The truth about head lice…

In order to successfully treat and eradicate head lice from your life, you first need to separate fact from myth. Below you will find the most important steps to take to treat your home and head for lice, as well as some interesting head lice facts and myths.

Separating Fact from Fiction

• Head lice are not living in your home, on your furniture or in your bedding. Without blood from your head, head lice can only live 24-48 hours. They need your head to live, colonize and lay eggs.
• Head lice are small and wingless insects
• Head lice do not fly or jump.  They are only passed through direct contact.
• A female adult louse can lay 3-8 eggs per day.
• Nits (head lice eggs) take 7-10 days to hatch and 7-10 days to become an adult louse, at which point they can start laying eggs themselves.
• Nits are attached firmly to the hair shaft like glue, and always oval in shape.

 Taking Care of your Home

• Place items that have been in contact with head lice in a dryer on high heat for 25-30 minutes  (e.g. bedding, pillows, recent clothing).
• Vacuum items that can not be dried.
• Items that can not be dried or vacuumed should be set aside for 48 hours.
• Focus more on removing the lice and nits from the head, rather than the environment.
• Never spray your house or furniture with harmful pesticides
• Items do not need to be bagged up and put aside for weeks at a time.  Remember, head lice can only live for 24-48 hours without a human blood source.

 Taking Care of your Head 

• To succeed in eliminating a head lice infestation, remove all lice and nits from the hair using a special lice comb.
• No matter what you read, no product or shampoo kills the eggs (nits).  Manual removal is the only guaranteed way to ensure head lice is gone and stays gone.
• Split the hair into sections, using clips as demonstrated by Louse Calls.
• Check head each day with special lice comb until no nits are found for 3 days.
• It is normal to find a few nits for several days.  Keep combing.
• Wash your clothes and your child’s clothes thoroughly after nitpicking