Louse Stories
Who needs the Duke of Wellington, when you have lice defending your homeland!
Maybe the general would have been better served by a microscope when he invaded Russia. Recent studies show that louse mediated typhus dealt a serious blow to Napoleon's Russian campaign!
Lice are helping us determine when we first got dressed and who our ancestors hung out with.
Clothing lice (aka, body lice) provide clues to when we first donned this unique "habitat". A study by the Reed lab at University of Florida supports a date of nearly 170,000 years ago! The story
We got crab lice from where!? Watch this Nova video to find out. Video
Thanks to evolution most head lice now have resistance to pyrethrin-based treatments, but hot air always works.
Like any organism, populations of head lice respond to natural selection in their environment.
It is much tougher to develop resistance to desiccation.