Sometimes
mother really does know best. A study in the UK has shown that the best way to eradicate head lice is to equip parents with a free “Bug Busting” kit that contains special combs and instructions on how to seek and destroy head lice just using regular shampoos and conditioners. Sure it’s more work, but it spares exposing your child to insecticides.
Would you rather use elbow grease instead of pesticides to keep your kids lice free? Leave a nit-picking comment and tell The Beauty Brains how you feel.
—Mid Brain
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{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
We just went through a round of lice.
Tried the poison shampoo and sprays and they did not work… so we went to the natural method and it was very effective.
Saturate the hair with olive oil that has a combo of essential oils put in. Tea Tree, Lavender, Citrus, Eucalyptus, and Rosemary. Geranium is also good, but we could not find it.
Put it on very thick and drippy, wrap the head in Press and Seal. Saran Wrap works but Press and Seal sticks together better. Leave it on for HOURS. It suffocates the little critters. They breathe through their skin,
Wash all clothes and bedding in Hot water. And thouroughly in a HOT dryer. ( I dry them in the dryer and the run them for another half hour to toast the little critters) Bag all other fabric/soft items for a full 2 weeks. If you cannot trust your hot water source (some laundries) then put a half a cup of bleach in the wash, and a cup or two of vinegar in the rinse.
ANd so, what about the couch and mattress?
Vinegar with the above mentioned essential oils. I put about 25 drops of each in about 6 ounces of vinegar. Spray everywhere you sleep, sit and roll.
The hatching cycle is about four days. I do the olive oil every three days for two weeks, Spray the vinegar twice a day, and do all laundry as above for two weeks.
Oh, and of course comb the nits and dead bugs out. THere are several good combs on the market. I like the metal teeth of the Rid combs, they have two in the pack, one for bugs and one for nits.
Went through the same thing here. The Lice shampoos no longer work. I used just tea tree oil though mixed in with regular shampoo, it worked great. That way, when you go through with the combs you don’t have to deal with pulling out live bugs…eww!
Anyone try the “Nuvo” method? Apparently a thick coat of Cetaphil will (eventually) do the trick?!!
Makes my head itch just to think of it.
lice need a blood meal every 8 hours so simply stripping the sheets, gather stuffed animals and pillows and leave tehm in a garage or outside overnight is enough. If hot water killed them, a good shower would be sufficient, no?
When my now 16 yr old dd would get lice in elementary school, I would change her sheets, put everything outside and cover the couch and her pillow with towels and put plain vegetable oil on her head, just enough to coat and comb through. A spray bottle worked well. Then with a fine tooth comb, I would comb out the nits and lice every few hours. We re-oiled am and pm until I no longer combed them out. This seemed to dissolve the glue because nits slid right off after a few days. The louse has developed to the point where their bodies are designed only to grasp a clean dry hair shaft so the oily made it too difficult for them to stay on. After a few days, I stopped adding oil and just kept combing and loosening nits. By day 8, her scalp would have absorbed the oil, her heair was gorgeous and shiny and lice/nit free, ready for the next infestation by someone whose mom simply washed them with Rid-X.
We didn’t have a problem with reinfestation by furniture and the towels were easily washed.
Lauri
When my two daughters had lice. It was hell. I kept washing their long, long hair with lice killing shampoo. I bought every steel tooth comb, even the electrical one! But it kept coming back, the school nurse checked every head at their school… they were the only ones ot have nits. So I’d wash, and wash, and wash. Finally I took them to our pedatrician, and we got a prescription only lice treatment. It worked, but it stunk like farm pesticides and it was also so flammable I couldn’t have the girls near a blow dryer with it in their hair. So the point of my lengthy anecdote is that I don’t know how well not using insecticides would work. Since my girls weren’t allowed back in school until all the bugs were gone and how damaging to their self-esteem having lice was; I would probably use the doctor prescribed pesticide again.
we have tried the nuvo method and it worked!
(if you are not familiar, the “nuvo” method is cetaphil, which is combed through the childs hair, and then blow-dried on. This is supposed to form a seal around any lice still on the head (we combed out a lot of them) and suffocate them.
http://nuvoforheadlice.com/
wash clothing, bedding, towels etc. but that’s about it. didn’t go crazy, and yes, it did work. The first time my daughter had lice a few years ago we tried the shampoos first, and they did NOTHING. battled the lice for months trying to get rid of them.
I also used dr. hauschkas neem hair oil (which is not specifically made for lice) –but neem oil is supposed to interrupt the life cycle of lice, and cause them to be unable to reproduce (beauty brains? any ideas on that?) what ever the case may be, it’s what eventually worked for us the first time to get rid of the lice, so I just used it in between the weekly cetaphil treatments. (and it smells good and makes hair really nice and soft & shiny)
Pesticides are unnecessary and very often ineffective. The best way to kill lice is to suffocate them. Yes ! They do breathe ! Water will not work, but oil will. Some folks use mayo, but i prefer a blend of olive, coconut, and mineral oils, w/ just a few drops of cinnamon oil. (for some reason this really makes them let go). Watch eyes, as cinn. Oil hurts them!!!
1. Apply oil. Thoroughly saturate hair.
2. Wrap hair in a plastic grocery bag, or (best) use saran wrap , then top w/ foil.(this causes the oil to heat, which will kill lice faster and more successfully.
3. Leave on head approx. 1 1/2-2 hours.
4. Comb dead lice from hair, and see how gross you really are(were)
Put papers down…slippery stuff
5. Rinse w/ white vinegar…a couple times. Cuts grease and helps nits release hold.
You will have to shampoo several times to cut grease, but compared to lice, greasy hair seems …nice !!
Note: nits also need oxygen to live, so each one has a hole in its end. The oil will block this hole, and nits will die..a bit slower than the bugs, hence the time to leave on.
You’re on the right track with oils, but how about adding enzymes too? One sure fire product is LiceKiller and it kills the lice in just 10 seconds. You can also learn how to protect your environment from re-infestation. If you need someone to talk to who can give you great advice and help over the phone, log on to http://www.headlicehotline.org – there are volunteers waiting to take your call.
I had a case of head lice around age 8 or 9 and my mom put mayonnaise on my head and wrapped it in saran wrap. It killed them overnight, and it made my hair super smooth. Of course, I can’t even smell mayonnaise without gagging now.
Well I had lice when I was 7 and my mom put olive oil on my head and they were gone. And my hair was shiny to so there is a plus
my mom would put mayo in my hair and put a plastic covered hair net on and when I woke up i got a shower and they were gone
A daily bath and a scalding rinse seems to work just fine for my hair when a lice comb detects lice. But maybe thats just me.
I Hope all the advice really works. My daughter currently has Vegtable oil on her head and it is wrapped in a bag. I have been fighting head lice for over a year now. Im at the end of my rope here, I have tried everything but the oil so Im really praying that it works. i’ll let you know how it goes.
I can relate. Our daughter suffered for months. We tried all of the insecticides over and over. They didn’t work. Washed everything, sprayed everything with no luck. We finally tried the vegetable oil. We really coated her hair with it, covered her head with a plastic bad, and left on for several hours. Then washed. They were gone. Going through it all is horrible.
My granddaughter has had lice for like 3 month we have tryed everything. I was wondering if lice will live on pot belly pigs. My granddaughter is the only one that get them Please Help i am in great need. Her scalp is just simple raw from all the shampooing