muninnhuginn | For the last time... (Reply)

... we mention lice. But, since they have occupied our heads in more than one way for a couple of weeks now, we've amassed a certain amount of louse trivia. Share and share alike.

Pretty pictures, neat capsule information on life cycles and pesticides for head lice and much more can be found at Pied Piper Pest Control with our particular beasties here.

We also did a bit of linguistic research and found--unsurprisingly--the persistence of the problem: the OED's first citations for louse, lice and nit respectively are:

c725
c1000
c825

Inter alia, we found this interesting notion from Arbuthnot's Rules of Diet of 1732:

"It has always been believed that the immoderate use of them [sc. Figs] generates Lice."

And of course even the greatest of diarists wasn't left unmolested: 18 July 1664,

Thence to Westminster to my barber’s, to have my Periwigg he lately made me cleansed of its nits.

We've also rediscovered the joys of great but lousy poetry with Burns' To a Louse (a tad late for Burns' Night).

We'll silently, but tantalisingly, skip over. the ravens' very own Philip Pullman filk that includes the louse amongst a rather strange variety of beasties, great and small.

Et enfin, our watching of Starship Troopers on Sunday night (we weren't really watching and were actually concentrating on our (k)nitting!) was enlivened by the thought that a whole mini series could be created played out on a small system of human heads--and the consequent interplay of invading species. Our intrepid space infantrymen fight through follicular jungles hunted by protective lice guarding their unhatched offspring. Caught in deserts of dandruff, they make a final stand at the edge of a patch of ringworm....

Add a pet or two and you get the futile invasions of cat fleas too.