Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: Variola on 28/07/2010 22:16:59
-
Well Amazon delivered it! It is the RSPB Pocket Nature Wildlife of Britain, a nice sized colourful book packed with info on our most commonly found flora and fauna.
So what's the point of the post I hear you say?
Well whilst browsing through the insect section....I found it included pubic lice...... seriously.... [:o]
There is also an entry on head lice too.
It gives full colour photos and descriptions of the beasties too.... as well as habitat etc
British Wildlife??? Hmmmm [:-\] Who the heck would find one of these on their body and decide to consult a wildlife book? A medical book or internet would be the choice surely??!!!
I am not sure if a I surprised, shocked, baffled, bemused or anything else. [:-\]
-
Does it also give the eradication measures for the pubic lice? If not this is a method I am TOLD works. Having never been unfortunate enough to become acquainted with the wee beasties, I cannot vouch for its efficacy.
First buy a high alcoholic whiskey and acquire about 3 tablespoons of very fine sand. Then pour one half jigger of the whiskey over the affected area at 3 minute intervals for 15 minutes, making sure this is enough to entirely saturate the area. After the first 15 minute period begin adding sand with the whiskey. This may cause a slight bit of irritation as the sand moves around.
Eventually, depending on the populations numbers, the drunken pubic mites will kill each other of with the rocks provided when they are drunk and only one will be left. As you well know the original pubic lice came from the north part of the island, now Scotland, and are already some of the most sorry lot one can run across!
-
I can think of a possible reason for inclusion - although it is very tenuous.
This is a publication from a bird charity - when swallows/martins etc leave their nests in the autumn, all the mites and bugs will try and invade the house that the nest is built on. I speak from very bitter experience of waking with my entire bedroom full of lice and ticks that came in through a badly fitting window when the martins departed. I could have taken a little comfort from being able to look them up in a book and realise they were bird-infesting mites and not the human-infesting sort.
Matthew
-
Dodder is a parasitic plant; I'd expect to find it in a book about UK plants.
Pubic lice are parasitic animals; why not put them in a book about UK animals?
-
Dodder is a parasitic plant; I'd expect to find it in a book about UK plants.
Pubic lice are parasitic animals; why not put them in a book about UK animals?
Because they are not British Nature, in fact they only really affect gorillas and humans. Also the book is a pocket guide helping you to identify species.
-
Perhaps the Author was getting wildlife muddled up with having a wild life.
I once stood in a crowded hot concert hall waiting for a group to come on stage. We were all squashed up at the front of the stage, getting quite sweaty and hot when a voice pipes up from the gay man behind me. "Well if the group doesn't come on soon, my crabs are going to have their very own swimming pool." I guess he didn't need a book to identify them.