USAtoday: As children head back to school, a study suggests that “super lice” have spread to at least 48 states.
But health officials say the news is no reason to panic.
Research published in a March edition of the Journal of Medical Entomology shows that head lice in a majority of states have grown resistant to the over-the-counter medications doctors often recommend to treat the irritating insects. Lice in Alaska and West Virginia weren’t analyzed.
However, these lice aren’t worse than your average louse, which survives by feeding on human blood, said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, medical director for the Iowa Department of Health.
“These lice are no different than regular lice. They’ve just become resistant to some medications used to treat them,” she said. MORE
Gosh! Where on earth could they have come from?
New breed of Taco Lice.
Damned to demand Uber lice. May the uber lice of hundreds of thousands of unwanted refuges infest our freedom loving politicians.
Can kids be treated with the stuff given to dogs?
First, we have super Negro in the White House and now we have super lice in our kid’s hair!
Sounds like nit picking will come back in style.
‘Super Lice’
Huma’s nickname for Hillary
Bet Debbie wasserman has several hundred grazing in that unkept mess on her head
I always hear people knocking essential oils, but here’s a fact that every mother should know: put lavender oil on your kid’s hair and you won’t likely have to deal with head lice. Lavender oil repels head lice.
It works well for other insects too.
I always put a few drops in my shampoo and liquid soap to help keep the ticks and mosquitoes away.
Lavender got its name from the Latin ‘lavare’ which means ‘to wash”, which is what the Romans and Greeks used it for. It is a good disinfectant, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory.
I’ve been trying peppermint oil on gophers, because I can’t find a source for hand grenades.
For gophers, pre chewed juicy fruit gum dropped in their holes. Chew it until most of the sugar is gone, but it is still real soft. Just don’t let any bleeding hearts know how it works.
As to lice, old school lye soap with the head staying wet for a half hour will kill any creature that requires air.
Even the current T-1000 version of Hillary contains enough organic material that it couldn’t survive.
Lye soap has always been a standby to get rid of lice.
Pet shampoo contains the same active ingredient as is found in some head lice preparations, but usually at twice the concentration. If you make your kid give your dog a bath, I’m not seeing much difference if the kids use it once or twice on themselves.
Another natural insect repellent is Citrus oil. Wal-Mart sells it as an areosol air freshener, but I use it for everything from cleaning/polishing stainless steel, removing magic marker from hard surfaces, and that greasy build-up on the stove hood. Spray it directly on ants and it kills them immediately, and it chases bees away from trash cans. Best of all, it’s not particularly toxic, although it is extremely FLAMMABLE and will eat through styrene plastic on contact. I also use it to clean the cosmoline from my C&R purchases…
Will lye soap irritate skin if kept in that long?
Will lice irritate skin if allowed to live on your head?
Just dawned on me that lice must be in the same genus or something as bedbugs. Both subsist on human blood, and some of the remedies discussed here would work on bedbugs as well.
That said, all forms of plant oil will doom bedbugs. When I was going through my bedbug infestation in 2011, I had to wash every single wood surface in my apartment with Murphy’s oil soap. The exterminator also told me that rubbing alcohol sprayed on them = instant death.
JohnS, chemical burns should be avoided at all times.
Chemical hair straighteners and hair dye kills them.
An anti-frizz serum or light oil on scalp will get rid of them [Probably not instantly] and keep them off. Don’t use castor oil- You will never get that out of your hair if it’s fine or thin.
[I lightly apply EV olive, apricot or almond oils in my hair a couple times a week just to keep it shiny and soft]