When I was 7 years old, I came home with a little something
extra from summer camp: lice.
When I was 7 years old, I came home with a little something extra from summer camp: lice.
To rid me of this ill, my parents stripped my bed, separated my clothing and proceeded to wash it all in the hottest water possible – with Lysol detergent. Then they made me wash with one of the most vile concoctions imaginable. For what seemed like hours afterward, I lay on the floor with my head in my stepmom’s lap, as she combed the bugs away as I watched television sideways. According to a new study, though, one of those steps wasn’t necessary.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that people who wet-combed their hair when faced with lice were four times more likely to shake the little buggers than those who relied on insecticide products like RID or NIX shampoo.
Many head lice, according to the research article published in the British Medical Journal, have actually developed resistance to common over the counter products meant to kill adult lice and their eggs. Thorough wet combing after normal shampoo, however, removes adult lice from the hair, instantly stopping their ability to lay more eggs.
Head lice, who live, feed and lay their eggs close to the scalp can’t jump, fly or hop, but instead spread as people’s heads touch one another, according to the British Broadcasting Corp. They reproduce by laying sticky eggs at the base of the hair shaft, but cannot survive apart from their host’s warmth for more than 24 hours.
While neither treatment is 100-percent effective, wet combing has shown itself to be much more successful. The parents of some 126 children between the ages of 2 and 15 were asked to try either one dose of insecticide products like lice shampoo or “bug busting,” which is wet combing with an extremely fine comb after a shower or bath with normal shampoo and conditioner.
Bug busters were successful in getting rid of the lice by day four in 57 percent of cases, while traditionalists succeeded 13 percent of the time.
“For every two or three people using the Bug Buster kit rather than pediculicides, an extra person would be cured,” wrote authors.
Still, don’t NIX the RID quite yet. A double dose of insecticide cures lice in an average 80 percent of cases, according to a past study, but pregnant women and children younger than 1 year should not use these chemicals, so bug busting provides a scientifically viable alternative, according to researchers.
