Thanks for this post. I agree with Daisy that it gives me some hope of getting rid of these things.
A couple of comments, questions and suggestions....
I think there could be yet one other category of people who do/not get pins.
1. People that have them and are unaware they have them.
In my crash course on pin worms, I've read statistics that up to 50% of all North Americans have pins. If so, then most are unaware of having them.
I remember the feeling of something crawling out my butt 6 or 7 years ago. I thought it odd at the time but there are lots of unexplained twitches, twinges, tingly, creepy crawly sensations that were just explained away as 'all in my head' or muscles jumping. Now I think that I've had pins most if not all of my life but just became aware of them after using a zapper on my belly 24/7 for 2 weeks. I felt them moving around a lot and then became allergic to them. I wonder if it's possible that we are unaware and have few or no symptoms until we get overloaded and our body reacts to them.
My partner will not believe that he could possibly have them and so the only way to be sure is to sneak up on him when he's sleeping a look at his butt! I don't know if this will even work because I've had an awful time trying to see them on myself but it's worth a try and it could be good for a laugh or two!
2. From what I've read, the female pins come out to lay eggs because the eggs need oxygen to become viable. IF this is true, and I'm not saying anything I've read is true for sure, then the eggs could not hatch inside the body. What an awful thought! Each of these females lay 10-20,000 eggs a day so if all these eggs hatched I'd be more worms than human! Ugh! But I have heard of pockets of eggs in the bowels.
3. Wormwood can be quite toxic can't it? It seems that a little Vermox would be a lot less toxic than all that Wormwood .
4. Rather than shower several times a day, I wash the area using a jug of warm water and wash rather than use toilet paper. I wear a disposable glove as added precaution.
5. There is nothing that I know of for sure that will kill the eggs but a steamer MAY help. The CDC never did get back to me on that question but I've read that heat is the only thing to kill them. I also spray the toilet seat with water-Vodka often during the day (which will not kill the eggs) and wipe it with a paper towel to pick them up and throw them out.
6. I not only have them coming out my butt but also my vagina and urethra. So, unfortunately, I will likely have to use something systemic to get rid of those. I've tried everything I can think of to try to stop them from coming out but have only had limited success with one or two things. They quickly adjust and have crawled thru everything I've thrown at them so far.
7. Do pins sting anyone else? When I was having an allergic reaction to them, my poor butt had swellings like mosquito bites and was so raw that the area was oozing lymph. Even tho I have the allergies under control, I still often feel them sting.
PS - Daisy! I just read one of your old posts that said you had a colonoscopy....so did I!! It would have been about 5 months before I became aware of the little BUGgers! I wonder if there is anything in common here? Seems to be a likely place to pick these things up!...hhmmm...