For example, hats, scarves, pillow cases, bedding, clothing, and towels worn or used by the infested person in the 2-day period just before treatment is started can be machine washed and dried using the hot water and hot air cycles because lice and eggs are killed by exposure for 5 minutes to temperatures greater than ...
Either washing done with a water temperature of at least 50 degrees C or drying is necessary to kill head lice and nits.
Lice and eggs in clothing will die if the clothes are not used. All stages that are not in contact with the body, except the eggs, will die within 1-2 days at ambient temperature. Eggs may take 1–2 weeks to hatch, eggs on body hair hatch within 10 days. Lice that are on the body can be brushed or washed away.
You should set the temperature to at least 130°F (54°C). Machine washing clothes at this temperature will kill the lice. If for some reason you cannot use a washing machine, you can try submerging the clothes in hot water, at least 140°F (60°C). After washing your clothes, dry them in a dryer set to a high heat.
Washing clothes in hot water (>60°C) for >10 min kills clothes lice and their eggs (30).
Washing Procedure
There is no need for special chemicals or detergents to kill the lice. You don't need any unusual equipment or special training. The primary weapon against these bugs is… heat.
Heat Method:
There are recent studies that show that treatment of lice with heat can be quite effective in killing head lice. Products such as Lousebuster are very effective but even a home hairdryer can successfully treat lice.
Lice and nits can live on pillows and sheets. Lice glue their eggs to the hair strands of their host. However, if a piece of hair with an egg falls out while the lice host is sleeping, an egg could end up on pillows or sheets.
To get rid of nits, mix equal amounts of fabric softener and conditioner, apply to your head and leave for 30 minutes. This will loosen the nits, and you only need to comb them out.
There's no need to wash your child's bedding every day.
Wash the pillowcase, but the comforter/blanket, sheets, and stuffed animals and other lovies can simply go in the dryer on high for 20 minutes. As for the bottom sheet, you don't even need to remove it from the bed.
The risk of getting infested by a louse that has fallen onto a carpet or furniture is very small. Head lice survive less than 1–2 days if they fall off a person and cannot feed; nits cannot hatch and usually die within a week if they are not kept at the same temperature as that found close to the scalp.
You need to wash all items that were worn or came into contact with a person who has lice during the two days before the first treatment begins. Don't forget to wash coats, towels, fabric hair accessories, pillowcases, and fabric bags.
Hair straighteners won't kill the nits on your hair shafts. Even if the high heat does kill any adult lice or nymphs (young lice) that might be on your scalp—which isn't guaranteed—it won't kill the eggs (nits).
Detection combing can be carried out on dry or wet hair. Dry combing takes less time, but wet combing is more accurate because washing with conditioner stops head lice from moving. To use the wet detection method: wash the hair with ordinary shampoo.
1. Can vinegar kill lice eggs? Vinegar is one of the classic home remedies for lice. However, if you are trying to find out how to get rid of nits using vinegar, you should know that using vinegar to kill nits or lice eggs is totally ineffective.
Tea tree oil appears to be able to kill some live lice (at least when used in conjunction with lavender oil), however we know that over-the-counter lice treatments are far more effective at killing live lice and getting rid of the eggs once an infestation has occurred.
Can someone have nits but no lice? It may be possible to have nits but no lice. If a person cannot find any nymphs or adult lice in the scalp and the nits are more than a quarter of an inch from the scalp, these may be dead and from an old infestation.
A preventative shampoo and spray can break the life cycle. A shampoo that kills lice before they can lay eggs is critical for closing the “bridge” from one head to another.
Adult head lice can survive for 2 days and nits for around 1 week on a hairbrush. Soaking combs or hairbrushes in hot water of at least 130°F (54.4°C) for 5–10 minutes will kill any lice and nits.
Wash the hair with regular shampoo. Do not use a conditioner. It can keep the lice medicine from working. Rinse well with warm water and towel dry.
As previously discussed, hair color may kill the bugs, but with a full-blown infestation, can lice survive hair dye? Yes, they can. You may be successful at getting rid of some of the bugs with hair dye, or you may even use hair dye to get rid of all of them.