Medical Center
Get Lice Free in One In-Home Visit

Lice are a problem worldwide and some countries have traditional options and methods that depend on a host of different culture factors, financial, and technological opportunities. There are lice clinics in america as well as salons, mobile services, and other facilities sprouting up everywhere. The earliest lice businesses were most likely founded by parents, especially moms, that were struggling to find a solution head lice for their children and community. Now, there are large national franchises and private corporations that offer a variety of services. You can identify the top lice businesses in your area by searching google maps or Yelp for the best reviews.

The cost of hiring a professional lice service can range from as low as $135 to nearly $1000 based on how much treatment is needed and how urgently.  Kits found at drugstore locations such as CVS, Walgreen, or Walmart cost from $15 to $50, but expect to need multiple kits and be prepared for multiple sessions of hours of combing. If price is an issue, consider using a kit, combing your family with a quality lice comb, and then getting checked by a service to see if that took care of the issue.

Extermination using a professional or medicine is usually only covered by FSA or HSAs, not typical health insurance such as would pay for a general practice doctor appointment. If you do choose a kit, read the reviews carefully for tips on which kits are best and any pointers on how to use them for best results.

Adults head lice live for about 30 days. It takes about 8-10 days for a nit to hatch and another 8-10 days for it to mature into an adult.

A nit is a lice egg and that is composed of the egg casing and the developing louse. Once it hatches it is called a nymph and there are three stages of a nymphs growth and development before it becomes an adult louse.

Nits are laid by female lice by attaching them to the hair shaft with a glue agent that chemically resembles human hair. Nits are less than a millimeter long, brown when occupied and white when empty or hatched. It is extremely difficult for an untrained person to tell a nit from dandruff or other debris commonly found on the scalp. If you find a nit farther away than a quarter inch from the scalp, it is either dead or already hatched. Nits by themselves are not an indicator of a live lice infestation. Nits take about 8-10 days to hatch into nymphs.

Nymphs are adolescent lice that have hatched but not yet developed into mature lice able to mate and reproduce. Nymphs are less mobile than adult lice and harder to see because they are smaller. It takes about 8-10 days for a nymph to grow into an adult louse.

Yes and no. Looking for a lice doctor will not result is good results as there are no doctors that specialize in lice treatment because of the relative ineffectiveness of medical treatments and the fact that lice are not covered by insurance providers that would also bill a doctors office.

Looking through your family’s hair is the best way to catch a lice infestation before it spreads from your children to everyone else in the family. In most cases, the daughters and the mothers have it. Possibly because it is easier for lice to move from long hair to long hair than from short hair to long hair because of the way longer hair may drape down onto another persons head when hugging.

The best places to look for lice and nits are along the hairline all around the head, the nape of the neck, behind the ears, and the crown on the head. Use a rat-tail comb or pencil-like object to part the hair and look along the scalp for anything moving. A lice clinic is also a good option to have your head professional checked for a small fee. They can also show you how to do a check on your children while you are there.

You may see businesses offering lice cleaning services for the home. They may take your belongings to their facilities or cleaning locations or they may use your washer and dryer. The truth is this is an extremely unnecessary expense that is only recommended when a client is physically unable to do their own laundry or has some time or other type of restriction preventing them from washing their bedding, which is all that is required to eliminate lice from a home. Since lice spread from head to head contact and cannot survive for more than 24-48 hours off a human head and cannot move around easily on anything that isn’t hair, doing a full-house cleaning is overkill. If you want to do more than your bedding, simply vacuuming the head rest areas of furniture, bagging combs, hats, and stuffed animals or blankets that cannot be washed is more than enough.

If it’s stressful for you, it’s an emergency and look for same day professional extermination. If it’s no big deal having bugs on your head, you can wait a few days before seeking treatment because it won’t get significantly worse. Head lice don’t spread disease and are not a urgent health risk. They are an annoyance and proper steps should be taken to prevent spreading them.