U. scientists create 'Louse Buster'

New machine uses heat to get rid of head lice

In about a year, a teacher who finds head lice on a child may be able to send her to the school clinic for a 30-second treatment of hair heating and drying — safely blowing those lice right out of her hair.

More and more kids are catching head lice at school. Once an infestation is detected, students often are banned from returning until the bugs are gone. Parents may spend $50 or $60 on chemical treatments, and doctors may have to step in.

The "Louse Buster" was described Wednesday by Dale Clayton, University of Utah biology professor, during the regular Science at Breakfast lecture. Although the nasty little bug has been around longer than humans, he said, it finally may have met its match.

Smack it with the right combination of heat and drying, and it's bye-bye louse!

Clayton's lecture came one day after news hit about a research project by a team of U. researchers, including himself, and scientists elsewhere into the history of head lice.

The new evidence shows that modern people interacted with a group of earlier humans in Asia, possibly Homo erectus, and acquired a separate distinctive line of lice through close contact with them. That's in addition to the type of lice the moderns already carried.

Homo erectus disappeared after running into modern people, Homo sapiens. "This is not good," he quipped. "We are not a very nice species."

As surprising as lice genetics are, the "Louse Buster" may have much stronger impacts.

As the researchers delved into the history of head lice, they also found out more about the creatures' biology and habits. They learned that the parasite needs a particular range of heat and humidity, that it glues its eggs to hair folliculus, and that outbreaks are much more common in children.

"It wasn't a problem when I was in school because I think the chemicals were working," Clayton said.

Apparently girls are more likely to catch head lice from each other than are boys or adults. That is because of the way girls play on the playground, sitting in a circle, heads together to play and incidentally "transmit lice like crazy," Clayton said.

About 95 percent of the calls his team has had about treatments concern girls.

"Head lice are a huge and growing problem worldwide," he added. In the Salt Lake vicinity, a bottle of head lice shampoo sells for $13 to $15 and may not be effective, he said.

Lice have evolved resistance to the neurotoxins in the specialty shampoos, much as some microbes have become super-bugs able to resist certain antibiotics.

Also, shampoos don't kill lice eggs, so repeated treatments are needed. Some doctors prescribe a dangerous chemical that has been known to send some children into comas, he said. An effective alternative is to make children shave their heads, but kids resist that.

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