In Lake Wobegon, all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average — including the lice on our heads, apparently: A recent study reported that Minnesota is one of 25 states where lice show resistance to common treatments.

The report on the so-called “super lice” had us, um, scratching our heads.

We called Gonne Asser — the Minnesota Lice Lady — to get more information.

“All the states were contacted to provide lice samples and we were part of that study, which was super exciting,” says Asser, who operates delousing salons in Edina and Apple Valley (with a third location in Northfield opening soon). “We sent out many, many vials.”

The sampling, led by University of Southern Illinois University researcher Kyong Yoon, led to a report that warned that some lice have grown resistant to over-the-counter treatments still widely recommended by doctors and schools.

“We are the first group to collect lice samples from a large number of populations across the U.S.,” said Yoon in a statement released in August before the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Boston. “What we found was that 104 out of the 109 lice populations we tested had high levels of gene mutations, which have been linked to pyrethroids.”

Pyrethroids, according to the American Chemical Society, are a family of insecticides used widely indoors and outdoors to control mosquitoes and other insects. It contains permethrin, the active ingredient in some of the most common lice treatments sold at drug stores.

We could not find any note of this study on the Minnesota Department of Health’s page about head lice. When we inquired, a spokesman replied:

“We’re not sure how often treatment-resistant head lice occur in Minnesota so our treatment recommendations remain the same for now,” he said. “What we model our recommendations after are the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics — and we link to them off our website: If you go to Minnesota Department of Health (website) and search for head lice, we link to an American Academy of Pediatrics page and want to make sure we’re consistent with that. Even though treatment-resistant lice are being found in various parts of the U.S., oftentimes starting with available over-the-counter treatments is a good way to start. We need more data on just how frequently this occurs.”

Anecdotally, at her salons, Asser can speak to the frequency of lice in general:

“We usually really slow down between January and April, but we have been inundated,” said Asser between clients this week. “Part of it is the good work of school nurses but part of it might also be the mild fall and winter — everybody is (mistakenly) afraid of catching lice from hats, but it’s the hats that cover the lice-infested heads. And kids haven’t had to wear their hats as much this fall or winter.”

A sign of climate change? Regardless, Asser never recommends dousing a child’s head in insecticides, either the over-the-counter or the prescription-strength varieties. Instead, she prefers her salon’s old-school technique: picking out the bugs and their eggs, one by one (she also says it is imperative to check the heads of the infected person’s family and friends.) Wearing hats, braids or hair products treated with peppermint or tea-tree oil also help prevent and repel lice.

“Lice have always been with us, they have found lice combs with the bones of the mummies in Egypt,” Asser said. “Prior to the use of chemicals, that’s just what you did — you picked them out. People used to know how to do this, but this is a skill we have forgotten.”