Bugs in the house? Burn it to the ground.
Okay, maybe arson isn’t the most practical (or legal) solution to a head lice infestation, but I’m not a fan of six-legged creatures and even reading about them makes me jumpy.
But one insect expert says I should be happy if my child gets lice, because that means she’s being social and interacting with other children.
Richard J. Pollack, PhD, is a public health entomologist at Harvard who also runs IdentifyUS, a company that identifies bugs for hospitals, schools, the hospitality industry, and the general public.
Pollack says that over the last few decades he has tried to debunk the myths that lice are incredibly contagious, that they transmit life-threatening infections, and are due to a lack of sanitation.
“We’re battling misinformation and fear much more than we’re battling head lice,” he says.
What Are Lice?
Lice are a pesky problem, but they’re not dangerous, says the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS). Adults can live up to four weeks on human scalps and feed on blood every three to six hours. The eggs, or nits, of these wingless, two to four millimetre parasitic insects are usually found stuck to shafts of hair, close to the scalp.
Bites from the insects cause an itchy reaction for some people, while others experience no symptoms.
How Do You Get Lice?
Head lice are spread mainly through direct head-to-head (hair-to-hair) contact, says the CPS. They can crawl quickly, but can’t hop or fly. The cleanliness of the hair doesn’t matter.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agrees, saying “spread by contact with clothing (such as hats, scarves, coats) or other personal items (such as combs, brushes, or towels) used by an infested person is uncommon.”
Diagnosing A Case of Lice
“The basis for diagnosing a case of head lice should rest firmly on finding a living, crawling louse on the scalp hair,” says Dr. Pollack, adding that often insects found on the hair are not lice, especially in the summer when children are playing outside.
Most of these cases are based on a parent or school nurse finding what they believe to be a head louse egg, or nit, on the hair, but often it’s dandruff or something else, he says.
(Dr. Pollack voluntarily discloses that he has a vested interested in diagnosing lice through his company IdentifyUS, but that he does not offer treatment services.)
How Common Are Lice?
Not nearly as common as some would have you believe. Dr. Pollack describes trying to find examples of head lice for his research, and being called to schools who claimed to have major infestations, only to find one kid in 100, on average, to have lice.
These schools were sending home dozens of kids in in kindergarten to grade four who had been misdiagnosed by nurses, physicians and school officials.
Should Kids Go To School With Lice?
Yes. “I am absolutely against the exclusion policies at schools or camps or other such places, for head lice,” says Pollack.
“All exclusion does is keep kids out of school and make some parents feel better, like they’re doing something. Sadly that ‘something’ is counterproductive,” he says.
The CPS offers the same advice. “Exclusion from school and daycare due to the detection of the presence of ‘nits’ does not have sound medical rationale. Even the detection of active head lice should not lead to the exclusion of the affected child.”
Many school boards across Canada no longer ban students with lice. In Halifax, letters are sent home regularly, reminding parents to check for the pests. Calgary students can return to school once treated, as can students in Vancouver. Toronto school boards are now reviewing their no-nits policy.
Treatment Options
You can treat lice yourself with the right tools and some patience.
With a good metal louse comb, you can probably remedy the problem in a few minutes per day if the hair is straight and you can pass a comb through it, Pollack says. “Do it every couple of days until you have diminishing returns.”
If the hair is not easily combed, there are over-the-counter treatment with safe amounts of insecticide that take about 10 minutes (follow the directions), and usually need to be re-applied 10 days later to eliminate the nits that weren’t killed with the first application.
“If I did this in 1970, I’d have had an almost 100 per cent chance of success,” says Pollack. But beginning in the early 90s, some lice developed a resistance to the treatments and now in North America there is less than a 50 per cent chance of success with these products.
It’s important to check everyone in the home for lice and treat everyone infected to avoid a chronic condition in the household.
If over-the-counter treatments don’t work, prescription treatments are available, but are considerably more expensive.
What Not To Do
Shaving off all the hair is a foolproof way to eliminate lice but “it’s overkill,” says Dr. Pollack, adding that he has seen children wind up in the emergency room with cuts because their parents “are not adept at using sharp objects.”
Other bad ideas parents have asked him about? Heat from a hair dryer or even a hot air gun for stripping paint; dousing the head with kerosene, and submerging the head under water.
The CPS suggest that home remedies such as mayonnaise, petroleum jelly, olive oil, tub margarine and thick hair gel have not been proven to work.
What To Clean
“Shared helmets and headphones in schools or recreational settings would rarely, if ever, harbor an occasional head louse or nit,” says IdentifyUS.
Head lice won’t live long away from the scalp, and nits are unlikely to hatch at room temperature, so excessive cleaning of your home and car is not necessary, says the CPS.
They say washing items that have come in close contact with the head in hot water, drying them in a hot dryer for 15 minutes, or storing it in an occlusive plastic bag for two weeks will kill lice and nits.
Outsourcing The Solution
If you’d rather outsource this job, there are a number of companies that will go over your kid’s head with a fine-toothed comb — literally.
“They are spreading across the continent faster than the lice themselves,” says Pollack.
The Lice Squad has locations in most provinces, and will work either in your home or at their clinics. Treatment is $75/hour for individuals or parties. Slice of Lice in Winnipeg charges a flat fee of $150 at their clinic for lice removal, or $200 at home.
Pollack says he doesn’t see a lot of value in these salons, but “there are some out there that have microscopes and they do know how to use them,” he says.
“Is there really a need to spend all that money having somebody else pick things off your child’s scalp? That’s going to come down to a personal decision by the parent,” says Pollack.
We should point out that Dr. Pollack is a professional entomologist who cheerfully admitted that he would have been happy if his daughter had contracted head lice so he’d have better access to the insects at home.