Head Lice Home Remedies? But Don’t PEOPLE Get Head Lice?

When a child comes home with a case of head lice the battle cries have a common theme, and that is to “Wash everything in hot water!” “Bag everything up for a month!” “Throw away the brushes and combs!” “Vacuum everywhere and disinfect everything they have touched!” Some products ‘recommend’ that we bomb the entire home with chemicals. Parents sometimes delay the removal of lice from the child’s head until meticulous cleaning of the home is carried out.

But how much of this compulsive cleaning is actually necessary?

Do we really need to go to such extremes to get rid of head lice? Why the head lice HOME remedies? Don’t CHILDREN get head lice, not houses?

When a parent is presented with the head lice notice or they receive the dreaded phone call from the school to pick up their child because they have lice, there is the inevitable knee jerk reaction. The patently human ‘fight or flight’ response renders them unable to think of anything other a large hole swallowing them (flight) usually followed by an almost irresistible urge to do anything it takes (fight) to get rid of their head lice problem.

The real problem with head lice is not enough studies have been done to actually prove or disprove these theories, some that have been bantered around willy nilly for centuries. We are still not sure how head lice are actually spread, due to a lack of evidence in this area.

Rick Speare (PhD, MBBS) from the Head Lice Research Centre at James Cook University in Queensland Australia has run several head lice studies to find solid evidence to try and prove or disprove these common assumptions. He and his team have come the closest to discovering the real answers to these pressing questions in my opinion.

In an article published in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health (Vol 26 No.3) one study conducted on 2,230 children in 118 classrooms in Townsville, North Queensland; 466 were found to have lice. Seven state primary schools were involved in nine surveys. A total of 14,033 live lice were removed from the heads of infected children.

108 of the 118 classrooms had infected pupils, averaging a total of 129.9 lice collected from their head for each classroom. The number of lice or eggs that were found on the carpeted classroom floors?

Zero.

It was concluded therefore that that a ratio of 14,033 to zero indicates that the risk of children being infected by transferal from carpets is, well, zero. Floors carry absolutely no risk of head lice transferal at all. There is absolutely no benefit in the compulsive cleaning of floors. The focus beyond the shadow of a doubt should be the removal the lice and eggs from the head, with minimal effort put into eliminating non-existent lice and eggs from the carpet.

Speare and his team ran another study to discover the role of bedding and therefore clothing and toys in the transferal of head lice. 48 pillowcases were collected from 47 children and one adult. Each had an average to medium intensity with ranging from 1 – 416 lice present.

The number of lice removed from the pillowcases? Two.

So while there was a 4.2% chance of the transferal of lice from the pillowcases, the risk was still there. Therefore further tests were done.

It was found that test lice enclosed in a miniature pillowcase washed in the machine were killed at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Being in the tumble dryer for 15 minutes had the same effect, as did ironing the mini pillowcase. The lice were found alive and well after a cold wash, as were they after being hung out on the line in the sun.

It was concluded that that a hot wash would take care of any head lice and nits found on bedding, soft toys or clothing. 15 minutes in a dryer would also spell certain death to the wee nasties, in the highly unlikely event they would leave the head in the first place.

In a study conducted on the transferal of head lice through sharing brushes, Speare concluded that “hard data was still needed,” as results were inconclusive. Four different studies showed hair brushes had no role at all to play in the transferal, one showed that they did. However the heating of hair brushes and supplies for 15 minutes in water or tied up in a pillowcase in the dryer was also sufficient to kill wayward lice and eggs.

Speare’s final conclusion is that head lice are almost certainly spread through head to head contact alone. Lice are extremely adept at moving through hair, but should they find themselves away from the head they are almost undoubtedly doomed. He believes that pesticides designed to eradicate your home of head lice should be removed from the market as they are not only unnecessary, they have the potential to cause serious damage through poisoning.

So should you find yourself a victim of these wee nasties, time is far best spent removing them from your heads than embarking on a full scale war with your home. As for the floor and furnishings, hot soapy water and a vacuum is recommended, but more for your peace of mind.

Time is far best spent preventing a return of head lice to the head than finding a head lice remedy for your home.

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