Lice FAQs - Center for Lice Control (2024)

Doing a combing head check really helps to cut down on any infestations and is the best form of lice control. If completed twice a month, any lice evidence would be caught early when there’s only a few nits, before a full blown contagious infestation. Catching lice early is easily treated, less people to notify and less people at risk. For full instructions visit: How To Check for Lice for full information.

The younger the child the more interesting things you may find in their hair. Glitter, paint, wood chips from the playground, sand, food, or lint from clothing can make it confusing when you comb out debris onto a white paper towel. Please compare what you comb out to our “Life Cycle of a Louse” image to see what nits and lice look like versus normal debris.

is used to aid in the simplest and most effective form of lice outbreak prevention. If you have hair on your head you are a candidate for lice. No aroma or product will protect a person from getting lice. By detangling you can easily put hair up, narrowing the lice target and use it to do a Peace of Mind head check, the Defense and Detangle Spray is an essential part of lice control.

When hair is wet it sticks together. Lice like to hide and they could find wet pockets of hair to hide in. The Lice Attack Solution needs to completely saturate dry, tangle-free hair to work most effectively. See the usage guide on the Lice Attack bottle to make sure you are using enough to saturate your hair type.

Lice do not survive the Lice Attack Solution when it’s done properly. However, if you don’t follow the instructions (for example, if the treated hair was wet, very knotty, or not completely saturated with the Solution) lice could survive. The good news is it’s safe to repeat the treatment anytime. Simply re-treat if needed to eliminate all live lice that may have been missed but make sure to follow the instructions carefully. Be sure to massage Lice Attack Solution onto dry hair and into the scalp thoroughly and let it stay on for 5 minutes. If you do see adult lice during any of the follow up treatments, just add one more treatment 5-6 days after the last treatment. This rarely happens but if you have an overwhelming infestation it may happen. No additional house cleaning will be necessary if bugs are found.

It is OK to see nits, whether viable or not, as long as you are completing the 3 full treatments. We know it is unsettling to see nits but they are harmless for now. If you see just a few nits and your school does not have a “No Nit Policy” then you are fine. Just make sure to do your scheduled follow up treatments with Lice Attack Solution and a nit comb-out. If you find 10 or more nits we recommend doing a quick comb-out in between treatments to remove remaining nits.

What makes someone contagious with head lice is having a mature, egg-laying adult female louse on your head that could travel to another head. After the first treatment, when the egg-laying lice are eliminated, you are no longer contagious. To stop the cycle of lice you must stop the egg laying first, then remove the nits. Timing is everything and you must complete the 3 well-timed treatments to ensure you are lice-free. The follow-up treatments will eliminate the nymphs (baby lice) before they mature and lay eggs, therefore ending the cycle of lice. Read more aboutAre Lice Contagious?

Don’t freak out – seeing baby lice is exactly what you might expect to see at that point of your treatment cycle. The Lice Attack Treatment plan is designed to eliminate the original, egg-laying lice with the first treatment. Subsequent treatments are timed based on the life cycle to get any new nymphs before they become mature, lay eggs, and keep the cycle going. If you do not comb out all the remaining nits, that’s ok. If any viable nits remain, the 2 follow up treatments done 5-6 days apart will eliminate the baby bugs before maturing. If you do not do the follow up treatments, those nits may hatch and start the cycle all over again. That’s why we recommend 3 treatments over a 10-12 day period of time. This ends the life cycle of lice.

If you see adult bugs, you want to repeat the CLC Lice Attack Solution and do a comb-out. One of two things happened. You either got re-infested (which is possible because your lice came from someone close to you and they may still be contagious) OR you didn’t follow the treatment instructions properly. Remember, you must apply to untangled, dry hair and use enough Lice Attack Solution to make sure the scalp is completely saturated with the treatment solution.

No excessive combing is necessary with CLC’s treatment process but nits are hard to remove. They are cemented to the hair shaft pretty securely. In an effort to not spend an exorbitant amount of time combing one person out in one sitting, remove all you can in the first comb-out. Try to keep the first comb-out to less than 1 ½-2 hours. (Average treatment in the salon is 45-60 minutes.) Follow CLC’s Lice Attack Treatment plan carefully. Any nits that were left behind after the first treatment will be taken care of in the second and third treatments. If you find a lot of nits after the first treatment, then do the recommend Peace of Mind Ponytail Chead check with the nit comb and Lice Defense & Detangling Spray to help the comb glide through the hair.

Nope. Only completely bald people can’t get lice. Lice can lay nits on ¼” of hair. But buzz cuts do make the comb out process a lot easier. If you choose to buzz your hair as a treatment for lice, make sure to first treat with the Lice Attack Solution to eliminate the bugs and the buzz cut should remove the nits if the buzz cut is short enough. Remember to protect the scalp from sunburn with sunblock or a hat.

No! Lice live on heads, not in houses. Human head lice are not like fleas or bedbugs. Your house is not infested and there are no bugs or nits all over the house waiting to hatch and infest your family. Just put things in the dryer on a hot heat setting for bedding and items with direct head contact, vacuum and lint roll active areas in the house, or simply covering a sofa or car seat for three days is fine. You only need to do house cleaning after the first treatment. No need to do any laundry or house cleaning when you do the follow up treatments. Lice do not want to leave their host’s food source, which is always a head. Lice do not burrow and they only lay nits (lice eggs) on human hair.Follow our house cleaning guidelines here.

No! All you need is the heat from the dryer for laundry, vacuum for cloth surfaces, lint roller or a sheet to cover large items (sofas/car seats) for 3 days. Laundry additives and house cleaning sprays are a waste of time and money.

It may feel uncomfortable but you must tell anyone who’s been in contact with your infected family member within the last 3 weeks. This gives them the chance to do a head check. It also lessens the chances of them transmitting lice back to your family.

Evolution. The pesticides did work —years ago. Over the past several decades, lice have evolved to survive both OTC and prescription pesticide treatments. In addition to the products being less effective, the nit combs that come with some treatments are lousy (pun intended) and the instructions are not thorough enough. Lice have developed a protein that is present in their exoskeleton system and the nit glue. The nit glue covers the nit which secures the nit to the hair shaft and protects them from the neurotoxins in common OTC and prescription treatments. Often some bugs will die, but rarely all of them. These treatments are ineffective against lice because you can’t somewhat get rid of lice. Lice are all or nothing.