A No-Panic Guide to Head Lice Treatment
Most sitcoms—from The Office to Modern Family—have tackled the prickly topic of lice infestations in at least one episode.
We’ve also seen our favorite celebrity moms—like Heidi Klum and Courtney Cox—speak out about their experiences with lice outbreaks in their homes. Jennifer Garner even shared a story on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon about going to a Hollywood party with lice treatment product in her hair (yikes!).
The point we’re trying to make is: everyone can get lice. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, where you live, or if you have a head full of hair, if you’re in close proximity with someone who’s infested with lice, there’s a very good chance that you’ll catch them.
We understand that the idea of hosting an insect colony on your head is icky, but there really is no need to panic. Think of lice infestations as a rite of passage; if you have young school kids, they’re bound to get them.
Luckily, after they’ve been infested a couple of times, kids learn to take precautionary measures that can prevent re-infestations.
Lice are only half the problem when it comes to lice infestations; dealing with nits is the harder part.
What are nits, you ask? Lice eggs!
As with other insects, female lice are bigger than their male counterparts. They can lay up to eight eggs a day and have a lifespan of 30 days. If you do the math, you’ll find that each female louse can lay up to 240 nits during her life!
Considering that a nit grows into an adult louse in just seven days after hatching, you can see how quickly lice multiply and spread from one head to another when given the chance.
It’s no wonder head lice infestations are so common.
So what it is that makes nits so difficult to remove? Why doesn’t hair combing do the trick?
Lice can survive for 48 hours without human blood, so they could be walking around your carpet before crawling back onto someone’s head and starting the cycle all over again.
To make sure you don’t have to call us back anytime soon, our team will thoroughly clean your house to ensure there are no lice crawling around, waiting for the opportunity to crawl onto your head.
Our team of lice removal technicians and cleaners will arrive at your home in unmarked cars. We can have your home cleaned and lice removed in just a couple of hours!
Lice Outbreaks In America
Lice outbreaks are incredibly more than common in the US. The CDC claims that there are between six to twelve million lice outbreaks across the country every year. These infestations are most commonly seen in kids in the 3–11 age group, and are more prominent in girls than boys because they tend to have longer hair. Fortunately, head lice don’t spread diseases, but they can be the cause of secondary bacterial infections.How Lice Cause Secondary Bacterial Infections
Lice infestations cause secondary bacterial infections in two main ways. Firstly, when the infestation is really bad, it causes severe itchiness, forcing children to scratch their scalps incessantly. The harder they scratch, the more likely they are to develop sores that can easily get infected. Secondly, the anti-lice products used to treat lice infestations often contain pesticides that can prove to be way too harsh for people with sensitive skin and scalps. The National Pesticide Information Center states that OTC anti-lice products should be avoided to prevent exposing children to toxic chemicals unnecessarily. Although the pesticides used in conventional anti-lice products are mild, they are still toxic—and they aren’t very effective. A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 found that combing the hair with a fine-tooth comb was a more efficient method of removing the critters than slathering toxic chemicals on a child’s head.Lice Have Developed Resistance to Pesticides
A recent study revealed that head lice have become resistant to the two main pesticides used in anti-lice shampoos, due to overexposure to these products. The same pesticides have been used in 98% of OTC anti-lice treatments since their invention. Overexposure to these pesticides has caused head lice to evolve into stronger, pesticide-resistant critters that are harder to remove from hair—they’ve been (un)lovingly referred to as super lice.Head Lice Removal Through Combing
Hair combing is a lice removal method that dates back to the ancient Egyptians. It involves massaging natural oils onto the head using a fine-tooth comb—from the roots to the tips of the hair. Any lice wandering around on the head get trapped in the comb’s teeth, so you can easily pull them out. Unlike OTC anti-lice products that require several applications before clearing out the lice completely, hair combing using a fine-tooth comb can remove all lice within a couple of hours—and without the gnarly side effects. Unfortunately, just removing lice from your hair isn’t enough—you need to remove the nits too!Nit-Picking
Lice are only half the problem when it comes to lice infestations; dealing with nits is the harder part.
What are nits, you ask? Lice eggs!
As with other insects, female lice are bigger than their male counterparts. They can lay up to eight eggs a day and have a lifespan of 30 days. If you do the math, you’ll find that each female louse can lay up to 240 nits during her life!
Considering that a nit grows into an adult louse in just seven days after hatching, you can see how quickly lice multiply and spread from one head to another when given the chance.
It’s no wonder head lice infestations are so common.
So what it is that makes nits so difficult to remove? Why doesn’t hair combing do the trick?
The Inconveniences Associated With Nit Removal
Human head lice have evolved through the centuries and have developed mechanisms that make them very difficult to eradicate. Lice nits aren’t your regular insect eggs. They can’t be blown away with a hairdryer, they can’t be washed off under the shower, and they can’t be trapped in a fine-tooth comb. Nits are coated with a sticky substance that allows then to latch onto hair strands. To keep them safe, female lice lay their eggs near the scalp, just a few millimeters away from the root; this is what makes nits so hard to remove. You can turn your hairdryer all the way up in an attempt to blow off the nits from your child’s head, but it just won’t work! You won’t have any luck with washing their hair with high-pressure water either. The only way to remove nits from your child’s head is to pick them out individually. This involves sticking your hands into their hair, parting it carefully with your fingers and thumbing through it meticulously. If you notice light-colored, dot-sized substances stuck to your child’s hair strands near the scalp, pull them out. You’ll need to pull the egg along the hair shaft to detach it at the tip. The longer the hair, the more difficult it will be to remove the nits. Removing the nits is essential for breaking the lice’s lifecycle. If you don’t remove the nits, combing the lice out is useless. It doesn’t make sense to remove a generation of adult lice and leave the eggs behind. If you want lice gone, call professional lice removal services near you to manually remove lice and their nits. Remember, the longer you take to eliminate lice, the worse your infestation will be. You don’t want to get to the point where the lice can be spotted by anyone standing next to you on the New York subway, or even worse—at work!How Professional Lice Removal Services Work
Professional lice removal services are the most convenient solution for lice infestations. Advocates for schools’ “No Lice, No Nits” policies state that professional lice removal services can exterminate infestations so fast that a child wouldn’t need to miss school at all. Some have even found that a child can be sent home or to lice treatment centers for removal, and then come back to school to complete the rest of the day.Lice Troopers—Lice Removal Services in New York
Lice Troopers has years of experience in providing professional lice removal services. We understand that the idea of picking pests from your child’s head may be gross to you, but we’re professionals! We aren’t fazed by extremely infested heads. Our team is trained to remove lice and nits from your child’s head while ensuring they’re comfortable throughout the process.Preventing Lice-Shaming One Kid At a Time
We know it can be embarrassing to find out from another parent that your child’s head is infested with lice. And it’s even more nerve-wracking when you catch it from them and are afraid someone may spot them crawling on your head. At Lice Troopers, all our technicians are trained to handle lice infestations with professionalism. You can count on us to make sure both you and your children are comfortable. There’s no need to feel embarrassed around us. Just sit back, relax, and let our technicians do the work. Depending on how severe your infestation is, we can have your head cleared in just a couple of hours! You have the option of booking an appointment at our lice treatment salon at Merrick in New York, or calling us for our in-home lice removal services.Lice Treatment Salon in Merrick, New York
We have a state-of-the-art lice treatment salon in Merrick, New York. In our lice treatment center, we use advanced technology to screen heads and comb out lice thoroughly. Once the lice are out, our technicians section the hair and start picking nits manually. We use technology to ensure we don’t leave a single louse or nit behind, so you can walk out of our salon, knowing that you’re completely lice-free. Our lice-treatment centers are well-lit, fully disinfected, and sanitized to keep you and your children safe. We’re here to make sure you’re as comfortable as possible throughout the process. We treat children and adults at our lice treatment centers. If you live in or near Merrick, NY, and have a lice problem, book an appointment at our lice treatment salon by giving us a call.In-Home Lice Removal Services
Don’t feel comfortable coming to our lice treatment salon? That’s fine, our team of technicians can come to you as well! We provide in-home lice removal services during which our technicians use pesticide free, non-toxic products on your hair before combing through it using a fine-tooth comb. Our pesticide free, non-toxic products are a much safer alternative compared to OTC anti-lice products, which contain dangerous, toxic pesticides that lice have become resistant to. The products we use aren’t designed to paralyze lice; they’re made to make lice removal easier. For example, our lice extraction comb is engineered to allow anyone to remove live from their children’s heads. And if you’re scared of a re-infestation, we offer a lice repellent product that will keep the critters at bay. The best part? It’s completely odorless, so your kids won’t complain! You don’t need to feel anxious about the number of critters crawling on yours and your child’s heads. Lice infestations are inevitable when you have children; they happen because lice spread easily. It’s got nothing to do with hygiene, so you don’t need to feel embarrassed or ashamed. Our experts will section your hair and patiently comb through it until it stops trapping lice. After our technicians believe they’ve removed all the lice and nymphs (baby lice), they’ll section your hair and begin screening for nits. Nits will have to be removed by hand. Our experts will check for nits near the scalp, behind the ears, and above the nape of the neck; lice lay most of their eggs in these areas. Once these parts are all-clear, they’ll check the rest of the head meticulously, making sure every nit and louse is pulled out.Complete Home Cleaning and Inspection
Lice are pesky little critters that can fall and crawl onto your upholstery, curtains, bedding, carpet, etc. To limit the chance of re-infestations, we offer home cleaning and inspection services.
Lice can survive for 48 hours without human blood, so they could be walking around your carpet before crawling back onto someone’s head and starting the cycle all over again.
To make sure you don’t have to call us back anytime soon, our team will thoroughly clean your house to ensure there are no lice crawling around, waiting for the opportunity to crawl onto your head.
Our team of lice removal technicians and cleaners will arrive at your home in unmarked cars. We can have your home cleaned and lice removed in just a couple of hours!
