Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Yes, you can call me Montezuma. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Chuck's been a tad under the weather. Yes, he's been
Speaker 1: out green kool aid. Right, Yeah, it's been awful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: As most of you may know, we got back from
Speaker 1: our Guatemala trip and uh, apparently Montezuma's revenge can strike
Speaker 1: after you return. Yeah, because right when you got back
Speaker 1: in the airport. When I got back, I was like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe it didn't get sick and then boom
Speaker 1: the next day. Yeah, I was pretty vigilant about maintaining
Speaker 1: a water tight seal in my mouth when I was showering. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and being like a fat smoker, that's more difficult. And
Speaker 1: you'd think when you're washing your face or here. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that last night out that you
Speaker 1: declined to go on drinking rum on the rocks and
Speaker 1: that it was the ice in the bar. Dude, do
Speaker 1: you drink ice? I did. There's your problem, buddy. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was fun. That was worth it. I'd do it again.
Speaker 1: Jerry had the ice as well, and she's fine. Yeah, alright, okay,
Speaker 1: moving on. I'm just gonna come out and say it.
Speaker 1: My friend Mitch had scabies. I was gonna ask you
Speaker 1: why you picked this, and it knew there was some reason,
Speaker 1: and I was just praying that it wasn't you, it
Speaker 1: wasn't me. No, okay no. But after reading this, it
Speaker 1: turns out that the deep, deep shame that Mitch displays
Speaker 1: whenever he talks about the scabies uh is is maybe
Speaker 1: a bit misplaced. Yeah, it is not necessarily because he
Speaker 1: uh is gross and has poor hygiene or or promiscuous.
Speaker 1: Promiscuous he maybe those things. I don't know. No, he's not.
Speaker 1: But it has nothing to do with scabies, right, which
Speaker 1: sounds gross. They should change the name if they want
Speaker 1: to get out of that realm of grossness, they should
Speaker 1: not call it scaby. Well, they would have to change
Speaker 1: the name of the mt that creates the problem of scabies,
Speaker 1: the sarcoptis scabi. Yeah, that's where it comes from. But
Speaker 1: I mean, that's such a cool name that they're never
Speaker 1: going to change scabies. They may call it like um
Speaker 1: sex rash, right right, or dirty rash. They could call
Speaker 1: it one of those, but they'll probably stick with scabies instead. Right. So,
Speaker 1: my dirty dirty friend Mitch, Um, it turns out wasn't
Speaker 1: so dirty, and he's one of about three hundred million
Speaker 1: people annually who come down with scabies worldwide. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot more people than you would think. Yeah, because no
Speaker 1: one talks about it for reasons that we mentioned, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot of times equated with lice
Speaker 1: um and really, uh, when you catch scabies, you can
Speaker 1: be a very clean person because the might the sarcoptis scab.
Speaker 1: I Uh. What happens is the female burrows down into
Speaker 1: the skin and once she's down there, no soaper, water
Speaker 1: is gonna do anything. Yeah, you can do your what
Speaker 1: do you call it, the steel wool shower, soap and water,
Speaker 1: you can. You can do that till the cows come home,
Speaker 1: and you're still gonna have the females under your skin
Speaker 1: laying eggs and that's your scabies outbreak, buddy boom. So,
Speaker 1: the reason why scabies are so successful and infesting human
Speaker 1: beings is because once a female scaby enters your skin
Speaker 1: and digs down. And by the way, I strongly recommend
Speaker 1: going on the site to read this article, if not
Speaker 1: for the first image alone. Yeah, the little model of
Speaker 1: the scab, big, full color grossness. So the female scaby
Speaker 1: burrows into your skin, uh and begins to lay eggs
Speaker 1: and um, the eggs actually mature, they reach sexual maturity
Speaker 1: within like fourteen days, and so they start doing the
Speaker 1: same thing. So all it takes is one female scabies
Speaker 1: might uh to create an infestation under your skin. Problem
Speaker 1: is you don't really notice for up to a couple
Speaker 1: of months, usually a couple of weeks after the first
Speaker 1: one gets into your skin. Yeah, that's where you really
Speaker 1: get in trouble because not only can it really be
Speaker 1: manifesting itself in your own skin, but you can be
Speaker 1: spreading it to your family, anyone that's in contact with
Speaker 1: you sexual partners obviously, right, Yeah, because it takes prolonged
Speaker 1: close contact. Um. And that can be through spending the
Speaker 1: night with somebody. It can be through sharing a towel
Speaker 1: with somebody betting. Um, you shouldn't be sharing anyway, no reason.
Speaker 1: Another one is, if you like bart, Let's say, I
Speaker 1: want to borrow your one of your nice sweaters or
Speaker 1: your fancy socks that you wear. Which one's we all
Speaker 1: all your socks are fancy, my sock Ninja socks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: sock Ninja socks. You wouldn't have to borrow that because
Speaker 1: the very magnanimous owner of sock Ninja sent us both
Speaker 1: some socks. Sney, that's right. But if we were to
Speaker 1: share clothing, which we don't do, then I could pick
Speaker 1: up your scabies sure and be itching like crazy. Yes,
Speaker 1: there a couple of weeks. You know. The itching is
Speaker 1: from I do, but it has a reaction from the uh,
Speaker 1: the might and their feces. That's really gross because I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're a mite, you gotta poop somewhere, and if
Speaker 1: you're burrowed under somebody's skin, that's where you're gonna poop. Yep.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you have an allergic reaction to that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's the biggest um symptom that you're gonna know
Speaker 1: that you have scabies is um a rash, big time itching. Right,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have like kind of a pimplee like reddish
Speaker 1: bump area that forms like a larger rash. But each
Speaker 1: one of those bumps generally represents a MT. Yes, the
Speaker 1: average adolescent who has scabies has about eleven and they
Speaker 1: could be mistaken for other things like mosquito bites. That's
Speaker 1: why they're misdiagnosed sometimes too. You know what the dead
Speaker 1: giveaway is for scabies though, what's that? Well, there's two
Speaker 1: of them. Um. Sometimes there's a trail along your skin
Speaker 1: that actually is represents the burrow that the female might
Speaker 1: has dug into you. The one real to giveaway is
Speaker 1: that your itching gets worse at night. Yes, scabies are photophobic.
Speaker 1: They don't like the light, and so once the sun
Speaker 1: goes down and the lights go out, they really become
Speaker 1: most active. So if you have like a little pimple
Speaker 1: rash that it's just like crazy. But really it's is
Speaker 1: at night. My friends, you have scabies, yes, and if
Speaker 1: it's on your wrist, we should talk about where you
Speaker 1: can get it anywhere on your body, but for adults
Speaker 1: the wrist is most common, and then the elbow, armpit, waste, buttocks,
Speaker 1: between the fingers, and then the penis and the nipples.
Speaker 1: Penis scabies have to be the worst. Yeah, I can't imagine,
Speaker 1: That's all I have to say. I just can't imagine well,
Speaker 1: kids actually chuck get scabies in slightly different areas. Um,
Speaker 1: like you said adults, you listed off the adults with kids. Um,
Speaker 1: it's common in the scalp area, the face, neck, palms,
Speaker 1: face scabies penis gabies, which is worse. Mm hmm that
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want either face gabies. Obviously people are gonna
Speaker 1: see so it might cause some embarrassment. I put all
Speaker 1: of my money on penis gabies being worse. I'm done
Speaker 1: with that, Chuck, Josh. Crusted scabies, Is that where you're going? Yes,
Speaker 1: crusted scabies oka a Norwegian scabies. Yeah, I wonder where
Speaker 1: makes you wonder what the hell is going on with
Speaker 1: the Norwegians? Know they aren't a common which is a
Speaker 1: good thing because it's infinitely more gross. I think it's
Speaker 1: very severe and it's identified by thick crusts over the skin.
Speaker 1: And each of these crusts can contain millions of the
Speaker 1: mites scaping mites. Right, Remember we said the adolescent average
Speaker 1: adolescent with scabies has about eleven females gaby mites. If
Speaker 1: you have Norwegian scabies, you have, like you said, millions
Speaker 1: under skin, You're in big trouble. You're highly highly contagious,
Speaker 1: but they may not itch. No, and that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why you you you don't get the scabies
Speaker 1: wratch from what I took from the article. Um, you
Speaker 1: get the scabies rash in large part from scratching, like
Speaker 1: from scratching your skin over and over again. Um, and
Speaker 1: you you don't get that rash. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why people who get Norwegian scabies don't have that
Speaker 1: kind of rash and inst they get scaly skin is
Speaker 1: because it infects people in large part who can't itch physically,
Speaker 1: like the paralyze, the paraplegic. Can you imagine though, like
Speaker 1: and not being able to But would you have sensation? No,
Speaker 1: that's a good question. Someone will probably right in and
Speaker 1: tell us, so, chuck. One of the reasons why scabies
Speaker 1: are so insidious, you might say, is because they spread
Speaker 1: fairly easily, and because the moment that female scaby starts
Speaker 1: laying eggs, you are contagious. So um, even if you
Speaker 1: don't know it right right, because like we said it,
Speaker 1: it can take weeks and up to a couple of
Speaker 1: months for the symptoms of first appier. But the whole
Speaker 1: time you're being infested and infested and invested right, Um,
Speaker 1: but you're still contagious and it spreads fairly easily. So
Speaker 1: places where people live in close quarters, prisons, nursing homes,
Speaker 1: institutions for the criminally insane, um, shutter island, right, they
Speaker 1: they can have scabies outbreaks fairly easily. Yeah, I think. So,
Speaker 1: what happens if you suddenly have a pimply rash on
Speaker 1: your penis that starts to it's really badly at night? Well,
Speaker 1: after you shriek and terrifying pain and shock and horror,
Speaker 1: you should go to a doctor obviously, first things first,
Speaker 1: and the doctor will most likely prescribe a scape aside
Speaker 1: prescription strength scape aside, and this is UM usually topical.
Speaker 1: It will be like a lotion. Let's say you gotta
Speaker 1: put all over your body, lay around for like six
Speaker 1: or eight hours with this lotion on your body and
Speaker 1: hopefully that'll clear it up. Yeah. There's the most readily
Speaker 1: prescribed um. Scape aside is called elamite or elamite, very
Speaker 1: clever um. There's another one called lyndane, and both of
Speaker 1: those are pharmaceutical topical scap sides, and both of them, yeah,
Speaker 1: you have to leave on for hours usually overnight and
Speaker 1: when you wake up you wash it off, and usually
Speaker 1: both are effective after one treatment. The horrible thing about
Speaker 1: scabies is the itching can continue for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks after, so you're still freaked out like it didn't work.
Speaker 1: It didn't work, so you really have to kind of
Speaker 1: white knuckle it after you cover yourself with your stuff
Speaker 1: and kind of hope that it worked. But well, you
Speaker 1: can do stuff about the itching too, though, and we
Speaker 1: should point out that like calamine lotion and these things
Speaker 1: that you would get for like poison ivy or something
Speaker 1: that will help the itch, but that doesn't do anything
Speaker 1: to eradicate the scabies. No, you need to one to
Speaker 1: punch it. Same with cool baths. That's h prescribed to
Speaker 1: help believe ate the horrible, horrible itching. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not going to do anything to eliminate the scabies.
Speaker 1: So you've got a couple of pharmaceutical options. What's more, UM,
Speaker 1: since it is very easy to spread, you shouldn't be
Speaker 1: the only one with the lindane or illimite. All of
Speaker 1: your family members should do the same treatment. Your betting
Speaker 1: should be dusting gasoline and set on fire. At the
Speaker 1: very least has to be washed on the hottest setting. Yeah, sanitize.
Speaker 1: We have a sanitize setting on that we use quite
Speaker 1: a bit at our house. Yeah, well, not for scab
Speaker 1: kills anything. We have animals, you know, they'll pee on something,
Speaker 1: so we'll wash it on yeah yeah. Um, and you
Speaker 1: can also take it to a dry cleaner. And when
Speaker 1: I read that line in this article, I started to think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Dry cleaners actually have fairly dangerous jobs, like
Speaker 1: the stuff that gets brought to them. That if you're
Speaker 1: bringing your scabies infected clothes, scabies infested clothes to your
Speaker 1: dry cleaner, what else is some other guy bringing to him?
Speaker 1: You know? I know, wow, Yeah, I never thought about that.
Speaker 1: So you've got your family unlockdown, everybody's covered in ointment,
Speaker 1: the bed is on fire in the back um at
Speaker 1: the very least, it's unsanitized, and in the laundry um.
Speaker 1: And you realize, you know what, I'm not really the
Speaker 1: kind to use highly toxic pharmaceutical ointments. What options this
Speaker 1: person like me have? Josh, there are a couple of options. Um.
Speaker 1: There is something called the name tree native to India,
Speaker 1: and extract. It's a paste made from extract from that tree,
Speaker 1: and in studies and this isn't just a little you
Speaker 1: know all shucks. Home Remedy actually have done studies and
Speaker 1: found that it's n effective and it's not toxic. So
Speaker 1: that's a good option. Yeah, a little a little closer
Speaker 1: to home t tree oil. Yeah, well that's the one
Speaker 1: that we have that in our house. We use had
Speaker 1: a lot. That's a great um, anti fungal, antibiotic, anti bacteria.
Speaker 1: It's it's good for a lot of stuff, right, But
Speaker 1: if you're going to use it in some sort of ointment,
Speaker 1: you want to dilute, dilute, dilute, as adherents of doctor
Speaker 1: Brauner are familiar with um, because it will burn your skin. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to be real careful with that. Actually, the
Speaker 1: stuff we use, I didn't think it was too diluted.
Speaker 1: It's strong, right, you want to dilute it yourself. What
Speaker 1: we don't do? You rub it on your skin like
Speaker 1: in large portions, not large portions, like I'll have like
Speaker 1: a pimple and Emily will put like some tea tree
Speaker 1: on it. Let's try it out or something. So just
Speaker 1: like a little little dabble, do you as they say,
Speaker 1: you can also use sulfur. Yeah, I saw that sulfur ointment,
Speaker 1: that that's good for treating kids if you don't want
Speaker 1: to slather your kids in the toxic chemicals. Another study
Speaker 1: found that, um, the sulfur ointment was just as effective
Speaker 1: in treating children with scabies as the prescribed ointments. So
Speaker 1: it does work. But yeah, most of the other folk
Speaker 1: remedies out there aren't going to do anything but alleviate itching, right, well,
Speaker 1: which is good. Oh yeah, you want that too, but
Speaker 1: you also want to get rid of the scabies infestation.
Speaker 1: So um, chuck josh true or false. Scabies strikes all
Speaker 1: races indiscriminately true. False. Really, for some reason that no
Speaker 1: one knows yet, African Americans are not nearly susceptible to
Speaker 1: scabies as everybody else. Well, good for them, isn't they cool?
Speaker 1: So that's one less thing to worry about. Well, that's good, chuck,
Speaker 1: true or false. Chiggers and scabies are the same thing, faults.
Speaker 1: Chiggers are different. But they also well, no, they don't
Speaker 1: burrow under the skin. That is a falsehood people think
Speaker 1: they do. They actually feed on top of the skin,
Speaker 1: but they do dig into the skin, inject you with
Speaker 1: something to kill your tissue and necrotic enzyme and yeah,
Speaker 1: basically they vomit that on your skin to kill the tissue,
Speaker 1: and then they feed on that tissue. And I've had
Speaker 1: everyone said chiggers. If you've been like to the beach,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I have before. Yeah, you probably have.
Speaker 1: If you can, like camping in the woods, you probably
Speaker 1: had checkers. Yeah, well they got a bitch and feeding process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gross. And they itch like crazy too. How many
Speaker 1: people out there are scratching right now? Did you notice
Speaker 1: that when you were reading the article? Did you itch
Speaker 1: a little bit? I'm itching right now. It's like the
Speaker 1: contagious yawning one, right, yeah, contagious itching? Um, and then
Speaker 1: chuck true or false fault? Right? Yeah? Scabies means you're
Speaker 1: a dirty person. Oh faults? Yeah, of course not. Okay,
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're promiscuous, no, mitch. Although they do point
Speaker 1: out that intercourse is a common way because that means
Speaker 1: prolonged physical physical contact. Well put chuck, very tidy, thank you.
Speaker 1: Also it means, in a lot of cases, if you're
Speaker 1: not just some jerk, uh, that you are sharing the
Speaker 1: bed together too, And betting, as we've seen, is one
Speaker 1: way that you can get scabies. And maybe sharing a towel.
Speaker 1: Maybe so if it's like a sexy next morning as well,
Speaker 1: or if you're a very clean person afterwards. Um, so
Speaker 1: that's scabies. I guess right. Yeah, when was this? He's
Speaker 1: gonna murder me by the way for this recently? No,
Speaker 1: it was a while ago. Then he's all good, Yeah
Speaker 1: he's fine. Now did he get a scape aside? I'm
Speaker 1: sure he did. He's a Yeah, he's a clean guy. Right,
Speaker 1: he's not dirty in any other way either. Good as
Speaker 1: far as I know. Um, and yeah he's Does he
Speaker 1: know where he caught it? No, he won't admit to
Speaker 1: knowing where he got We're gonna get emails from people
Speaker 1: that are gonna say, you know what, I had scabies
Speaker 1: and don't tell anyone. But I hope, I hope chuck
Speaker 1: through this. We've gotten the point across that if you've
Speaker 1: had scabies, don't be ashamed. If you know somebody who's
Speaker 1: had scabies, it's not that big of a deal. I
Speaker 1: don't see a doctor because that's one reason it can
Speaker 1: get worse. It's because you're you're so ashamed you'll try
Speaker 1: to like knock it out at home without going to
Speaker 1: get the scape aside, so just suck it up. Doctors
Speaker 1: have seen it all. They definitely have one in a
Speaker 1: million shots yet exactly. Yeah, Well, if you have more
Speaker 1: questions about scabies or you want to see a truly
Speaker 1: truly cool picture type in scabies in the handy search
Speaker 1: bart how stuff works dot com. Since I just said that, everybody,
Speaker 1: you know, it means it's time for listener mil Yes
Speaker 1: it is Josh. And before I read this, I do
Speaker 1: want to say quickly so the emails will stop. We
Speaker 1: or have been schooled, and we know now that Amish
Speaker 1: people love their Walmart. Everybody knows that. We didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Apparently in in theory, there's no Amish in Georgia. In theory,
Speaker 1: the Amish want to support the mom and pop that
Speaker 1: is within their their mindset. But apparently they dig the Walmart,
Speaker 1: because hundreds of people have written in and apparently in
Speaker 1: Lancaster we've also reor corrected on how to pronounce that
Speaker 1: they they have buggy sheds at the Walmart in the
Speaker 1: in the shade where they can tie up their buggies
Speaker 1: and so the horses can can relax. It's nice for
Speaker 1: the horses. And they said that they're in there with
Speaker 1: the digital cameras, like looking at them and have you
Speaker 1: seen the moose playing in the sprinkler? Is that code
Speaker 1: for something? No, it's so cute. Go on YouTube and
Speaker 1: type um baby moose playing in sprinkler or something like that.
Speaker 1: Somebody in the backyard just says they're sprinkler and these
Speaker 1: two baby moose are running through. It's really cute. It's
Speaker 1: crazy all right. On the listener mail, This is from
Speaker 1: Stephanie in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Yeah, not Autawa, Canada. Hi,
Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck and Jerry. I'm a regular listener of
Speaker 1: your awesome podcast and I just finished listening to the
Speaker 1: podcast on brail. I am totally blind and have been
Speaker 1: using brail since the age of four. I thought you
Speaker 1: made a lot of good points and ask some really
Speaker 1: interesting questions. To answer one of those questions, brail you
Speaker 1: generally see in public places, that is, bathrooms, atm machines, etcetera,
Speaker 1: is contracted or grade two brail, at least here it
Speaker 1: is in Canada. Uh. In English Braille, there are no
Speaker 1: contractions for numbers, so they could be read by a
Speaker 1: user of any system. Despite the fact that grade two
Speaker 1: brail is more commonly seen. I think it is good
Speaker 1: to begin with grade one brail, especially for children, as
Speaker 1: it ensures that they will have the ability to spell
Speaker 1: later on. When using contracted brail, you don't spell out
Speaker 1: words full length and so wouldn't learn how they were
Speaker 1: spelled if it weren't for grade one brail. Another thing
Speaker 1: I thought was interesting was a lack of brail on
Speaker 1: the currency in the US. Here in Canada there is
Speaker 1: actually a brail system on the currency. We don't have
Speaker 1: the numbers, but a different number of full brail cells
Speaker 1: on each bill, so for example, the five has one
Speaker 1: full cell, the ten has two, et cetera. I have noticed, however,
Speaker 1: that despite the effort, the brail eventually becomes faded and unreadable.
Speaker 1: So brail currency it's a good idea in theory, but
Speaker 1: it only works in the short term and blind people
Speaker 1: are back to folding bills before too long. So thanks
Speaker 1: for the interesting insight. I look forward to listening to more.
Speaker 1: And that's from Stephanie. Thanks Stephanie. Insight from a blind
Speaker 1: person on the grade one or two or both debate, Um,
Speaker 1: if you have an exciting email for us about anything
Speaker 1: at all. I can't think of anything right now, right, Chuck?
Speaker 1: Can you anything itchy? Oh, that's a good one. If
Speaker 1: you have an email for us about anything itchy, why
Speaker 1: don't you wrap it up and shoot it over to
Speaker 1: stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, is it how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check
Speaker 1: out our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot com
Speaker 1: home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve camera. It's ready, are you