, BTW.
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 1:40 AM
When pubic lice go chemical-resistant, we'll have to go back to the time-honored method of delousing, requiring a razor, a lighter, and a fork. You shave off half, light the other side on fire, then stab the little buggers with the fork as they run out.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 2:00 AM
13: Now that passes the kink bar.
Posted by Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 2:05 AM
Alameida, what happened to the simple OTC remedy. I think it was called 'Quell'? Special shampoo sold with the fine-toothed-comb?
My mom always said I had to boil the sheets & pillowcases, and buy new pillows. The first time I ran that by other people's mothers; they looked at me like I was crazy.
So I didn't. And we turned out just fine. I'll get notices from the school once every year or so. It's just a proximity thing. No shame there.
If the Quell and the headshaving don't work out for you; 13 is the standard fall-back strategy.
Posted by Miss Emily | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 3:47 AM
alameida laughs mysteriously and hollowly at Miss Emily. we have been applying hideously powerful substances to the hair of everyone in the house once a week for about six weeks now, despite the fact that it says on the side of the bottle it is not safe to do so and everyone's hair is starting to resemble used brillo pads.. we have the little comb (can't find it just this minute, but somewhere.) I have spent weary hours picking nits from the girls. I have poured boiling water over sheets, pillowcases and stuffed animals soaking in bleach. they. will. not. die.
Posted by alameida | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 5:46 AM
Next to hookworm, lice are like teeny-tiny Care Bears. This is like something out of a Tim Burton movie.
Posted by wjb | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 5:52 AM
Tried the Smothering them in Vaseline method? I've heard it works, and the only problem is that the Vaseline takes a week or so to wash out. But it sounds as if you're at that point.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 6:00 AM
God, alameida, that fucking sucks. I had a horrible bout of lice in the fifth grade that would not go away. Unlike the kind folk at McGrattan's school, though, everyone in my whole class knew about it. I stayed home from school for like three days.
It was so traumatizing (and the ensuant refusal of them to fucking die) that now, every time my head itches a lot, I am like "OH MY GOD IT'S THE LICE." But it never is.
Posted by silvana | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 6:40 AM
I don't know what kind of shampoo you're using, but I remember that when I was a kid, there were two kinds available in the US. One was over-the-counter, and it would only kill the lice. You had to be great at combing out the nits.
The other kind which you could only get with a prescription also killed the nits. You still had to comb them out, but it was much easier to et a handle on them.
Posted by Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 6:41 AM
Apo always has trouble passing the kink bars. They kinda get stuck in there...
Posted by arthegall | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 8:51 AM
oh, don't worry about the worms. I picked up girl x's deworming medicine last week, since we ran a series of tests on her (relative) failure to thrive, but she's too sick with bronchitis to take it right now. the GI specialist on tuesday will tell me if she's well enough from the bronchitis to be dewormed. and then I get to check her poo for a while and if I see any worms, the whole family has to get de-wormed too! AND A GIANT COCKROACH JUST CRAWLED ON MY BED!!! I never have cockroaches! and I chased it around and hit it like three times with a rolled up magazine but it got away under the bed and now I don't want to go to sleep in case it crawls on me! I'm demanding a refund from the management of the whole world! I'm not hallucinating or anything, either.
Posted by alameida | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 8:58 AM
OK, I looked for it with a flashlight, couldn't find it, gave up. when I went to get some eye cream it ran out from under my dresser ONTO MY FOOT. but, I killed it with a well-placed vogue magazine dropped from 3 ft. it's dead, but I'm still totally freaked out. BUGZ!!!
Posted by alameida | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 9:10 AM
Worms, bronchitis, lice, and cockroaches?
Jesus. *I'd* be drinking, if only to get someone to drag me back to the rehab clinic. You're a strong woman.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 9:20 AM
I actually have rather fond memories of being deloused. We sat in the bathtub for hours while my mother read The Lord of the Rings to us.
Posted by Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 9:28 AM
Well, you're obviously whomping the shit out of uninvited guests at your house.
RE: the headlice, I (very) meekly wonder if you're not mistaking the now-dead egg casings for actual living nits?
I say this as someone holding a bottle of RID with an expiration date of Jan. 1999. Just in case you thought I was getting uppity or anything.
Posted by Miss Emily | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 9:28 AM
Kwell.
Despite my unsanitary habits, I've never had lice. "Stronger than dirt" is my motto. I seldom catch colds or flu, either.
Tropical cockroaches are enormous (mouse-sized) but apparently harmless. They were evrywhere in Taiwan.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 11:29 AM
There are still bedbugs and ants to go. At that point I'd consider gasoline.
Some tropical cockroaches will gnaw on your calluses. I am assuming they were cockroaches.
Arthropods are the enemy.
Posted by Halfway Done | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 12:55 PM
I think one gets lice, crabs, fleas, ticks etc from being around people and other mammals or going outside. Or by not thoroughly sterilizing items like books or mail before they are allowed into your house. Closed windows sealed with thick polyethylene sheetsare good, as is duct tape sealing any gaps or crevices in the walls and doors. Full paper jumpsuits can be had for a couple dollars, and thick plastic painter overalls with hoods are only $5.99 at Home Depot for two layers of protection. Surgical gloves covered with canvas workgloves sealed at the wrists with duct tape aren't unbearably hot. I am also checking into various breathing filters and masks; again among the best are designed for spray painting.
I hope my suggestions help.
Posted by bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 1:02 PM
We're lucky that we were fighting against the Soviets rather than the Cockroaches in the Cold War, because otherwise "mutual assured destruction" would have never worked.
Posted by Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 1:17 PM
Somehow I have managed to avoid the ravages of the assorted skin parasites/diseases/poisonous plants, in spite of trucking through a great many wet & swampy locations.
That reminds me of an acquaintance who swam in the Ganges on a vacation in India. He came back with 12 different parasite species. He ended up getting rid of 9 of them. The rest he just lives with.
Ivermectin, Alameida, 400 ug/kg oral and it's available over the counter for veterinary use.
Posted by Yamamoto | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 9:35 PM
things better get better, or I'm going to have to go all velveteen rabbit on some shit.
Posted by alameida | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 10:40 PM
also, either girl x is having a reaction to her new antibiotic or she has a ton of infected former lice bites on her head, with hideous pustules. smearing antibiotic ointment in her hair: real popular just now. I incline to the former explanation, since I pretty much eradicated her lice and she now just has a few (as per Miss Emily's suggestion) egg cases. the reason I know I still had some actual lice again till the other day is that I have teeny tiny eggs in my hair, the kind that just came out of a lady louse's butt. ok, maybe it has an ovipositor but I ain't finding out, since I might have to look at giant pictures of lice. fuck the po' lice!
Posted by alameida | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 10:44 PM
"Girl X" is an incredible superhero name. "Husband X," not so much.
Posted by strasmangelo jones | Link to this comment | 07- 1-06 11:26 PM
this thread makes my head itch, bringing back memories of when my small children (both now in college) brought back lice from elementary school day camp. 15-20 years later its still vivid enough a memory to make me want to violently scratch my head. this is what "made my skin crawl" means.
Posted by TomF | Link to this comment | 07- 2-06 12:04 AM
I don't know how we avoided lice this year--some kid in the classroom had them, and god knows PK has long hair--but this thread is making me SO glad we did.
I am totally going to adopt the phrase "go all velveteen rabbit on some shit." Talk about your counterintuitive metaphors. Ha!
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 07- 2-06 7:05 AM
Alameida, I just wanted you to know that this morning's episode of Arthur is about the kids at Arthur's school having nits. And the opening sequence is the lice, like a little nit army, taking their orders to colonize every hair with its own nit.
And I totally went, "head lice! That makes me think of Alameida!"
I knew you'd be thrilled to hear this.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 07- 3-06 10:04 AM