Pamela McDowell

It’s not often a book makes me itchy.  In fact, it’s only happened twice.  I knew I was in for a bit of discomfort when I began researching material for a book about lice.  Yech.  In some ways, lice are amazing critters.  They can be found all over the world – even in Antarctica – and archeologists have even found evidence of lice on mummies in Egypt.  But I had to dig into the details of the life of lice for this book.  I learned, for example, that Anoplura lice suck blood, while Mallophaga lice chew or bite.  That sent my fingers straight to my scalp.  Even now, as I look through my notes, I’m scratching.  The research was creepy, but the photos in the published book are ghastly.  In a good way, I guess.  The louse can’t help being a creepy critter, particularly when magnified several thousand times!

I finished Bugs that Bite: Lice, and moved on to Dirty Jobs: Exterminator.  That makes a weird sort of sense, I guess.  Of course, research for this book led me to all kinds of bugs that infest our homes – fun ones like bed bugs and cockroaches – as well as critters like mice, raccoons, and snakes.  Did you know a mouse can fit through a hole the size of a dime?  That’s less than two centimetres wide!  And some roaches can have 30,000 young in one year!  Professionals trap, poison, and fumigate these pests on a monthly basis in some places of North America, but the cold temperatures where I live keep most of these creepy critters in check – and I really appreciate that now!