It is hard to check ones own head for lice. Hard also to ask a complete stranger to do this for you, especially on the bus. But the desire to know can be strong, especially after a long bus ride when your seatmate asked you to check if he had lice and you did and he did.

BUNGCO feels your itch. Introducing the Lice? Home test kit! This home kit uses an ELISA test similar to that used for pregnancy tests and other home kits. It detects louse protein present in the louse dung which you might have peppering your scalp. Simply rinse your head in the provided rinse solution, pass thru the concentrator, and apply to the test area. After 5 minutes, a + means: yes! You do have lice! - means no lice.... today. Better stock a few more kits under the sink for later!

Now included in the test kit: $3 off BUNGCO Louse Preventative Shampoo! BLPS contains proprietary ingredients,herbs which might repel lice, and smells great. Not intended for treatment of lice.
-- bungston, Jul 24 2012

Head lice are mainly acquired by direct head-to-head contact with an infested person's hair. Neither able to fly nor jump, lice are also unlikely to wander far from their preferred habita http://www.nitcontrol.com/untitled1.html
Try not to go head to head on the bus... [normzone, Jul 24 2012]

That sounds like it would work. However, it was previously established on here that either nits or headlice fluoresce under a Wood's Light.
-- nineteenthly, Jul 24 2012


Is that a UV light? Also, it doesn't necessarily solve the problem, because you still have to be able to see them, and they may be at the back of your head, or wearing small dark overcoats. Also, I'm pretty sure that dandruff fluoresces.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 24 2012


Bun for the first paragraph. Good stuff.
-- doctorremulac3, Jul 24 2012


Would it not be simpler to use an ultrasonic microphone? When pressed firmly to the scalp, it can pick up the high-frequency sounds made by head lice, which they emit in order to keep themselves spaced out evenly (thereby avoiding sapping the blood supply to any one part of the scalp). It should be possible to make such a transducer quite cheaply as an attachment for an iPhone; suitable software would then detect the presence of lice.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 24 2012


This whole thing is too gross for me.
-- blissmiss, Jul 24 2012


Surely it's necessary to remove the Sellotape from the hair before examining it?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 24 2012


Given the tenacity of both lice and nits, would this actually work, in the sense of working?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 24 2012


Repeated applications duct tape would probably work, in the sense of "work you over". Fire would also work.
-- bungston, Jul 24 2012



random, halfbakery