How To Properly Treat Head Lice

How To Properly Treat head lice

How people view and perceive the affects of lice is most often a misconception. The belief that lice carry and transmit diseases is also untrue. Once you have correctly diagnosed the presence of Head lice it is important to understand them and how to correctly treat head lice.

There are many myths concerning head lice and their affect on their victims. Head lice do not transmit communicable diseases. Some people think head lice are capable of both jumping and flying. Lice can only crawl about, they do not have wings and can not fly. Contact with hair products, combs, brushes, tie backs, clothing,bedding and more is how Lice are transferred from person to person. Many people are mistaken about how long they can live after being removed from their host. Lice are totally dependent on the warmth and blood of the person they infect. Lice live of blood taken from the scalp. Lice remaining on their victim will live 30 days. Lice who are not living on the human scalp can only survive, on their own, for approximately one day. One very common misconception is that short hair does not attract lice, this is not true. Head lice do not care about the age, gender, hair length, personal cleanliness or race of their host. Head lice only live on humans and do not survive on animals and they are not transferable through pets.

Correct treatment of lice includes caring for things the victim has come in contact with. Once the lice have been removed through proper treatment and combing or picking out the nits you must then take care to treat the items the victim has come in contact with. Providing it is safe to do so washing many products in hot water is the best solution. Exposing lice and nits to temperatures above 125 degrees F for 10 minutes is lethal. For those items that can not be safely washed they need to be placed in the clothes dryer at a temperature over 120 degrees for a minimum of 20 minutes. You can smother any lice by placing clothing in air tight containers for two weeks or you can send them to the dry cleaners to kill any left over insects. You can also place combs and the like in a pan on the stove heating water for about 10 minutes. It is possible to cause damage or a hazard to heat some products. To avoid this they can be placed in a solution such as Lysol for an hour or more. It is also necessary to clean carpets, upholstery and all furniture. Cleaning clothing and bedding is a must. There is no need for any type of pesticide or fumigation of your home and these methods are not recommended.

Most people go about treating Lice using the wrong methods and do not get rid of the problem. This will lead to an infestation. The only way to be assured of ridding your home of these pest is through proper cleaning.


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Properly treating Head Lice Is extremely important. For proper treatments using home remedies see. Head Lice Home Remedies . For more information Getting Rid Of Head Lice