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LouseThis bug was found on an item of clothing (right before putting it on). It had somehow burrowed within the clothing material. Your help is much appreciated.
charlie
Hi Charlie,
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you have a Human Louse, probably Pediculus humanus. Hogue has something to say about this bane to humankind. “Like the bedbug, this menace to human beings is not as prevalent today as in the past because of improved public and personal hygiene. Yet it still pops up here and there, most often among school children and indigents, and it remains the lone true companion of the hobo. This is a sucking louse found only on humans, to whom it causes much discomfort in exchange for its meal of blood. Two forms are known: the head louse infests the hair of the scalp, and the body louse lives in clothing near the body surface. Both are small (1/16 to 3/16 in.) and oval, with pointed legs. Unfed individuals are flat and yellowish to medium brown in color; after injesting blood they are swollen and show a dark clot of blood in the abdomen. Bites of the Human Louse cause a slight local reaction accompanied by itching. … In the vernacular, the Human Louse is known as the ‘Cootie.’ Its eggs, which are firmly attached to the hairs of the head and body, are the familiar ‘nits.’”
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