Talk:Head louse

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"Head lice are normally spread by close contact but can also be spread by sharing clothes."

"Head lice does not survive in bedding and clothing, so it is generally safe to use these items."

Contradiction. Besides, I know somebody who got lice from a pillow (yes, it was definitely the pillow, not something else). Unless there are any objections, I think I'll remove the second statement. -[[User:Frazzydee|Frazzydee|✍]] 04:39, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

They can not survive for more than 48 hrs. This is a fact. They obviously can be spread from a pillow to the human head if in fact a person with lice slept on that pillow within the 48 hours. The lice can also be spread by clothing if the item is being shared from one person to another. Ex. When kids are playing a sport and they trade pennies (jerseys that are worn when scrimmaging) They can transfer from that jersey to another human head very easily.

Contents 1 Comic Fame 2 Life span 3 Treatment section moved to new article 4 Dirty Hair vs. Overclean Hair 5 Is it true? 6 Larkspur link 7 In Popular Culture

[edit] Comic Fame

Congrats everyone, headlice wikipedia mentioned on questionable content comic today

[edit] Life span

Well, does anybody know how long a head louse normally lives without eating? It may only lives half a day? more than at least 3 days? I think all the closing and pillow debate can be cleared when we know it. like if a head louse lives one day after it fell on a pillow, then the pillow is safe 24 hours after it fell on that pillow.

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Thanks to the joy of having children I have far more knowledge about this subject than I like to: Head lice can survive about 48 hours away from their host so the pillow is NOT safe after 24 hours. The easy remedy is to put the pillow etc in the freezer for 4 hours or more (I don't have the required temp at hand). Cloth should washed at 60 deg(celcius) or more for at least 20 minutes.

[edit] Treatment section moved to new article

The Treatment section here was a mess. It consisted of an awkward list of different products/techniques, nearly all of it unsourced (a few looking suspiciously like wikispam). The last section (The Ultimate Technique) was badly written, unverifiable and probably original research. Rather than try and totally rewrite the section I've simply moved it to Treatment of human head lice so it can be improved without affecting the quality of this article. I think it's a complex enough topic to warrant a separate article anyway. --Bk0 16:57, 31 July 2005 (UTC)pi0o[op[][

[edit] Dirty Hair vs. Overclean Hair

I've heard from one side that head lice is the result of poor sanitation, while I've also heard that head lice prefer extremely clean environments. This is fairly disputed, and I'd appreciate it if Wikipedia made the final decision. —MESSEDROCKER (talk) 03:46, 30 October 2005 (UTC)iuy09o

WP does not make decisions, it cites scientific/reliable sources...but to my best knowledge it seems that the chance of infestation is neither helped nor hindered by the frequency of washing your hair and such. Lice will take any head they can get, they are not actively "jumping" or such anyway. However lice may spread less in a generally health concerned neighbourhood because, well, because people care...so there may be a non-causal correlation ;-)
so 1) head lice is the result of poor sanitation: No
2)head lice prefer extremely clean environments: No --84.159.169.175 01:32, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is it true?

I have been told many times that tieing hair back in a ponytail can be a method of prevention for headlice. I was wondering if anyone had any proof of this as I cannot see how it would be easier for a louse to jump onto someone's hair if it was not tied back, as opposed to it being down loose. Thanks.

It's true according to the NHS. No explanation though. http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=186&sectionId=3241 Dcminter 20:33, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

lice cant jump.

[edit] Larkspur link

What exactly does larkspur have to do with head lice? If there is no info link, then out goes the wiki liknk. --SigPig 18:23, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] In Popular Culture

Since other articles have lists of mentions in pop culture, how about the humorous mention of it in Scrubs, the christmas episode (can't remember which season), where after Dr. Cox switches a tape of a childbirth to one that has hair, and J.D. and Dr. Cox say that they shaved the baby because of the recent outbreak of prenatal lice -- it'd be a good mention :-) 68.84.23.105 19:55, 17 November 2006 (UTC)