What a Louse-y day (I can't stop itching)
Karen got a call from the kids' school today just before lunch, telling her that she needed to come pick Jack and Delaney up from school and bring them home. Both children had been taken to the nurse's office, and had been confirmed to have head lice. The lice on Dini were quite large, and have apparently been on her head for a while. The lice on jack all appeared to be smaller, younger, lice; and probably transferred over to his head from his sister within just the past week.
A female louse matures after a period of 7 to 10 days after hatching, and is then able to lay its first set of eggs. Those eggs then take between 7 to 10 days to hatch the next generation of lice. So, we've formulated a plan of attack that spans the next two weeks in order to make sure that we end up eradicating all current and future hatched invaders.PREPARATION
Karen picked the kids up and got a head start on things. We're washing everything in sight that has been used in the past couple of days, isolating all stuffed animals and plush toys in plastic bags for at least a week, and Karen went to Walgreen's and got head lice shampoo, nit combing gel, and an industrial strength louse insecticide spray that you can use on clothing, hats, shoes, bed frames, etc...BEDDING, CLOTHING, STUFFED ANIMALS
Hot water washing, and high temperature drying are sufficient to kill any live lice that may be hitching a ride on anything off of the head. Lice die in temperatures above 140 F, or below 10 F; and since clothes dryers operate between 150 F to 175 F on their high setting, simple washing will suffice in killing the critters. Also since lice can not survive off of a human host for longer than 24 to 36 hours (they literally starve to death in that short of a time period, from not being able to feed on blood from a live host), anything that we seal up inside of the plastic bags for a week will be guaranteed to be louse free as well.The KIDS
Karen thoroughly washed each of the kids heads with the lice insecticide shampoo as soon as she got home with them this afternoon, and then went through each of their hair with nit gel and a nit comb. So, at minimum, all of the hatched lice have been removed from their heads, and the majority of any nits attached to the hair should have been combed out. We'll have to comb through a few more times over the next week to make sure we got them all, and then after a week we can follow up with another round of shampoo to make sure we kill any surviving eggs that hatch before they mature enough to lay another round of eggs.
Jack decided that he didn't want to have to sit though another round of shampoo and combing, and actually asked if he could have a summer buzz cut. I took him out on the back deck and gave him a 1/2" crew cut, with the sides tapered down to 1/4" long. He looks like he has a fuzzy grown out version of a high-n-tight. Dini actually pouted and cried when Karen and I told her that she couldn't have one too. She said, "I want a haircut just like Jack's."
KAREN & I
So far, Karen and I have not been able to find a single louse or nit on either of us. My hair is basically too short for them to have anywhere to hide, and if any nits had been in my hair they probably got all buzzed off when I got my crew cut for Karen a couple of weeks back.
After the kids had been tucked into bed, Karen had me apply a bottle of lice insecticide shampoo to all of her hair. We went out into the garage so she could read her book and smoke while waiting for me to work it though all of her long hair, and let it sit for the 20 minutes that it takes to kill anything that might have been in her hair.
I had done a pretty thorough check through her hair, and hadn't seen any signs of live lice or any nits, but we weren't taking any chances. I mentioned that if we found any live coming off of her, when we rinsed her out, that it would probably take over an hour to an hour and a half to comb through her hair with a nit comb. She responded, "If we find any lice on me, I'm cutting it all off really short; so that won't be an issue."
We waited the 20 minutes for the solution to sit on her head, and then lathered and rinsed it off with her leaning over the kitchen sink. I lined the bottom of the sink with a white hand towel to strain the water as it went down the drain, and so that we could see if any lice had come out of her hair. It took a while to get her hair rinsed completely out; and fortunately, not a single louse was to be seen. I hope that we're able to get the upper hand on this right off the get go. Between a few loads of laundry here at home, and washing the bulk of everything we own in the giant loader machines at the laundromat, we should have confidence in a louse free environment by the end of tomorrow evening.
Still... even though there are no signs of lice on me, I can't stop itching. Just the thought of the little creepy crawlers makes my head itch. I'm so paranoid about it, and can't stop thinking about it. I may have to shave my head just to have some peace of mind.
A female louse matures after a period of 7 to 10 days after hatching, and is then able to lay its first set of eggs. Those eggs then take between 7 to 10 days to hatch the next generation of lice. So, we've formulated a plan of attack that spans the next two weeks in order to make sure that we end up eradicating all current and future hatched invaders.PREPARATION
Karen picked the kids up and got a head start on things. We're washing everything in sight that has been used in the past couple of days, isolating all stuffed animals and plush toys in plastic bags for at least a week, and Karen went to Walgreen's and got head lice shampoo, nit combing gel, and an industrial strength louse insecticide spray that you can use on clothing, hats, shoes, bed frames, etc...BEDDING, CLOTHING, STUFFED ANIMALS
Hot water washing, and high temperature drying are sufficient to kill any live lice that may be hitching a ride on anything off of the head. Lice die in temperatures above 140 F, or below 10 F; and since clothes dryers operate between 150 F to 175 F on their high setting, simple washing will suffice in killing the critters. Also since lice can not survive off of a human host for longer than 24 to 36 hours (they literally starve to death in that short of a time period, from not being able to feed on blood from a live host), anything that we seal up inside of the plastic bags for a week will be guaranteed to be louse free as well.The KIDS
Karen thoroughly washed each of the kids heads with the lice insecticide shampoo as soon as she got home with them this afternoon, and then went through each of their hair with nit gel and a nit comb. So, at minimum, all of the hatched lice have been removed from their heads, and the majority of any nits attached to the hair should have been combed out. We'll have to comb through a few more times over the next week to make sure we got them all, and then after a week we can follow up with another round of shampoo to make sure we kill any surviving eggs that hatch before they mature enough to lay another round of eggs.
Jack decided that he didn't want to have to sit though another round of shampoo and combing, and actually asked if he could have a summer buzz cut. I took him out on the back deck and gave him a 1/2" crew cut, with the sides tapered down to 1/4" long. He looks like he has a fuzzy grown out version of a high-n-tight. Dini actually pouted and cried when Karen and I told her that she couldn't have one too. She said, "I want a haircut just like Jack's."
KAREN & I
So far, Karen and I have not been able to find a single louse or nit on either of us. My hair is basically too short for them to have anywhere to hide, and if any nits had been in my hair they probably got all buzzed off when I got my crew cut for Karen a couple of weeks back.
After the kids had been tucked into bed, Karen had me apply a bottle of lice insecticide shampoo to all of her hair. We went out into the garage so she could read her book and smoke while waiting for me to work it though all of her long hair, and let it sit for the 20 minutes that it takes to kill anything that might have been in her hair.
I had done a pretty thorough check through her hair, and hadn't seen any signs of live lice or any nits, but we weren't taking any chances. I mentioned that if we found any live coming off of her, when we rinsed her out, that it would probably take over an hour to an hour and a half to comb through her hair with a nit comb. She responded, "If we find any lice on me, I'm cutting it all off really short; so that won't be an issue."
We waited the 20 minutes for the solution to sit on her head, and then lathered and rinsed it off with her leaning over the kitchen sink. I lined the bottom of the sink with a white hand towel to strain the water as it went down the drain, and so that we could see if any lice had come out of her hair. It took a while to get her hair rinsed completely out; and fortunately, not a single louse was to be seen. I hope that we're able to get the upper hand on this right off the get go. Between a few loads of laundry here at home, and washing the bulk of everything we own in the giant loader machines at the laundromat, we should have confidence in a louse free environment by the end of tomorrow evening.
Still... even though there are no signs of lice on me, I can't stop itching. Just the thought of the little creepy crawlers makes my head itch. I'm so paranoid about it, and can't stop thinking about it. I may have to shave my head just to have some peace of mind.