8,000 BC, Brazil. According to archaeologists, the world's oldest known head lice- actual
Lice have been parasitizing humans for millions of years and likely dispersed throughout the World with the human migrations out of Africa, so they can be good markers for studying human evolution.
Ancient Egyptians Were Plagued With Lice
Egyptians mummies and archaeological findings within tombs have been preserved since 3000 BC. Early mummified heads have been studied and found that they were literally crawling with lice. Some specimens had over 400 mummified lice on their heads.
You may never know where your case of lice came from, but it started when either a pregnant louse or two live bugs made their way to your human head through head-to-head contact with another human head hosting an active case. If you just have eggs, then there was at one time one pregnant louse on your head.
Medieval folklore suggests that lard was used to try and suffocate lice and nits off of a scalp. Others propose simply keeping the hair combed through and clean was of so little a priority that no one even bothered with lice.
“We've discovered the 'smoking louse' that reveals direct contact between two early species of humans,” probably in Asia about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago, says study leader Dale Clayton, a professor of biology at the University of Utah. “Kids today have head lice that evolved on two species of cavemen.
No, they have not become "extinct".
The 1600s – 1700s
In the 1600s, humans started trying different concoctions to rid themselves of the dreaded lice. Parents were told to give their children everything from tomato juice to a drink mix made of vinegar and cheese whey.
For centuries, archaeologists excavating soil in different locations around the world have found nits, lice, and/or combs on mummies or human remains with ages varying between 300 and 10,000 years (see reference6 for a review).
Kill head lice by washing infested articles in hot water (at least 140°F) and drying in a hot dryer. Items that cannot be laundered such as headgear, earphones, and bike helmets, can be placed in a plastic bag and put in a freezer. If the freezer is 5°F or lower, all lice and eggs should be dead within 10 hours.
Recent studies have shown the benefits of having lice. While it may sound ridiculous and unbelievable, there's scientific evidence that a certain kind of louse can be beneficial in reducing the chances of developing immune deficiencies.
In the middle ages, humans couldn't get away from lice. They were an unavoidable part of their life and lice didn't discriminate; they infected all parts of society from serfs to royals. People in the Middle Ages took lice to their grave as well. They lived a life of itch, itch, itch!
Ten infected lice are sufficient for plague transmission (4), and our observation that one third of infected lice remained alive 3 days after infection indicates that an index plague patient carrying as few as 30 body lice could be a source for plague up to 3 days after dying.
'46 The Army also established divisional baths to turn lice-ridden men into clean soldiers, with the aim being to wash every man at least once every 2 weeks.
The British also developed a combination of naphthalene, creosote, and iodoform made into a paste which could be applied to the seams of uniforms with a good result of eliminating lice in just a few hours.
Adult lice can live up to 30 days on a person's head. To live, adult lice need to feed on blood several times daily. Without blood meals, the louse will die within 1 to 2 days off the host. Life cycle image and information courtesy of DPDx.
To survive, adult head lice must feed on blood. An adult head louse can live about 30 days on a person's head but will die within one or two days if it falls off a person.
Washing, soaking, or drying items at a temperature greater than 130°F can kill both head lice and nits.
Genetic work on living lice had suggested they arose during the time of feathered dinosaurs, but fossil lice are few and far between. The tiny creatures are unlikely to fossilize, and even if they do they're hard to spot.
Scientists have used the DNA of lice to determine when humans first began to wear clothing. People put on clothes 170,000 years ago, concludes a new study that suggests our ancestors got dressed after the second-to-last Ice Age.
The closest living relative of the human louse Pediculus humanus is found on chimpanzees. Like chimpanzees and humans, these lice shared a common ancestor about 6 million years ago, and the head lice that live on humans today have been with us for a long time.
2. Blond hair was the colour of choice in Viking culture, so they would use strong soap to bleach their hair and beards blond. This also had the added benefit of eliminating head lice!
They tried to treat them by rebalancing the four bodily humours with dietary modification, bloodletting and medicines. There is also evidence for special delousing combs to strip head lice from the hair, and delousing may have been a daily routine for many people living across the Roman Empire.
Untreated head lice may degrade the scalp and affects it health and that of the hair. If the follicles become blocked, then hair loss may occur. It is hard to have well-conditioned hair if it is covered in head lice eggs, lice and bacteria.