For household lice, you can use specialized lice-killing sprays with ingredients like permethrin (e.g., Nix® Lice Killing Spray) on furniture, car seats, and bedding, or opt for natural prevention sprays with essential oils like tea tree, lavender, and peppermint mixed with water to deter lice from items like backpacks and coats, but remember laundering or vacuuming is key for existing lice.
Getting rid of lice in your home
The most effective sprays will include not only tea tree oil, but also eucalyptus and peppermint oils. The problem is that you should be very cautious with those oils if you have younger children. Homemade lice spray using lavender and tea tree is very popular because those oils are the safest for use on all kids.
Head lice and their eggs rarely survive long off the scalp. However, washing clothes and bedding in hot water, vacuuming frequently used areas and treating personal items like combs and brushes with heat are effective measures.
Grab an 8 ounce glass spray bottle, fill with (preferably filtered) water, 3 drops of Clove, and 3 drops of Melaleuca (tea tree) essential oil. You're now ready to spray on lice-infested hair at night, no need to shampoo out! Comb through with a fine toothed comb in the morning.
Lice dislike the smell of many things, but the thing they hate most is peppermint. So, before you send your kid off to hang out with other kids, spray them with a peppermint spray. It's the same concept as using a mosquito or bug spray in the summer months, except the scent is less offensive.
Wet combing, smothering or dehydrating are ways to kill head lice. Or you can use medicine available with or without a prescription. The medicine may not kill the newest eggs. So a second treatment at the right time to kill nymphs may be needed.
Head lice infestation is most often caused by direct contact with these insects. Head lice are a tan or gray insect about the size of a sesame seed. The female louse sticks each egg to the base of a hair shaft less than 1/8 inch (3 millimeters) from the scalp.
Yes, head lice can briefly live and crawl onto pillows after falling off a human host, but they die within 1-2 days without a blood meal from a human scalp, making pillows a low risk for transmission; nits (eggs) won't hatch off the scalp and need heat to survive, so washing bedding in hot water kills them effectively. The main risk is head-to-head contact, not furniture or bedding.
Head lice CANNOT live more than 24–48 hr off their human host. Head lice CANNOT live on pets. Head lice CANNOT reproduce in carpets, furniture or other household furnishings. PESTICIDE SPRAYS DO LITTLE OR NOTHING TO CONTROL LICE.
The most effective way to kill lice in the carpet is vacuuming. Once lice are vacuumed up, place them in a garbage bag, and take the garbage out. Lice without a human host will soon dehydrate and die.
Smothering agents: There are several common home products that may kill lice by depriving them of air and smothering them. These products include petroleum jelly (Vaseline), olive oil, butter, or mayonnaise. Any of these products may be applied to the scalp and hair, covered with a shower cap, and left on overnight.
Common symptoms of lice include:
Washing hats, pillow cases and similar items that touch the head in hot water may help contain head lice. However, disinfecting your house is not necessary because the transmission of head lice from inanimate objects is rare.
Researchers have found apple cider vinegar is one of the most ineffective lice treatments. It doesn't do a good job of killing lice and cannot remove nits from your hair.
Licefreee Home Spray is Intended for Indoor Use
After treating a head lice outbreak, help avoid reinfestation by thoroughly cleaning the home to kill lice on pillows, mattresses, bedding, furniture and non-washable items. Use in home and non-food areas of schools, nursing homes, hotels, car interiors & hospitals.
Lice are parasites that bite the scalp every few hours to feed on blood. The bites from lice can make your scalp itchy. Itching is the most common symptom of a head lice infestation. You also may feel like something is moving in your hair.
Follow these steps to help avoid re–infestation by lice that have recently fallen off the hair or crawled onto clothing or furniture: Machine wash and dry clothes, beddings, and items used by the infested person in the two days before treatment. Use hot water (130°F) and high heat drying.
Head lice cannot live for long on pillows or sheets. It is possible for a live louse that has come off a person's head to crawl onto another human host who also puts their head on the same pillows or sheets.
Getting head lice isn't a sign of poor hygiene or unclean surroundings. Head lice prefer clean hair to attach and lay their eggs. Another common misconception is that head lice can jump or fly from one person to another. Head lice only crawl, most often leading to transmission through direct head-to-head contact.
Adult lice can only live a day or so without blood for feeding and nymphs can only live for a few hours without feeding. Nits will generally die within a week away from the host and cannot hatch at temperature lower than that close to the human scalp.
The most common way to get head lice is by head-to-head contact with a person who already has head lice. This contact can be common among children playing at places like school or the home. Getting head lice is not related to cleanliness of you or your environment.
Head lice are tiny insects that live on the scalp but occasionally are found living on the eyebrows and eyelashes. Because head lice spread easily from person to person, cases are seen often in schools, affecting all socioeconomic groups.
You do not need to use regular shampoo or conditioner after the lice treatment. In fact, it is best to not shampoo again for 2 days, in order to give the medicine time to work. The medicine will kill the live lice bugs, generally within 12 hours.