This is REALLY lousy!

Okay, so I thought we were progressing. I THOUGHT I'd found all the nits. I THOUGHT we were through with this. Then today I found 1 live louse on Natalie. Natalie found a live louse on Bethany. Phil found a live louse on his arm when he was on the couch, with Natalie next to him, whose hair had just been thoroughly treated & combed through with a lice comb. I found no more live ones on the girls, thankfully. And these 3 were different from what I saw before. The others were very skinny. This one was fat, so I assume it is a female. Um, not saying females are fatter, but a friend told me that the females are the rounder ones b/c they lay eggs.

Tonight I treated their hair with the very pricey Lice Away shampoo and Rosemary Repel conditioner. And I combed, and combed, and combed with the terminator nit free comb. I got one layer of Lice away on my head when it ran out. So, when I rinsed it out, I used some tea tree oil shampoo, followed by Rosemary Repel. I broke a tooth off the plastic lice comb trying to go through my hair! So, I must use the metal one from now on.

One of my very sweet online friends called me tonight to empathize. She's had to deal with lice several times. She is on a mission to tell people that lice is NOT caused by poor health habits, dirtiness, or anything of the like. Lice PREFER clean hair! If you are bored, here is one source of reading about lice: http://www.headlice.org/index.html For more, you can go to CDC's website & read here: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/lice/factsht_head_lice.htm

Did you know that headlice is actually called "Pediculosis?" In earlier times lice was said to carry typhoid fever. One article said that in times of war, lice was a far fiercer enemy than the sword.

My friend Beth (we call each other our online twin!) wrote the funniest Dr. Seuss style poem about our nits. I modified it a "tad" Beth!

Nits, nits, Nat has nits.
Nits here, nits there, nits around.
Everywhere.
No more nits on Nat, I say. Take those darn nits and get AWAY.....
Away, I say and don't come back.
Don't come back, cuz if you do.....
I'll flush you down with the...
Poo-Poo-Poo!

Poo-Poo-Poo, I say!
Take those darn nits and get
AWAY!!!!

Now I must add my own lines:

Get, get, get away lice!
You really aren't very nice.
We wash, and rinse, and comb, and pick.
Why can't you go live on a tick?

We sit on the couch in our cozy house
and LOOK, LOOK! I see a louse!
A louse I say, it must not stay!
Out, out you bugs! Go stick to a mouse!

Okay, that's all I got!

Did you know that washing bedding daily in very hot water is needed to fight the lice battle? Did you know that you can't do that when the washing machine starts leaking hot water all over the garage floor? One guess how we know this. So, rather than trimming trees tomorrow, I suspect my husband will be ripping apart a washing machine. I hope it is a simple fix & not the major job we had when the mice ate through our washing machine hoses. Thankfully the dryer is working, so I ran all the bedding through the dryer for quite some time to kill anything that dared stick to the bedding!

Good night!