Dealing with lice is scary enough but now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a warning about an outbreak for a new strain of "super lice" in 25 different states that cannot be killed with most of the available over-the-counter treatments, according to Fox News.
Pyrethroids is the common ingredient used in over-the-counter lice treatments but since lice are growing resistant to it, the treatment now only works 25 percent of the time. That's down 75% from 2013 when Pyrethroids worked 100 percent of the time, according to WTVM.
"If you use a chemical over and over, these little creatures will eventually develop resistance," Knyong Yoon, Ph. D at Southern Illinois University, who conducted the study on the strains of lice, said. "So we have to think before we use a treatment. The good news is that head lice don't carry diseases. They're more a nuisance than anything else."
The best possible solution is still prevention, and the only way to prevent it is to avoid head-to-head contact and to keep from sharing items like hats or hair brushes that come in contact with hair. Selfies involving two or more people are also a major transmitter becuase people often put their heads close together to squeeze into the photo frame.
While prevention is definitely the best way to avoid the nasty little critters, there are several at home remedies parents can use on their children that have been proven to be just as effective as the over-the-counter treatment that may still work. Here are a few easy DIY home remedies to clear lice from hair using ingredients you probably already have in your home!
1. Olive Oil Treatment
Coating the hair completely with olive oil makes it silky, which makes it much easier to comb, according to Home Remedies For Life. Olive oil also suffocates and kills lice, so when you're combing them out, they're not clinging onto you're scalp and will come out easily. For this treatment, apply olive oil to scalp before bed and cover with a shower cap or towel overnight. In the morning, comb hair with a lice comb or any thin comb to remove the dead lice. Wash hair and repeat regularly until you no longer see lice coming out on the comb.
2. Garlic Treatment
Since garlic is filled with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, it helps kill lice and get rid of them once and for all, according to Home Remedy Find. Combine 10 to 12 peeled and mashed garlic gloves with a few drops of lime juice or tea tree oil and apply the paste to scalp. Leave on for about 30 minutes and clean thoroughly. Repeat this process for about a week or until you no longer can find any lice on your scalp.
3. Conditioner & Vinegar Treatment
This might be the cheapest option because all you need is a bottle of cheap hair conditioner and some white vinegar, which you may already have in your home, according to Hub Pages. Soak hair completely in white vinegar for about a half hour. Since vinegar has such a strong smell and can sting the eyes, have your children wear some sort of eye protector, like goggles. Next, use a lice comb to section hair and then rub a generous amount of conditioner into each section. Let the conditioner sit for about fifteen minutes and then run the comb through one more time and then rinse it out normally in the shower. Repeat this process until the lice are completely. It shouldn't take any more than two or three applications.
There's also a new FDA approved treatment made by a company called Lice Clinics of America offers a new FDA approved treatment called AirAlle that is can apparently kill these "super lice." But the treatment, at $170, is costly.
"We use heated air, and we dehydrate the lice and the eggs in a single treatment," Claire Roberts, CEO of Lice Clinics America told KSDK. "It takes about an hour, and we guarantee it."
