Suffocate the Lice
Soak your child's head in olive oil or coconut oil. Cover with a shower cap for at least 2 hours (or preferably overnight). When ready, remove the shower cap, and separate the hair into small sections, then use a metal nit comb to carefully remove the lice and eggs.
Some home remedies recommend applying oils, mayonnaise, or vinegar to the head or body overnight to suffocate the lice.
Spinosad (Natroba).
It can be applied to dry hair and rinsed with warm water after 10 minutes. It kills lice and nits and usually doesn't need repeated treatment.
Washing, soaking, or drying items at a temperature greater than 130°F can kill both head lice and nits. Dry cleaning also kills head lice and nits. Only items that have been in contact with the head of the infested person in the 48 hours before treatment should be considered for cleaning.
Coconut, tea tree oil, lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon grass, and peppermint are scents popularly believed to repel lice. Using any coconut scented shampoo and conditioner is an easy way to increase your defense.
It is usually not possible to get rid of head lice overnight, but there are several treatment options involving over-the-counter medicines, prescription medication, and lifestyle and home remedies that can help get rid of lice faster.
Treatments for lice typically involve OTC or prescription medications. These treatments typically kill live lice but do not affect the eggs. This means it may take several treatments over 2–3 weeks to eradicate head lice. People can speak with a healthcare professional for further information about treating lice.
With effective treatment, head lice will completely go away after two to three weeks. The duration is dependent on how many lice made a home in your hair. Make sure you follow the instructions on your medicated shampoo, lotion or cream to get rid of lice quickly.
Often there are no immediate signs of head lice, which can make it difficult to treat. Head lice are most active at night.
This article will focus on head lice, a very common condition among kids in elementary and middle school. About 6 million to 12 million of them get it every year. Head lice are most active at night. They can cause such intense itching that your child could lose sleep over it.
Blow dry their hair completely. This will take a long time but it helps “seal in” and suffocate the live lice.
Lice can be tricky to get rid of because nits can remain unhatched on your head or you might pick up lice that are still on bedding or other items. Here's what to do if you've had lice — or someone in your family has: Wash bed linens and clothing that anyone with lice has used recently.
Avoid head-to-head (hair-to-hair) contact during play and other activities at home, school, and elsewhere (sports activities, playground, slumber parties, camp). Do not share clothing such as hats, scarves, coats, sports uniforms, hair ribbons, or barrettes. Do not share combs, brushes, or towels.
Females are usually larger than males and can lay up to 8 nits per day. Adult lice can live up to 30 days on a person's head. To live, adult lice need to feed on blood several times daily. Without blood meals, the louse will die within 1 to 2 days off the host.
An adult head louse can live about 30 days on a person's head but will die within one or two days if it falls off a person. Adult female head lice are usually larger than males and can lay about six eggs each day.
Adult lice can live up to 30 days on a person's head. They must feed on blood several times a day to survive and will die within 1-2 days off of the host.
DO LICE LIKE DYED HAIR? There is a myth related to hair dye: people with bleached or dyed hair cannot get lice. Lice gravitate as much to dyed hair as to hair that has not been colored. The bug only needs to climb up the hair to get to its food source, the head's blood.
Items that cannot be laundered such as headgear, earphones, and bike helmets, can be placed in a plastic bag and put in a freezer. If the freezer is 5°F or lower, all lice and eggs should be dead within 10 hours. Also, keep items and areas off-limits to people for 48 hours to limit exposure to any live lice.
Spinosad topical suspension, 0.9%, was approved by the FDA in 2011. Since it kills live lice as well as unhatched eggs, retreatment is usually not needed. Nit combing is not required.
Coconut, tea tree oil, lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon grass, and peppermint are scents popularly believed to repel lice. Using any coconut scented shampoo and conditioner is an easy way to increase your defense. At 1% concentration, tea tree oil killed 100% of head lice after 30 minutes.
Introduce natural predators (Ladybugs)
Ladybugs can eat 100 lice a day! Plant lice, anyway, but I'm sure it's the same with head lice. COVER YOUR CHILD IN LADYBUGS. You can purchase them at any of those “Brew 'n Grow” type stores where people grow weed by equipment and pretend to grow tomatoes with it.
Rosemary Repel Daily Shampoo combines rosemary, citronella, tea tree, anise, lavender and geranium oils to help repel lice.