They already have. FML Seriously. In case you haven’t heard, super lice are a real thing and they can now add Oregon to that list. I had no idea till I found out the hard way. My daughter was sent home from school with lice. Great, annoying but…it happens to the best of us. I had heard of other kids getting it so seemed like it was just her turn. Got some over the counter stuff and followed the instructions. Washed and dried all her bedding and clothes and stuffed animals. Three times in a week cause they kept coming back. It was only by the third time I realized that this wasn’t me being an idiot and not understanding simple instructions but the lice weren’t affected by the treatments. By this point I’ve gotten them too because reasons, mostly which are probably my own fault. Called the doctor to see about getting prescription strength treatment and currently am waiting to hear back on that. The nurse suggested slathering our hair in mayonnaise and leaving it on for eight hours…sounds like a fun afternoon. Either way, anyone with kids I hope you don’t have to deal with this cause I’m ready to tear my hair out. Which, funny enough, would solve my problem.
Mayonnaise in the family’s hair for 8 hours, what a fun day. Maybe you could watch Grease and There Will Be Blood together. Bring in a mess o’carry-out BBQ ribs and Bloomin’ Onions from Outback. Throw in some potato chips for good measure. Then, when you’re all sticky and greasy, hit the showers!
Novelist Tom Robbins claims to have invented a cocktail made from gin and Mayonnaise called the Gin Greasy. I haven’t tried it, but you’re going to be dripping with the stuff anyway, so…
Does your doc say a particular brand of mayo, or is Miracle Whip okay?
Okay, I’ll stop now.
My daughter had lice about 6 years ago and I learned more than I ever wanted too about them. My advice would be to skip the chemical treatments entirely and go with the manual method. Use something oily to wet her hair (I don’t recall what I used but something that doesn’t dry quickly and serves to lubricate - maybe baby oil). Get a lice comb (not a standard comb) and a bowl of water. Go through her hair in layers with the comb. When you see debris on the comb, rinse it off in the bowl. Do this a few times a day until you are no longer seeing nits or lice. There are also services that will come and do this for you. It sounds like you are handling the clothes/linens/toys appropriately. Good luck!
What finally worked for us after many weeks of back-and-forth and mayo and OTC treatments and combing…oh, the combing…was…Denorex. (The kind with coal tar oil–that’s important!)
You still have to comb, but what works great about the Denorex is it’s strong enough to kill the lice, but not so strong you can’t use it every two or three days to catch the little buggers in whatever phase of the lifecycle they’re in. So do that…wash with Denorex (maybe leave on for a few minutes before rinsing) every two or three days for two or three weeks, and you should be good to go.
BTW, my understanding is that all the washing of bedding, stuffed animals, etc. is futile as they can’t live without a blood source for more than a few hours, anyway…
We had them at our house recently. I don’t know whether they were super lice, but we weren’t taking any chances. We went to one of those places that does the heat treatments. It was expensive, but not a bad experience, and it worked.
Yeah - they’re evolving. Moon Unit brought them home from summer camp when she was about 11; her head was itching for weeks before we figured things out. I used an OTC product on her and within 2 days I combed a live louse that was too large to have just hatched.
We wound up dealing with it mechanically: coating the scalp and hair thoroughly with olive oil, letting it set (wrapped in a disposable shower cap) for a bit, then carefully sectioning and combing it with a fine-tooth metal comb. Several plastic hair clips held bits of it out of the way of the section I was working on.
I, of course, caught them from her. My husband had checked my scalp, found nothing, but I used the fine-tooth comb on my hair the next day and found a resident on the second stroke.
Basically every 48 hours we did the olive oil treatment. I don’t think the oil actually smothers the critters, but it does slow them down so the comb can remove them, and it probably helps remove nits and keep more nits from adhering. Because it’s a mechanical treatment, they really can’t evolve a resistance to it.
Mayonnaise would have much the same effect, if a bit more aromatic. Other oils as well e.g. almond oil, and that has less of an aroma than olive oil: while you don’t notice the aroma at the time, it can be hard to wash out (I had to double-shampoo daily) and if you don’t wash it out well enough, you’re smelling it forever.
Whatever you do, do NOT try what friends of ours did: their daughter caught lice and they could not get rid of them. In desperation they used petroleum jelly. Which worked, but as my friend said, it made their hair indescribably greasy - and would NOT WASH OUT. I think they wound up doing several rounds with Dawn dish detergent.
When lice did the rounds of my girls’ school, it took forever to get rid of them but in the end after all the chemicals and washing etc, just lather them up with conditioner, put a movie in the VCR and get combing! I also used a magnifying craft light so I could make sure I didn’t miss any.
I got so lucky - two kids almost through high school and no lice. Knock on wood.
Okay. Here we go.
My daughter got lice twice. I ended up with them from her once. Yay - long hair!
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Bedding, stuffed animals, anything not on her head that you think she might have spread lice onto - put it into a ziplock bag or plastic trash bag for 2 weeks. Washing doesn’t work, but everything will die and not reproduce if kept completely separate from their foods supply.
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Getting lice off of you, her. Mayonnaise, no. I think that one is, um, complete bullshit. Like tomato juice and skunk smell. Lice comb, yes. I went to the store and bought lice treatments with different ingredients. Treat with one the first day. USE THE LICE COMB. Get a metal one. Comb through twice a day if you can. Every day without exception until you see no more nits or lice. Go a few extra days past that to be safe. Rinse the comb off in hot water between passes, so that you aren’t just redistributing. Separate the hair into very small sections in order to run the comb through everything. I found that watching a few YouTube videos made me much more confident and efficient. Day 2 or 3, use the other treatment (there are at least 2 or 3 different ingredients out there - run through as many as you can find). Alternate the treatments back and forth, so you’re using each one at least once a week. I believe that you want to treat at least twice with each to make sure you’re getting the entire lifecycle covered (the box instructions should cover this, how long between treatments, etc).
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Shampoo and conditioner. Switch to one that contains Tea Tree oil or use Head and Shoulders. Both of them, anecodally on the Web, and anecdotally through me and the extended family, discourage the lice and may help kill the nits. I would use the lice comb while leaving the conditioner in the hair. It made the combing easier and kept the ingredients in contact with the hair and its passengers longer.
My daughter and I both had waist length hair, so you can imagine this was a PITA. I used to comb my hair in the shower every morning with the conditioner on it, which kept the mess and clean up fairly easy. My daughter needed more help.
It’s definitely NOT fun. If you’re meticulous with the comb, you can get through this.
“Super lice” have been around for a while, they’re just spreading.
If my kid ever comes home with them, I won’t mess around with mayonnaise and combs. It’ll be ivermectin prescription and heat treatment (if necessary). If Dr. won’t prescribe ivermectin, I have a big bottle of it in lab…
Wow thanks for the info guys but we finally found something that worked! My mom bought some over the counter non-toxic stuff that was apparently safe for even infants. Active ingredient says Natrum muriaticum?? I dunno but I was a bit skeptical but ready to try anything. It was just a spray on and leave on sort of thing so it was really easy. Smelled like black licorice funny enough and had the consistency of that spray on hair color you can buy at Halloween. I put it on her head and mine and by morning not a bug to be found. Combed out lots of nits that just were almost falling off. It’s been like 4 days and still nothing so I’m hoping this is the end of it!
Um…“Natrum muriaticum” is another term for table salt (sodium chloride).
Hope it works for you. I wouldn’t bet on it.
Lol seriously? Wow. Well however it did it, it definitely did something. Cause I was combing out at least 5-6 adult lice each time I went through her hair with the comb and countless newly hatched babies. Since then, not a trace of either and I’m combing her every day now.
Combing, if done properly, is enough on its own to remove them. It’ll be a couple weeks until you can be certain they’re gone.
If they come back, or you have a repeat, there is a new heat treatment available (you need to find a salon that does this). You can also get ivermectin from your doctor. Usually a cream (SKlice). It can also be taken orally (stromectol) - this is off label but it works very well.