12/08/2025
https://www.themonthly.com.au/february-2011/nation-reviewed/lousy-science
Interesting read. There is so little research coming directly out of Canada so I always dig deeper.
"Nevertheless, says Barker, for one brief moment in the twentieth century humans got the upper hand. Until the 1940s, lice in Anglo-Saxon populations were kept under control by the constant nit-picking of the family caretaker. Probably less than 5% of children carried infestations. After World War II powerful synthetic insecticides devastated many insect populations, including lice. Parents today who were born in the 1960s and early ’70s remember few lice in their childhood. Since then, lice have developed resistance to insecticides. They now infest up to 35% of 4–11 year old Australian schoolchildren once per year. Indeed, says Barker, “Australia may be the lice capital of the world.”
Lice infestations in Australia
