I've heard so many misconceptions about lice, I thought I had heard them all. That is, until I was working with a client and she was telling me all the helpful information her friend had shared with her about lice. "You have to be really careful because they hide in the seams of your clothes." Stymied by the mental image of a stealthy louse creeping into the seam of a shirt, I merely shot back, "That's one I've never heard before!" Anyone who knows anything about lice knows that they prefer people to things. Why? Because they can't do the two things they do (eat & reproduce) anywhere but on a human host.
Some of my favorite myths and misconceptions are that dogs and cats can get lice (they can't, lice are species specific), that lice jump from person to person (they don't...lice don't jump or fly, they only crawl), that head lice are a sign of poor hygiene (not true), and that lice infest your house (they don't, they get on things by accident not by design and they don't live more than 48 hours without a human host).
Got a question about lice fact vs. fiction? Tweet me, or drop me an email njlicelady@gmail.com.
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