NITMIX

Parents looking for good head lice advice often become
confused and dis-heartened by conflicting adice on head
lice. Here is a typical example from a our correspondence
files.

—– Original Message —–
To: “NITMIX”
From: “Kim *****”
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:31 PM

I am getting more and more confused with the conflictin
“reports” I am reading from internet websites and their
“cures” for head lice.

I found live and I mean “live” large lice on my daughters
long haired stuffed toy cat after 48hours of being sealed
in an airtight plastic bag after being left in the sun
(30C plus). IF they can survive this then why can they not
survive inside the house in normal temperatures and living
conditions.

I have however taken to your advice that the only way to
remove these crtitters is to remove them manually and I
am now sure that there is more than one way to “skin a cat”.

These are good questions and they need a clear answer,
here goes!

The sealing in an air tight bag thing is nonsense.
Lice aspirate very slowly. They are less than one tenth
of one cubic millimetre in volume and only a small part
of that are ” Lungs” so a bag full of air would last them
weeks !! A louse will not suffocate in a bag.

Lice can also suspend their breathing for several hours so,
so called, smothering techniques don’t work very well either.

Lice live happily on humans in every part of the planet.
Normal temperatures range from minus 10 degrees Celsius to
over 40 degrees Celsius in different parts of the world and
lice are fine. 30 Degrees is nothing to a louse.

Head lice die when off their humans hosts because they run
out of fluids, that die of dehydration long before they run
out of food or energy. In very dry conditions a louse that
had not fed before it left the body would die relatively
quickly, probably a few hours.

A well fed louse in relatively humid air could last for a
couple of days. It all depends on the conditions.

If you can get off the hook that you need to kill lice you
will save yourself a lot of heartache. JUST TAKING THEM OFF
is fine. You don’t need to kill them which is a tough thing
to do.

Sound to me like you are on the right track and asking the
right questions.

Good luck

John Owen