You should know how to get rid of lice at home, even if you have never encountered such a problem as pediculosis. No one is safe from infection with lice, and if this problem has affected you or your loved ones, you need to solve it immediately, and it is necessary to treat not only the infected person, but also those who are in close contact with him. How to remove lice? What means to apply for children and pregnant women?

Lice and their varieties: general information

Important! In the past, lice were carriers of typhoid, today this disease is a rarity. Lice carry skin infections, less often - venereal (transmitted through flatworms). But contrary to the opinion prevailing among ignorant inhabitants, the louse is not a carrier of AIDS.

How are head lice transmitted?

The head louse has no wings and cannot jump. However, this insect has incredible agility and the ability to overcome up to 25 centimeters in one second. Therefore, it is enough for an infected person to simply hug a healthy person or come close to him so that the lice migrate, as they say, from a sick head to a healthy one. This is not the only way to get infected. Pediculosis can be obtained under the following circumstances:

• Use of other people's combs, hairpins, hair ties;

• Wearing other people's hats;
• Spending the night on the bedding on which the infected person slept;
• Swimming in the communal pool.

The last two options are not so common, and then - subject to non-compliance with sanitary and hygienic standards. Lice-infested beds are found in cheap hotels, and getting lice through the pool is almost impossible these days. However, head lice are able to stay in water for two days without food, and in the last century there were cases when people became infected with lice after swimming in a common pool.

How to get rid of lice at home

In the middle of the last century, when there were no free access to anti-pediculosis drugs, people turned to the sanitary and epidemiological station, where specialists carried out procedures to destroy lice. But not every city had such a point, so there were tools in use that helped get rid of lice at home. These were kerosene, vinegar, dichlorvos, cranberry or lemon juice, a decoction of wormwood or tansy, as well as removing insects and nits manually or by combing out with a fine comb (mechanical methods).

The most effective was the destruction of lice with kerosene, vinegar and dichlorvos were not far behind. However, these methods are as effective as they are dangerous. A solution of kerosene or vinegar must be prepared in the correct proportions so that instead of head lice, scalp burns are not treated. You need to be careful with dichlorvos, which in itself is very toxic. Another big drawback of such products is that after them there is an unpleasant smell, and the condition of the hair leaves much to be desired. In addition, lice can be killed in this way, but they are powerless against nits. Therefore, the procedure must be repeated every few days for a week to kill the larvae hatched from the surviving eggs. And combing with a fine comb speeds up the process and enhances the effect.

• natural remedies

Decoctions of herbs (wormwood, tansy), lemon or cranberry juice practically do not kill lice and do not kill nits at all. The effect of herbal decoctions is that their smell frightens insects, and they run away from the scalp to the ends of the hair, from where they can be easily washed off or combed out. And fresh cranberry or lemon juice neutralizes the sticky secret that keeps nits on the hair, which, again, facilitates the mechanical removal process. In terms of effectiveness, natural remedies are inferior to kerosene or vinegar, but the hair remains in good condition, and natural ingredients have a beneficial effect on the scalp and heal lice bites. In addition, such products are absolutely non-toxic, therefore they are suitable for removing lice in children, pregnant and lactating women.

• birch bark tar

• Modern means

To date, the treatment of pediculosis at home is facilitated by the presence of a huge number of special pediculicides and drugs that are sold in pharmacies without a prescription. These are shampoos, and sprays, and lotions, and creams. The vast majority of these drugs fight lice, but do not kill nits. Therefore, they need to treat their head at least twice - immediately after the discovery of uninvited guests in order to kill them, and after 5-7 days to destroy the larvae that hatched from living nits. In addition, in the pharmacy you can buy a special comb for combing out lice and nits. This comb has small embossed teeth that allow hair to pass through, but retain insects, their larvae and eggs. You need to comb out not the whole head, but one strand, not forgetting to rinse the comb under running water or in a basin after each strand.

Important!Before using pharmaceutical preparations, be sure to read the instructions and follow them clearly. Not all such remedies can be used to combat pediculosis in children, and chemicals are contraindicated for pregnant and lactating women.

Pediculosis, children and pregnancy

In order to remove lice and nits from a child, you can use any modern chemical preparation if it has no contraindications. As a rule, children can apply shampoos and products based on silicone. Such products do not contain dangerous toxins. Silicone kills lice, causing suffocation, and is easily washed out of the hair. It is best for pregnant and lactating women to abandon pharmaceutical preparations in favor of natural remedies - herbal decoctions or tar soap. And combing with a comb has a relaxing and soothing effect that will benefit the expectant mother.

Despite the fact that modern society is obsessed with hygiene issues, such an ailment as pediculosis is by no means a rare disease. As a rule, not only children, but also adults suffer from lice. You should not think that this applies only to members of dysfunctional families, because you can become infected with pediculosis almost everywhere - a public bath, public transport, etc.

There are many ways to get rid of living creatures that have settled on the scalp. It can be both pharmaceutical preparations and folk remedies that have been proven for centuries. If you correctly use all known methods of combating pediculosis, you can quickly achieve positive results.

One of them is the elementary non-compliance with the rules of personal hygiene. Often this happens when living conditions are not good enough, during military operations or natural disasters.

However, these blood-sucking insects can also appear in a completely healthy, clean person living in fairly comfortable conditions. For example, it might happen on contact with an infected person. Moreover, animals and food cannot be a source of infection, since lice feed exclusively on human blood.

There are several ways to infect with lice. The main ones are the following:

• through water in stagnant reservoirs and pools;
• in sanatoriums, boarding houses and hotels in which sanitary and living conditions do not meet the norm;
• through personal items;
• with direct contact;
• on hikes and long business trips due to the lack of basic living conditions.

Some experts distinguish a separate type of pediculosis - children's. According to doctors, this disease can appear in preschool children and children of primary school age as a result of suffered a nervous shock.

This explains the development of the disease in a child living in a completely prosperous family, where all sanitary standards are observed and contact with sick people is completely excluded. The first signs of the disease may appear only a few weeks after infection with lice.

However, it is worth remembering that not a single chemical preparation will give a 100% guarantee of getting rid of lice without mechanical removal of eggs.

Removing lice from a child mechanically - stages of manual removal of nits:

The nuances of treating children

When choosing a remedy for lice, it is necessary to pay attention not only to its effectiveness, but also on drug safety, since the components included in its composition can cause serious harm to health, especially for young patients.

Regardless of the form of release (lotion, spray, etc.), these products are enough easy to use- you just need to apply them on the scalp, hold for a certain amount of time and rinse thoroughly with warm water.

Effective drugs

Arriving at the pharmacy, the buyer may simply be confused when he sees the many anti-pediculosis remedies offered by the modern industry.

Therefore, in order to make the right choice, it is necessary to become more familiar with the types of drugs, as well as their general characteristics.

Exists several types pediculosis agents, of which the following can be distinguished:

Shampoos and combs

Shampoos are the most reliable and popular means of combating head lice. Such anti-pediculosis shampoos have proven themselves well due to their high degree of effectiveness, as well as ease of use.

It is enough to carry out just a few procedures, and the problem will be solved. And what is important - even children can use this tool. This is especially important for girls with long hair, when a radical hair removal (haircut) is undesirable. Shampoos are very popular these days. Paranit and Full Marx.

Even if you use chemical products to fight lice, you still cannot do without a comb. After all, getting rid of adults does not yet guarantee a complete cure: in any case, you will have to comb out the nits mechanically.

However, there are also its cons A: To completely get rid of nits, it will take quite a lot of time. Combs can only act as an additional tool that is used in combination with insecticides.

Ways to deal with these blood-sucking insects are determined strictly individually, since there is no universal remedy suitable for absolutely everyone.

For example, people prone to allergic reactions, those suffering from asthma, as well as those with very sensitive skin, are advised to use the comb exclusively.

Most people who are faced with such a problem prefer to poison insects on their own, considering going to the doctor something shameful and unacceptable. The most popular recipes are the following:

Means that pose the greatest danger:

• wild rosemary tincture - is a poison not only for insects, but also for humans;
• kerosene - contains many toxic substances and can provoke poisoning or allergies;
• flea shampoo - will help get rid of lice, but is very toxic;
• vinegar - at a concentration exceeding 4.5%, dermatitis, a chemical burn of the skin, may occur.

What to do in case of failure

If the treatment of the scalp with chemicals and special shampoos did not work, you simply cannot do without the advice of specialists. In this case, the employees of the sanitary and epidemiological station will come to the rescue and dermatologist.

In general, pediculosis is easily treatable, and if take action in time Without waiting for the appearance of dermatological lesions, pustules and skin diseases, many problems can be avoided. Complex therapy helps to quickly get rid of adult insects, and medical procedures will allow you to completely forget about pediculosis in 1-1.5 weeks.

Anna Mironova

Reading time: 9 minutes

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Such a disease as pediculosis (or, in Russian, simply “lice”) is known, unfortunately, to many parents. And many are trying. Do not think that lice appear only in children from dysfunctional families. The prosperity of the parents and their concern for the hygiene of the child, of course, will prevent many diseases. But infection with pediculosis can occur quite unexpectedly: sometimes it’s enough just to sit at the same desk with an already infected child.

What to do if a child brought this animal in his hair from school or kindergarten? How to quickly get rid of lice and nits?

Causes of pediculosis. Where do lice come from?

• Kindergarten and school.
• Children's camps and sanatoriums.
• Other public areas.
• Use of other people's hats, combs, towels and other personal items.

Chemical agents to combat pediculosis are prohibited for use in young children. In older children, they are used in accordance with the state of health. But it is worth remembering that not a single remedy for lice will have no effect without manual removal of nits .

To facilitate combing, you can use mousse Nit Free. It dissolves the glue that holds nits to the hair, making it much easier to remove nits and lice. If you are unable to comb out the lice and nits yourself, you can contact a specialized Pediculosis Help Center"Lice Away". The center guarantees their removal in one day without the use of toxic drugs. The period during which it is on the market, a large number of positive reviews, the provision of a guarantee and a free repeat procedure speak of high efficiency and confidence in successful treatment.

And how did you save the child from lice and nits? Parent feedback

Both daughters picked up this infection a couple of years ago. One brought from school, and the second picked up next. I was just horrified. I didn't want to be chemically poisoned. I looked around the forums, read about vodka, and decided to take a chance. What can I say - a super tool. The lice died immediately. The compress was kept for twenty minutes at the eldest, ten at the youngest. Until it starts to burn a little. The nits were combed out for another week. Thank God it's all over. At school, no one learned anything (the girls were most afraid of this), because they took us out very quickly. Cheap and cheerful. All nits were removed by hand. Each strand was checked.

- The son brought this infection from school, and the daughter was also hooked. We've been fighting for two months now. Children's hair is very thick, incredibly difficult to comb out. In the end, the son was simply cut under the typewriter, and the daughters made a bob. No other way. We tried nittifor, and cranberries, and coffee mixed with henna - nothing helps. That's terrible! Bought Nude. The matter was on the mend. No lice yet. We comb out the nits every day, they are already less and less.

- Do not use kerosene, dust and dichlovos! Take pity on the health of children (and yours too). Funds today - a lot! Moreover, not a single remedy will remove nits from the hair, you still have to comb it out. Therefore, the most gentle is better.

— The Lice Guard helped us. Great set of shampoo and combs. I did not even expect such an effect - they died, reptiles, immediately in batches during combing. Brought out very quickly.

- Three months ruined on these lice! And tar soap, and dog shampoos for fleas, and Nudu, and other means. Nothing! Tormented! My daughter's hair is long and thick. And she flatly refused to get a haircut. In general, at first they ventured to make a vodka compress - the lice immediately died. The nits were combed out for another week. We consolidated the success with hair coloring. Fortunately, my daughter's age already allows. They took the usual paint, Schwarzkop (Paulette). And that's it. Now everything is ok.

There are three types of these insects that live on or near a person and feed on his blood - these are head, clothes and pubic lice.

• Head louse. Refers to one of the morphotypes of the human louse. Habitat chooses the hairy part of the human head. You can meet her in her chic hair, beard, mustache or even eyebrows. In addition to severe irritation on the scalp (pediculosis) and psychological discomfort, it does not cause any particular danger to human health.

You can quickly remove nits and lice at home using a mechanical pharmacy or folk remedy.

Advice!Whatever method you choose to remove lice, you will have to use a mechanical one in any case after each treatment. How to comb your hair correctly, you will learn from this article.

Remove lice at home: pharmacy products

Using a pharmacy remedy is the most effective method to get rid of lice. In pharmacies you can always find a wide range of pest control products. The most popular are: Neat Free, Anti-Beat, Para-plus.

Advice! To get rid of lice and nits at home using a drug from a pharmacy, you must strictly follow the instructions for the drug so as not to harm your health. Observe the indicated dosage and exposure time!

Advice! If there is an epidemic of pediculosis in a kindergarten or school, you need to prevent the disease with one of the pharmaceutical preparations without waiting for your child to become infected.

In some cases, for example, if the instructions of the attached instructions are not followed or if sumitrin is not tolerated individually, Anti-Bit can cause allergic skin reactions: itching, hyperemia, swelling.

• PAIR-Plus. It acts only on head lice, clothes and pubic lice do not die from it. Consists of permethrin, malathion and piperonyl butoxide (increases the effect of the first two). Hypoallergenic agent.

Advice! PAIR-Plus is great for handling personal items that a child or adult has had contact with. Therefore, after treating the head, immediately disinfest textiles (including bedding) to avoid re-infection with pediculosis.

Treatment with folk remedies

Folk remedies can help get rid of lice, but not all. Some cannot completely eliminate insects, while others are toxic to humans. Commonly used products: kerosene, vinegar and hellebore water.

• Kerosene treatment
  Kerosene can remove lice at home, but it spoils the hair. Treatment of head lice with kerosene (100 ml) will require the use of some more ingredients: toilet soap, water (200 ml).

Advice! For the solution, you can not take less water, because kerosene can burn the scalp (chemical burn).

• Vinegar treatment
  Vinegar does not kill insects, it just makes them slightly retarded, which allows them to be combed out faster. But vinegar will have to be used for several days until you can get rid of the pests completely.
  Just like kerosene, this folk remedy should be used with caution. Especially when a child has to treat pediculosis. The solution for processing is easy to prepare: vinegar must be mixed with water in a ratio of 1: 1. After rinsing the head, vinegar (water solution) should be on the head for about 20 minutes, and then it will only be washed off and washed with shampoo.

Advice! It doesn’t matter if you use vinegar or a pharmaceutical product to treat pediculosis, make sure that the medicine does not get on the mucous membranes of the eyes and nose. If this happens, rinse them under running water.

Pubic lice - how to get rid of at home

Pubic lice quickly die from almost any pharmacy product. Nittifor water-alcohol solution, Spray-Pax aerosol and Pedilin shampoo are excellent. These drugs destroy not only adults, but also nits.

Advice!To make the treatment as effective as possible, shave off the hair from the pubic area of ​​​​the body. If this option does not suit you, use vinegar with water. The vinegar will help dissolve the nits' sticky substance that attaches them to the hair.

Prevention

To prevent pubic lice from bothering you:

1. regularly carry out hygiene procedures;
2. do not share personal items with anyone: comb, shoes, clothes;
3. carefully approach the choice of a sexual partner.

Body lice - how to remove at home

For body lice to leave you and your belongings alone, just washing them in powder will not be enough. To do this, you need to wash bedding and clothes in hot water and soap, and then use any aerosol disinfectant on them.

Getting rid of lice mechanically

When pediculosis is treated at home in both an adult and a child, shaving or combing can be used. It is unlikely that anyone will want to treat pediculosis in such a way as shaving. This is a rather cardinal way to get rid of parasites, and in a child it will cause a completely justified protest, therefore, preference is still given to combing the hair. It is still necessary to know how to comb your hair correctly when treating head lice, because after each treatment with a chemical agent, this will need to be done.

7 373 Julia

Varieties of lice

The variety of lice species is amazing: there are more than half a thousand of them (and this is only in mammals). But only 2 types prefer to drink our blood: human and pubic. It is very easy to distinguish them: by location and appearance. They never intersect and cannot interbreed (except under laboratory conditions). A common characteristic of all lice is that they live either on the human body or as close as possible to it.

This species is divided into two subspecies. The first is in the hair. Such insects are called head louse . They start up not only in unscrupulous people, no one is protected from them. Such a louse takes up space on the head: in the hair, sideburns, beard or mustache. These insects are distinguished by a dark body color that can vary from dark gray to dark brown. Saturated with blood, the color of the insect acquires a deeper shade.

The head louse grows to a size of 3-4 mm. Their larvae are slightly smaller - about 1.5 mm. The females lay their eggs close to the hair roots. They are called nits. They wrap the hair very tightly. Adults and larvae crawl along the crown, back of the head, at the temples, behind the ears.

Almost no weather and seasonal differences affect the life of these insects. But they prefer hot climates. The most comfortable temperature for them is about 32ºС. With an increase or decrease in temperature by 10º, they can multiply. If the street is below 0ºС or above 45ºС, there is a high probability that they will die.

The life span of hair lice is approximately 30 days. Their presence and reproduction causes severe anxiety and discomfort, up to insomnia and allergies.

In addition, combing the bites, various bacteria are introduced into the wound, which can cause furunculosis, dermatitis and other dangerous skin diseases.

The second subspecies cootie . She has the same elongated body as the head one. The abdomen is slightly protruding. Only the color is much lighter - either white or light yellow.

Such insects live on everyday clothes. Therefore, it is also called "linen louse". Especially often this subspecies of the human louse is found in homeless, disadvantaged people with a wandering and asocial lifestyle. They do not change or wash their clothes, so the body louse feels very comfortable. Individuals of this species prefer to drink blood in places where there is no hair, after which they crawl back onto clothes, where they lay eggs.

Body lice are considered carriers of typhus.

Such insects usually live in the scalp. In extreme cases, they may choose to inhabit the armpits, eyelashes or eyebrows (if the infection occurred in the water). All specimens are very small. And if sexually mature pubic lice reach 2 mm. in length, the larvae are completely unobtrusive - only half a centimeter. This species is much smaller and the body is much shorter than that of human lice.

Ways to get rid of nits and lice

By contacting the services of the sanitary and epidemiological station, you can get professional help and get rid of lice quickly. But in view of the fact that there is usually not a completely clean contingent of people, it is better to find an opportunity to carry out certain procedures at home.

many pharmaceutical preparations are also not effective enough (for example, they only kill lice, but do not act on nits), and not one-time, but multiple (up to 2-4 times) use is required to completely get rid of lice and nits - however, about specific pharmaceutical preparations we will tell below;

Important! Apply any chosen product for a certain period, do not "overexpose" on the hair, and strictly follow the instructions. And be especially careful with folk remedies - their relative financial availability is generously "paid" by the risks of getting skin burns or dermatitis, which can take a chronic form.

mechanical way

However, now there are such products on the market, after the use of which careful combing is not required (for example, the Leisner drug - see below) - the substances that make up such products help to “peel off” the nits from the hair. And as a result, the nits simply fall off on their own and are easily washed out with water, and the hair can be combed out with a regular, and not very frequent, comb.

If the hair is long enough, it should be cut, washed well with shampoo and then with conditioner to remove lice and at least some of the nits. Although, nits are extremely difficult to remove with ordinary shampoo - the fact is that the adhesive composition with which the louse sticks the nits to the hair is very strong, and it will not work with ordinary shampoo. After that, sunflower oil is applied to the hands and rubbed into wet hair (oil can be replaced with olive oil). This will make the hair slippery enough that it is difficult for the lice and their eggs to linger on the slippery hairs. It is very important to pay attention to the removal of absolutely all lice and nits, even if they seem dead. Otherwise, some missed nits can populate your hair again in a couple of days, and all the work will be in vain.

Also, the usual shaving of all hair is considered a mechanical disposal of lice.

A big plus of the mechanical method is absolute safety for children. Fish oil, various oils can be applied frequently and in any amount. And daily combing, head massage improves blood circulation and hair structure.

Chemical

If there are no contraindications, then you can use special preparations designed to combat lice. Buying them is not difficult - they are in any pharmacy.

It is worth noting that many years of research have shown that, for example, the permethrin mentioned above for fighting lice is useless. It turned out that it has practically no effect on lice, and has no effect on nits. Those. the use of drugs with permethrin "works" effectively, most likely only because after processing and washing the hair, mechanical combing is performed, which helps to solve the problem. However, even in the instructions for some permethrin-based drugs that remain on the shelves, manufacturers often write: “re-treatment is required after a few days.” In European countries, drugs based on permethrin have not been used, produced or sold for about 10 years. And in Russia, such drugs were officially recognized as ineffective and removed from production and sale in 2018.

In addition, it is worth noting the fact that many of the chemicals can cause local allergic reactions (burning, itching, redness of the skin) or be dangerously flammable. Pay attention to the instructions - it should indicate whether it is possible to dry the hair with a hairdryer after treatment with this product: from preparations on "combustible" materials (on alcohols and some types of silicones), the hair can simply burn out when dried!

Popular remedies: Nittifor, Paranit, Pedilin, Full-marks, Veda, Antibite, etc.

Commercial preparations may be in the form of shampoos, lotions, creams, mousses, gels, sprays, conditioners, or solutions.

In case you noticed a pediculosis problem among your friends or accidentally found yourself next to a stranger scratching his head, no one canceled preventive measures. For this, there are such means: Nit-free, Lice Guard.

When buying pharmacy products, you should be aware of their advantages: fast and effective action, ease of use.

They also have their drawbacks:

Universal remedy for lice and nits: Leisner (one procedure is enough).

Important! Before using any pharmaceutical preparations, it is advisable to seek the advice of a doctor, especially if lice are found in children.

Consider the third way to get rid of annoying human insects.

Folk methods

Lice have been bothering people since ancient times. Therefore, over a huge period of time, a “piggy bank of folk wisdom” has accumulated to the top. These funds are shown to those who absolutely cannot use pharmaceutical preparations. The removal procedure is very similar to that already described earlier: the product is applied to the hair, tightly wrapped with a cloth, towel, cling film, does not last long on the hair, washed off with soapy solutions and water. After this, the patient with pediculosis should be carefully combed with a thick comb to remove dead individuals and nits from the hair.

The advantages of folk remedies in their minimum cost. But it is worth remembering that they can cause unpleasant reactions and lead to very serious consequences. So, various concentrated oils can cause individual intolerance and skin allergies. And alcohol-containing products can greatly dry out the scalp. Kerosene, lemon and vinegar tinctures or rubbing can both dry out the scalp and have a bad effect on hair follicles. After the immoderate and repeated use of folk remedies, it is quite possible that hair growth worsens - so think three times before saving on pharmaceutical preparations and trying to remove lice and nits with old "grandmother's remedies".

Advice! A good result can only be obtained by combining several of the described methods at once..

Video instruction

See tips for getting rid of lice.