The LouseBuster

Thankfully, not a problem for my kids (yet), but it's a real scourge in elementary schools.  Now Biologist Dale Clayton has invented the "Lousebuster" and written about it in the latest issue of Pediatrics. I wonder if you'd get similar results from a regular hair dryer?

Clayton studies birds and lice, but after moving to Salt Lake City from England in 1996 he found the air was too dry to keep lice alive on laboratory birds. He had to humidify rooms to keep the bugs alive.

If dry air could kill lice on birds, Clayton reasoned, it might do the same on humans. And the project became personal: His own kids had them.

Clayton found temperature wasn’t as important as the amount of air. The air in his device is cooler than a standard hair dryer.

Larada Sciences, a University of Utah company set to market the LouseBuster to schools and doctors, believes the device could be available within two years.

“The device itself will be definitely under $2,000, and hopefully under $1,000,” Larada president Randy Block said. “While that sounds like a lot, think about the average parent spending $40 or $50 for a treatment.”

Source: A lice treatment to blow problem away? - Children's Health - MSNBC.com