I feel itchy

The last 3 lectures in my parasitology class have covered ticks, mites, and lice, complete with up-close-and-personal pictures of these lovely critters. Fun!

Today we learned that, unlike ticks, most species of lice are pretty specific as to what kind of host they will parasitize. Example: lice species X might only parasitize rabbits, and if it lands on a cat, it won't do anything.

This piece of information segued into a slide displaying two enormous photos of human pubic lice, and a discussion of how some lice are even so specific that they'll only infest a particular region of the host's body (i.e. head lice only infect the human head, pubic lice only infect the human... well, you know).

And that led into a further explanation from our helpful professor of how, when somebody brings in their dog along with a jar containing a couple of lice that they claim they pulled off the dog, and you identify the dog as human pubic lice, you then immediately know something a little too personal about your client.

(By the way, although pubic lice only infest humans, it is actually possible to find pubic lice on your dog. As our professor pointed out, humans sleep on the bed. Dogs sleep on the bed. Sometimes lice crawl off of humans and go looking for another host. You can figure out the rest. "But no, ma'am, your dog did not give you these lice. I think you owe your dog an apology.")