CDC does not have clear scientific evidence to determine if suffocation of head lice with mayonnaise, olive oil, margarine, butter, or similar substances is an effective form of treatment.
If lice are not completely covered by oil, they may not die but the oil will slow them down allowing them to be caught in the nit comb.
The oil must remain on the head for at least 8 hours to be effective. Even though it is very likely that a single application of the oil will kill all stages (eggs, nymphs and adults) of the lice, I recommend retreatment about 7 days after the initial treatment.
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.
Blow dry your child's hair. It has to be thoroughly dry down to the scalp to suffocate the lice. Expect this to take 3 times longer than normal drying.
The conditioner does not kill lice but stuns them for about 20 minutes enabling easier removal. The long toothed metal comb will remove nits and the stunned head lice. Wipe the comb on a white tissue and check for any lice or nits. Keep combing until no more appear on the tissue.
The olive oil will suffocate the lice, but not the eggs and you will need to repeat the treatment several days later until all of nits are removed. Other types of suffocating agents have been suggested, but olive oil appears to be the most effective.
Using Olive Oil On Your Hair
Basically, you apply the olive oil to your hair, and leave it on for 6 to 8 hours. This is supposed to suffocate the lice. You then use a lice comb to physically remove them from your hair. You repeat this process until no more lice shows up in the lice comb.
Blow dry their hair completely. This will take a long time but it helps “seal in” and suffocate the live lice. Put a shower cap, head wrap or skull cap on and leave the dried lotion on for at least 8 hours. It's easiest to do this overnight.
Generally, if no live crawling insects are seen three weeks after the treatment, it's safe to assume that they are gone. Nits would have hatched by that time if they were alive. Nits and their shells may remain in the hair for some time but won't be viable.
Nits are often confused with other things found in the hair such as dandruff, hair spray droplets, and dirt particles. If no live nymphs or adult lice are seen, and the only nits found are more than ¼-inch from the scalp, the infestation is probably old and no longer active and does not need to be treated.
A preventative shampoo and spray can break the life cycle. A shampoo that kills lice before they can lay eggs is critical for closing the “bridge” from one head to another. Ladibugs experts recommend parents seek effective, pesticide-free options.
While thick consistencies such as mayo, coconut oil and Vaseline can sometimes be effective in killing the adult bugs, they have little to no effect in killing a nit or baby louse. Nits MUST be manually removed from the hair strand to kill it. Myth #4: Over the counter head lice treatments are safe and effective.
In addition to removing the live bugs from the hair with the comb, you can use olive oil to kill lice by saturating the hair in it and leaving it on for 8 hours (lice can hold their breath for that long) so that the oil will suffocate the bugs.
No. The two treatments 9 days apart are designed to eliminate all live lice, and any lice that may hatch from eggs that were laid after the first treatment. Many nits are more than ¼ inch from the scalp.
Lice and nits can live on pillows and sheets. Lice glue their eggs to the hair strands of their host. However, if a piece of hair with an egg falls out while the lice host is sleeping, an egg could end up on pillows or sheets.
Spinosad (Natroba).
Spinosad is approved for adults and children age 6 months and older. 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.
Can vinegar kill lice eggs? Vinegar is one of the classic home remedies for lice. However, if you are trying to find out how to get rid of nits using vinegar, you should know that using vinegar to kill nits or lice eggs is totally ineffective. Vinegar has no negative effect on the lice eggs.
To remove lice and nits by hand, use a fine-tooth comb on wet, conditioned hair every 3–4 days for 3 weeks after the last live louse was seen. Go through small sections of hair at a time. Wetting the hair temporarily stops the lice from moving, and the conditioner makes it easier to get a comb through the hair.
If you begin to find that the nits are further away from the scalp, they may not be viable. Using a magnifying lens will make it easier to search for nits close to the scalp. You'll want to make sure that there are no clusters of nits close to your child's scalp for at least two weeks before you are in the clear.
Although coconut oil may kill lice, it can't completely kill the nits that lice lay in your hair. You may want to consider rinsing your hair with apple cider vinegar before applying a coconut oil lice treatment. Some essential oils have been tested for treatment of lice.
Typically, 10–15 head lice are found. The number of lice often depends on personal hygiene, for example, how often the person bathes, shampoos, or changes and washes his/her clothing.
There are recent studies that show that treatment of lice with heat can be quite effective in killing head lice. Products such as Lousebuster are very effective but even a home hairdryer can successfully treat lice.
Sometimes it will be easier to remove the nits if you wet the hair with white vinegar while you are combing the nits out. Vinegar helps loosen the "glue" that holds the nits to the hair. Separate and comb small sections of hair at a time.