I was checking out a website with a number of fecal facts (don’t worry, I was linked, I don’t seek out such sites on my own ;)) and came across these words on pinworms:
…
:eek:
That’s freakin’ disgusting! Not only do most of us have parasites, which I could perhaps accept, but you can catch the little buggers when they come out at night?! Say it ain’t so, please, someone. 
It is, indeed, so. Sorry to break it to you.
My daughter had 'em once and I took her to the doctor. He reviewed her symptoms and said it sounded like pinworms to him. I mentioned the Scotch tape test and he said, yes, it was a valid test, however, the cure for pinworms was two pills, taken a week apart and that the pills had no adverse effects. Thus, we should not put the kid through the embarassment of the test, just give her the pills. It worked. No more itchy butt.
It’s true.
P.S. They make great bait.
I don’t think it is true, however, that most people are infested with them. They usually get passed around amongst children, pinworm eggs being found in the soil. Occasionally others in the same family as an infected child will catch them but not most of the time.
Ok, somebody tell me how in the hell my wife, assuming that she’d do it in the first place, could possibly take off my underwear and touch my nether regions with some sticky scotch tape without waking me up and thus making all the little pin worms run for the safety of my ass? I have serious doubts that this could be accomplished without the aid of a large amount of Jack Daniels.
Am I the only one with a mental image of a bunch of pinworms lounging around my anus in a bunch of deckchairs? You know, reading the paper, smoking, generally having a good time. Then one of them screams, “TAAAAAAAAAPE!” and they all run for the safety of my ass?
No?
Um, I think you about summed the transmission/reinfection cycle up correctly. We’ve been through an infestation, brought home by one of the children. I’ve actually heard pinworms referred to as ‘ass lice’- in obvious reference to their transmission largely by schoolage children. If you’re not into going to the doctor and discussing the inhabitants of your colon (or your family’s colons), you can get a pinworm treatment OTC at most drug and discount stores called PINEX. It’s liquid, and tastes vile, but it works.
FaerieBeth
aaaaaaahahahhaha! oh god, you guys are always good for a laugh out loud!
Yes, the tape test is valid.
Interestingly, horses also get pinworms (a different species, Oxyuris equis), and you diagnose them in exactly the same way.
Sticky tape impressions are used to try and find lots of parasites (my favourite is Cheyletiella, common name: Walking Dandruff)
I wasn’t questioning the sticky tape method of collecting the sample, I was marvelling at the fact that somewhere out there is a group of parasitically challenged people who manage to sleep soundly enough not to be awakened by someone poking around their ass with or without scotch tape. Which begs the obvious question, how do the pinworms know when someone is asleep so that they can venture out with their deck chairs, stogies, newspapers and no doubt whatever passes for adult beverages inside a colon, and wait for the host to reach down and have a big ol’ scratch?
Ring
“Hello?”
“Hey, Jay, this is Phnord…”
“Uh, hi. Wazzup?”
“Well, I was readin’ this article on SDMB… you know, Straight Dope? Anyway, there’s this really interesting one and I was wondering if you’d do me a big favor…”
“Phnord, it’s 2 am. What is so important?”
“Er… it’s pretty important, yeah… look, just come over, and bring some duct tape. And some gloves.”
“What’s this all about? Straight dope? Tape? Hang on… which thread? Link me…”
:::waiting:::
click
“Hello? Hello? Jay? Hello?”
That’s the last I ever saw of him.
It’s amazing how heavily some kids sleep. My 3-yo can sleep right through her baby sister’s wailing (if and when she wakes up at night), and they share a room. DangerGirl could easily sleep through a pinworm test.
I’ve never heard of doing the Scotch tape thing, though; I’d always been told that just checking out your kid’s anus with a flashlight at night would provide visual confirmation–that is, there would be little white worms wiggling around. Ah, the joys of parenthood…
I’d like to thank all those who have posted to this…and let you know it’s completely impossible to explain to your co-workers what you’re reading on the Internet and why it’s so funny. Word of advice–you’ll sound completely insane and they won’t understand, not even if you send them the link.
Just remember, if you’re a hirsute type, don’t use duct tape.
I recall getting the Scotch tape test as a kid, and now as a “hirsute type” I know better than to attach tape to any part of my body.
I wonder why they only come out at night?
I suspect they come out at night because the host is relatively passive and insensate.
I have a question: If the life-cycle involves the ingestion of eggs, will an infestation run its course naturally if great care is taken to avoid ingestion and re-infection?
IIRC from Parasitology class, it has to do with the change in body temperature during sleep.
Whew…I misread Mangetout’s post and, at first, thought it read that the pinworms were “relatively passive.” I was envisioning aggressive pin worms such that you not only needed Scotch tape, but full body armor as well.
'Fess up - you’re really Gary Larson, right? 
Perhaps its them with the body armor, I mean, if they can survive the stomach acids, that can supposibily burn through plywood, they must have some kind of armor, eh?
Maybe when you pull that tape off, you get the worms, deck chairs, empty beer cans and little tiny suits of armor that they removed in preparation for their butt lounging.