Steps To Killing Head Lice

Head lice are tiny insects that live on the scalp. They lay eggs which end up eventually hatching and becoming live lice. One out of every ten children in school will acquire head lice, which is why all parents should be keen on the process of killing head lice, including what the home remedies to kill head lice are.

How They Spread

Before you can properly learn about killing head lice, you need to be aware of how the lice can spread. Head lice spread through direct contact among children or indirectly on items such as hats and combs. This is why once your child does start going to school, you need to tell them to not share such items with their classmates, to avoid the infestation of head lice as best as possible.

Also on the topic of killing head lice, you need to know that lice are not able to live on pets, and also they can only live for up to three days when they are off the scalp.

Treatment

The most important step in learning about killing head lice is of course treatment. You are going to want to look close to the scalp, behind the ears, the back of the neck and on the top of the head when you are trying to kill off lice and nits, because the lice like to live on the warmest part of the head.

Good lighting is important when you are checking a scalp for lice, and you want to look for the nits by parting hair in small sections, going from one side of the head to the other, carefully checking every single strand.

For the actual killing head lice process, the best idea is to use a lice shampoo. You simply wash the child’s hair with this shampoo as you would with any other, and then rinse out completely. You may even want to use vinegar with the shampoo as well, just to make extra sure that all the lice have been killed.

This will not kill the nits however, and so after shampooing and letting the hair dry you are going to have to go through the entire head of hair with a nit comb so that you can pull them all out and make sure that the head is completely free of lice and nits. Don’t forget to check routinely to ensure that none of the lice or nits slipped by.