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Tag: infestation

  • Head Lice: Should Kids With Lice Be Allowed in School?

    Head Lice: Should Kids With Lice Be Allowed in School?

    Some parents are outraged at the news that some schools are relaxing their rules regarding head lice. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, head lice infects between 6 million and 12 million kids ages 3 to 11 per year. This number could go up, though, since some schools have decided to no longer send home lice notes and let kids with lice stay in class through the end of the day.

    Most of the time, when a teacher discovers a kid has lice, he is sent to the school nurse and the parents are called. The kid stays out of school for a couple of days–or however long it takes to get rid of the lice–and the teacher sends home a note alerting parents to check their child’s hair because of the infestation. Not only does this single out the kid with lice and embarrass them, it also costs them education time.

    School districts in several states–including Nevada and Texas–have decided to skip out on lice notes and refrain from sending kids home for a couple of reasons, but mainly to avoid embarrassing the kids infested with lice.

    “Lice is icky, but it’s not dangerous,” says Deborah Pontius, the school nurse for the Pershing County School District in Lovelock, Nevada. Pontius also says that kids infested with lice have probably had them for anywhere from 3 weeks to two months, which means he has already spread the lice–all the more reason to avoid embarrassing kids. “It gets out who had lice,” Pontius said, adding that since parents of younger kids should be checking their heads for lice weekly anyway, there is no real need to send home the lice notes.

    Lesslie Sanders, a school nurse in Savoy, Texas says that sending kids home for lice is unnecessary. “The kids are always missing too much school and it’s not a health hazard,” Sanders said. “We call the parents, we talk about the remedies, how to fix it, also how to help the kids not get embarrassed. It’s just not a big deal anymore. It’s mostly just a nuisance,” Sanders added.

    This new policy does not sit well with a lot of parents. “I’m appalled. I am just so disgusted,” said Theresa Rice, whose 8-year-old daughter has come home from her elementary school in Hamilton County, Tennessee, with lice three times this school year. “It’s just a terrible headache to have to deal with lice,” says Rice.

    Parent Cissy Pennelle isn’t a fan of the more relaxed policy, either. “Children bring that home and then it becomes a deal of people being able to afford stuff to take care of it as well as take care of stuff in their home–it is a health hazard,” Pennelle said.

    Do you agree with more relaxed rules regarding head lice? Respond below.

    For equal parts entertainment and educational value, check out the head lice cartoon below.

    [Image via YouTube]

  • Ice Cream Cone Warehouse Raided Over Rodent Problem

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this weekend announced that U.S. Marshals raided a food storage facility in Waynesboro, Virginia on September 16. The raid was conducted do to FDA inspectors finding “widespread” rodent and insect infestations at the location.

    Two companies, Gourmet Provisions and Royal Cup, used the premises to store food products. Gourmet Provisions manufacturers ice cream cones, branded as “Matt’s Supreme Cones.” Royal Cup provides coffee services and solutions, having clients such as Chick-Fil-A, Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Red Lobster, The Ritz-Carlton, and Waffle House. Products from both companies have been seized.

    “These companies have a responsibility for the safety and quality of their products,” said Melinda K. Plaisier, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs at the FDA. “When firms do not uphold this responsibility, the FDA will take actions that demonstrate its commitment to assuring consumers that foods they buy are prepared, packaged, and held under sanitary conditions.”

    The raid was conducted under warrants issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. The warrants were issued after an FDA inspection found the rodent and insect infestations, as well as “unclean equipment” and “structural defects.” The agency asserts that the facility did not take “effective measures” to get rid of the infestations or clean food contact surfaces.

  • 50,000 Bees in Home: Photojournalist Finds Enormous Hive in His House

    Finding 50,000 bees in your home sounds like something straight out of poorly-scripted nightmare, though apparently such an incident took place inside photojournalist Larry Chen’s California house not too long ago. Since Chen spends quite a bit of his time on the road, he wasn’t aware of just how extreme the problem had become. According to ABC News, Larry began to notice a lot of buzzing around one of his windows, prompting him to investigate the matter on his own. He’s obviously a much braver man than I.

    Upon returning home from an assignment, Chen decided to take action against the intruders. After searching through Craigslist for someone to remove the pests without murdering each and every one of them, the homeowner enlisted the services of aptly-named specialist Mike Bee, who arrived at Chen’s house armed with a host of humane tools and instruments. Although Larry expected to find some bees tucked away inside the walls, his estimate was a little off.

    “I’m not really terrified of the bees,” Chen explained. “I just remained calm, and I figured they wouldn’t bother me too much. I got stung once, but I was more curious about how big the hive actually was. I figured it was just a small clump of 1,000 or so.”

    After giving the house a thorough once-over, Chen and Mike Bee discovered that there were nearly 50,000 bees living inside the walls. The prolific little honey-makers were apparently entering the photojournalist’s humble abode through an unguarded ventilation pipe, giving them access to an area that was perfect for a hive.

    Using methods that would ensure that the majority of the bees would be removed instead of exterminated, Mike Bee set out to evict these unwanted house guests from Larry’s home. When all was said and done, two boxes containing 20,000 bees were filled, with several thousand estimated to have escaped their would-be captor’s clutches.