{"id":676,"date":"2010-08-03T07:22:42","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T15:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/?p=676"},"modified":"2010-08-24T08:16:28","modified_gmt":"2010-08-24T16:16:28","slug":"lice-ew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/03\/lice-ew\/","title":{"rendered":"Lice. Ew."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I seem to be on an insect-related writing spree. First mosquitoes, now lice, and I have a special treat coming up for you, a nearly complete post about giant water beetles!<\/p>\n

Of course, this is all really my love of bug-eating bats shining through. After my last bat-related post, Marilyn, sent me a story about Mexican Free-tailed Bats carrying bombs into Japanese cities during WWII. It makes perfect sense. They can carry weight, they fly at night, they hide in dark, obscure corners, and then\u2026 boom. A dentist came up with the idea and sent a letter to the White House. Can you imagine? Dear Mr. President\u2026<\/p>\n

I\u2019m getting off track. The insect of the day is lice! They\u2019re transferred from head to head contact and there\u2019s an estimated 6-12 million infestations every year mostly in children between the ages of 3 and 12. Children are most commonly treated with Rid or Nix. These shampoos include insecticides that kill the bugs and their eggs. Because the lice are becoming resistant<\/a> to these treatments, the American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending each infested child be treated with the insecticide three times.<\/p>\n

Of course these shampoos contain toxic chemicals that kill the bugs and are absorbed through the skin. At high doses they can cause short-term side effects<\/a> like nausea and vomiting and long-term side effects like hormone disruption and cancer.<\/p>\n

So, what to do\u2026<\/p>\n