[John Chapman (OP)]

I have five kids (although some of them came as part of a package deal when I got together with my wife). Because of their age range, for a while we had kids at three different schools and so we were forever having trouble with nits. I remember one summer we had to treat the whole family four times.

If we had friends visit they would often ask what the chemical smell was and I would explain and, within minutes, they would start scratching. Honestly, it was like living within a Pavlovian experiment, and my wife and I would make bets on how long it would take visitors to start scratching.

But why should this happen?

After all, if you talk about the sky you don’t expect visitors to start seeing blue! If you talk about the sea at meal times your food doesn’t taste more salty! So why would talking about things crawling on you make you itch?

And has anyone experienced itching while reading this question?



Pass the tea tree oil, someone.
 

[John Chapman (OP)]

Here's one called Eric. He’s on his way to a party.

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Here’s the party in full swing…..

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And here’s some nit porn:

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Anyone itchy now?

[Don_1]

It's a psychological thing, it has that effect only on those (scratch) who are vulnerable (scratch, scratch). I am not such a (scratch) person, so (scratch, scratch, scratch) it will not have any (scratch) such (scratch, scratch) effect on me!!! (scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scra........

[Bored chemist]

"If we had friends visit they would often ask what the chemical smell was and I would explain and, within minutes, they would start scratching."
Did you check to see if they were scratching before you told them?