It develops a close attachment to you
very quickly. And it’s so faithful,
it will follow you to the ends of the Earth.
Um no. You are picturing this all wrong.
I am talking about every first-grader’s
worst nightmare,
the head louse.
And now, "super lice"
are making a comeback after their pandemic hiatus.
Woo-hoo welcome back.
Wait.
Quit scratching your head.
We’ve got the answers for you.
So itchy suddenly.
A head louse is a human ectoparasite,
meaning the sort of parasite that likes to feed
exclusively on human skin.
These blood-guzzling critters can grow
two to three mm (0.08 to 0.12 in) long
and are tan or grey.
They can live among the hair on your scalp and occasionally
on your eyelashes and
eyebrows.
Ew.
An adult louse spends its one-month life
feeding on your blood 4-5 times each day.
It uses its claws to navigate through your hair
and bites into your scalp to reach the blood it needs.
To ensure a steady supply,
it secretes its saliva
that keeps your blood from clotting.
Eventually, like many healthy, well-fed animals,
it starts a family.
The female louse can lay about six to eight eggs
per day.
So you’re looking at a rapidly growing family.
Within a week to 10 days, each of these eggs
will hatch into a nymph.
No, not that kind of nymph.
Over the next 9 to 12 days, the lice nymphs
molt three times
and reach their final adult size.
All of this wild activity in your hair
occurs without a peep.
Some people with head lice don't feel itchy at first.
But if you don't treat a lice infestation,
you stand to lose more than just your friends.
Multiple bite wounds can fester
uncomfortable sores and even an infection.
And if you think good hygiene could keep these nasty
blood-suckers at bay, I’ve got news for you.
Head lice like a nice clean head to infest.
And head lice are not a sign of bad hygiene,
just bad luck.
These six-legged parasites can be found
on humans everywhere.
And man, are they determined to stick to us.
The head louse is an obligatory parasite.
Without a host, a louse has no food supply
and starves to death in a day or two.
I want some more.
To improve its chances of survival
and keep a fast-growing population fed,
it needs to spread to as many people as it can and quickly.
Younger children make the best hosts.
Each year, about 6 to 12 million infestations
occur among 3- to 11-year-olds in the United States.
A head louse cannot jump or fly
and needs hair-to-hair contact to walk to its next host.
And children are more likely to have head-to-head
contact with each other.
But what happens to this bug during a pandemic
as people practice social distancing?
Would that contain head louse infestation?
Unfortunately, one Canadian study found
that head lice have mutated into a new strain
since jumping to other heads is not an option.
This new super strain is showing alarming resistance
to modern treatments.
According to the Lice Clinics of America,
clinics saw a 25% increase in lice activity
across America from April to May 2020.
So where did this madness start?
Who brought the head lice to humans?
Head lice have been around for centuries.
They have even been found on mummies in Egypt.
But the first louse probably crossed over to a human
from a gorilla, 3 million years ago.
Over the years, lice evolved to specialize
in infesting human hair and skin.
And just what was that prehistoric human doing
bumping heads with a gorilla?
That’s open to debate.
Spreading and multiplying incredibly fast
and mutating into newer resistant strains
is what head lice do.
And that’s why they’re Crazy Creatures.