If your kid has reached a certain age, you've probably already been through it -- the Kindergarten or preschool lice scare, with its attendant lice checks, in which each child stands, head bowed, while a teacher, fully gloved, checks the young head for telltale bugs or nits, any sign of which mean a trip back home (or to the drug store, or to your local nit picker, if you're lucky enough to have one). Getting rid of lice can take more than one treatment, and if you're the one whose kid is being turned away at the school house door, you not only have to cope with the drudgery of laundry and combing, you also must endure the stares (and glares) of your fellow parents.
Everybody hates lice -- the only thing they hate more is the parents whose child brings lice back to the classroom after they've finally gotten rid of it.
But what if the lice check itself is letting lice come back in? It turns out that the familiar method of checking for lice -- parting dry hair and looking through it -- is less effective at seeing live lice than is combing through wet hair. Both methods are equally effective at seeing nits, the small white eggs lice leave behind, but since the live bugs are the most effective vector of transmitting lice from one child to another, a wet-hair check is what schools really need to do to keep their classrooms lice-free. How this could work logistically is beyond me -- would kids have to be brought to school freshly-showered? Would schools need to bring buckets of water outside to perform the check? -- but any new advantage in the age-old war on lice is a good thing in my book.
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