1. Many thanks to JeCaThRe for the Cetaphil suggestion. I treated all five kids on Saturday; haven't spotted any lice, either alive or dead, since Friday. I am girding my loins to repeat the treatment tomorrow. It takes a l-o-n-g time to get all five heads coated and combed out and blown dry.
2. I am continuing my efforts to smother any lice with the temerity to transgress upon my head. Every other night I saturate my scalp with olive oil. I use almost a cup, which is a whole lot of olive oil but I have a whole lot of hair. Then I cover my hair in plastic wrap and cover the plastic wrap with a towel, and head to bed. I had been thinking that I smelled like salad, and then my MIL brought me 30 pages of home remedies for lice -- one of which was a vinegar rinse. That could almost go on a restaurant menu: this salad features delicate tendrils lightly coated with olive oil. You'll enjoy the subtle vinegary tang and the faint crunch of exotic phthiraptera eggs.
3. ICK ICK ICK. Sorry. If I don't laugh I might cry, so I keep looking for the funny. I have been musing that I would probably rather have lice in my house than mice in my house. Lordy, do I hate mice. Isn't it weird that in this country we have two giant theme parks dedicated to animals that sneak into our homes and defecate in our food and run across our feet while we sit peacefully reading our email? (Not that I've been scarred for life or anything.) Imagine if Walt Disney had sketched a Rickey Louse instead of a Mickey Mouse. Annette Funicello could have had a cute little beanie with a pair of giant lice jutting out in lieu of ears. Am I a marketing genius or what?
4. It's interesting to me that lice have such a high ick factor when we don't lose our minds about, say, mosquitoes, which also suck our blood and make us itch. Or even fleas or ticks. I am grateful that I read the Aubrey-Maturin series this summer because I am certain I would have been more freaked out about the lice otherwise. At least I don't have any weevils in my biscuit. If you could pick your parasites, how would you rank them?
5. This post is making me itch.
6. Silver lining #1: Last Friday I was not laughing about any of this. I was hugely upset at the prospect of having things CRAWLING on my SCALP and I shuddered my way through my shower feeling grateful that I am too nearsighted to see anything that might or might not be falling off my head as I scrubbed and rinsed and scrubbed some more. I combed and combed and combed under the water, tugging out fistfuls of hair. I was feeling decidedly sorry for myself until I remembered St. Clare, cutting off all of her beautiful curls to embrace Lady Poverty. I resolved to get a grip but do you know what? All of these hot oil treatments have been good for my hair. It's all shiny and curly, and my hair is thick enough that you'd never miss the odd fistful. Go figure.
7. Silver lining #2: my friend around the corner offered to help me go through my hair with a nit comb. In the moment I was so busy wringing my hands that it didn't really register: she offered of her own free will to go strand by strand through my potentially lousy hair. I said no thank you, opting for the ignorance-is-bliss salad-head approach instead, but wow. That's a true friend.
Eek, this is more than anyone really wants to know about my hair. More quick takes here.
Ugh, the sellers of the house we own did NOT tell us about the mouse problem before we purchased it. After we moved in, we found a few mouse traps in the basement but didn't think anything of it.
And then, about a month later, the cats started leaving mousy "presents" in the living/dining room. They were always whole, and always dead, but I was totally grossed out by it. Mice! Hantavirus! Icky!
So we spent that entire fall caulking and ferretting out the little holes to the outside world. We thought we found them all, but then this summer, two more mice arrived. We were baffled.
Then, in August, we decided to sell the house. We cleaned out EVERYTHING, including this little under-the-stairs closet that we'd really never touched. The old owners had left carpet remnants in there. Guess where the mice were breeding and living? Oh it was awful.
Anyway, all that is to say: I concur with your opinion on both lice and mice.
Posted by: Ariella | September 04, 2009 at 05:28 PM
Lice are an awful thing to deal with, and on 5 kids! Yikes! I congratulate you heartily on your ability to even COPE. That is an interesting question about why lice are SO MUCH creepier than other similar parasites… maybe it's because they actually live and breed on your head, hidden in your hair, close to so many sensitive orifices? Mosquitos and fleas have a nice meal and hop off, and ticks don't generally attack in large numbers, but lice are numerous and set up housekeeping. YUCK.
Can you tell I've had them a few times? I'm dreading when it's my daughter's turn.
As for mice - also yuck. I moved into a new house this summer and there are mice here. Bold, brazen, clever mice who have been completely unfazed by my feeble and pathetic trapping attempts. I have recently acquired two kittens whose entire purpose in life (I fervently hope) is to run the little suckers out of my home!
Posted by: Maria | September 04, 2009 at 09:33 PM
Mice are yuck to me, too, but since we live in an NYC apartment building, you have to get used to a certain level of coexistence with pests, since they are pretty much ineradicable. We have a cat who keeps the mice at bay, and the roaches seem to be staying away right now too.
My personal horror: bedbugs. They are epidemic here right now. Shudder.
Posted by: electriclady | September 05, 2009 at 02:16 PM
Feeling for you!! My kids have had lice twice, so I know your pain. The second time was the week after we moved here, and I discovered them right after we spent a whole day with my first new friend in this town. At her house. I had to call her and tell her I'd probably passed lice along to her home and her six children. Ouch. We had driven cross country, a ten-day journey for me & the five kids, and I'm betting we picked them up somewhere along the way. :::shudder:::
I liked the LiceMeister comb (LOL, really) best of all the types of treatments we tried. The time commitment, as you said, is tremendous! Here's hoping you've conquered them for sure.
My head itches now!
Posted by: Lissa | September 07, 2009 at 09:07 AM
This whole subject squicks me out, not least because I'm convinced that we'll get lice now, just by association.
We have carpet beetle larvae at the moment, and they don't bite, but they do live under the bed and they eat yarn.
I'm with electriclady: it's the bedbugs that have me on edge these days. (Shudder)
Posted by: Jody | September 08, 2009 at 06:48 AM