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I’ve Been in Lockdown – How did I get Lice?

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many around the world have stayed indoors to help prevent the disease’s spread. College students are participating in lectures online, adults are telecommuting from home, and their kids are in Zoom meetings and Google Hangouts for school. Yet in this unprecedented era of social distancing, lice are an epidemic that parents are still battling. With schools across the country operating either partially or completely online, how are families still catching head lice?

 

The Frustrating Reality of Lice

 

What most people don’t know is that a case of head lice often begins without any noticeable symptoms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an infestation can even take up to six weeks to notice. And in roughly half the cases, infested individuals are asymptomatic. That means some individuals may not realize they’ve been infested for several months.

 

So, if you or your child have come down with a case of head lice while social distancing, it’s very possible that your infestation began before stay-at-home policies were in effect.

 

“It’s a confusing experience people are having,” says Ally Anthon, owner of Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land. “People are coming into our clinic saying they’ve been at home, they’re not visiting friends or family, and they have no idea how they caught lice. They’re in shock when we explain that they likely caught it before lockdown even began.”

 

Quarantining with an Infested Family Member

 

A lack of symptoms isn’t the only hurdle that families and individuals with head lice face. The primary way that head lice spread is by direct head-to-head contact. This means that one infested member of the household often unknowingly infests others in the family. If just that one person gets checked and treated for lice, members of the same household may be passing lice around to each other for months without realizing that the infestations are coming from each other!

 

What to Do

 

Home remedies and over-the-counter treatment products may seem like the ideal first line of defense. However, these methods are ineffective at best and potentially dangerous at worst.

 

The difficulties of social distancing don’t have to be made worse by suffering from head lice—save yourself the hassle and extra money and contact Lice Clinics of America. Our exclusive, FDA-approved lice treatment device, the AirAllé, uses controlled heated air to kill more than 99 percent of lice and eggs (nits) in just one hour. Our clinics are also taking extra safety and sanitary precautions to ensure that our customers and our staff are comfortable and safe. We are committed to making sure that you will walk out our doors healthy, happy, and lice-free.

 

Lice Clinics of America has successfully treated more than 675,000 cases of head lice. The company has more than 265 clinics in 20 countries, making it the world’s largest network of professional lice treatment centers. Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land is located at 1531 FM-359, Suite 800, Richmond, TX, 77406 and is open 7 days a week by appointment. Call 281-801-4634 or visit https://liceclinicssugarland.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Why Over-the-Counter Head Lice Products Won’t Work

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When a child has head lice, many parents go into panic mode and will do almost anything to get rid of the lice as quickly as possible. After grabbing the first lice treatment they see at the drugstore, they race home to put a stop to the head lice infesting their child. Sadly, weeks later they are often still combing out lice eggs.

There are three problems with this treatment approach. Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land owner Anthon explains why:

 

“For starters, a majority of over the counter (OTC) products don’t work anymore, at least not in the United States,” says Ally Anthon. “According to the website ‘Beyond Pesticides,’ virtually all lice in the United States have developed resistance to the OTC and prescription shampoos containing the toxic chemical Permethrin. Several recent studies have confirmed the widespread resistance of head lice to retail products.”

 

“This isn’t really controversial,” said John Clark in a 2014 article titled “Head Lice Growing Resistant to Standard Meds.” Clark is a professor of environmental toxicology and chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and co-author of one of the studies of resistant head lice. “This is a problem we’ve been showing in development over a period of about 20 years. But our new work now shows that head lice are now almost 100 percent [resistant]. That means there’s an awful lot of resistant insects out there in the U.S. and elsewhere.”

 

“The second reason to avoid commercial lice-removal products is that they may not be safe. Permethrin is a neurotoxin that kills lice by shutting down the insect’s central nervous system,” Anthon says. “Lice-removal products have been deemed safe when used as directed, but overuse is common. Panicked parents often over-apply the product, and it may cause serious health problems.”

Richard Clapp, an environmental health expert and professor emeritus at Boston University, has said that Permethrin, especially when combined with other problematic chemicals, can cause seizures and, down the road, behavioral problems. In a 2009 memo, the EPA classified Permethrin as “likely to be carcinogenic to humans” in some conditions.

 

Environmentally relevant levels of pyrethroids—the class of pesticide that includes Permethrin—are also common in some household insecticide products. This means that adding lice shampoo, even the amount directed, to the level of pyrethroids already in a home can overexpose children to the pesticide.

 

“Finally, the third reason for thinking twice before using OTC lice-removal products is that they are not ovicidal, meaning, they don’t kill lice eggs, or nits, which is a real problem in the battle against head lice,” says Anthon.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pyrethrins (another type of pyrethroids) can only kill live lice, not unhatched eggs (nits). Nits are affixed to hair shafts with a very strong glue-like substance and must be manually removed.

 

“If every nit is not removed, you’ll simply get a new case of head lice when the eggs hatch a week or so after the treatment is applied,” continues Anthon.

 

Fortunately, there’s a pesticide-free alternative to lice-removal medications. It’s a medical device (rather than a shampoo), known as the AirAllé device, that uses heated air to dehydrate and kill head lice and 99.2 percent of lice eggs. It’s been clinically proven to be safe and effective and has been cleared for use by the FDA. Treatments using this device are available exclusively at Lice Clinics of America treatment centers throughout the United States and around the world. In most cases, head lice are removed in a single 60- to 90-minute treatment, and the treatment is guaranteed to be effective by the clinic.

 

About Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land

 

Lice Clinics of America has successfully treated more than 1 million cases of head lice. The company has more than 265 clinics in 20 countries, making it the world’s largest network of professional lice treatment centers. Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land is located at 1531 FM-359, Suite 800, Richmond, TX, 77406 and is open 7 days a week by appointment. Call 281-801-4634 or visit https://liceclinicswesthouston.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Can Chicken Lice Infest Humans?

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In recent years, the practice of adopting and raising backyard chickens has risen dramatically in popularity. Hatcheries nationwide have seen sharp increases in sales of baby chicks in 2020, to the tune of 500% of their previous year’s sales, as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps families home and motivates them to become more self-reliant.

 

But while new chicken caretakers typically anticipate the need for supplies like fencing or coops, some do not anticipate the high likelihood of their chickens becoming infested with chicken lice. That’s right—chickens can get lice! The seemingly sudden appearance of these parasites often has chicken owners worried that as they treat their flock, they may become infested by chicken lice themselves. Fortunately, there is no risk of humans or pets becoming infested by chicken lice. Read on to find out why.

 

Chicken Lice vs. Human Head Lice

While both humans and chickens can get lice, the physiological features, preferred diet and habitat of these insects differ vastly. Chicken lice reside solely on chickens, as well as wild birds, which can transfer the parasite to domestic flocks. Chicken lice may live specifically in the feathers, around the feet, or on the head. Depending on the species (there are more than one species of chicken lice) their diet may consist of their avian host’s feathers or dead skin. By comparison, human head lice (one of three species that can infest humans) live exclusively on the scalp and feed on human blood. These differences between chicken lice and head lice mean that humans are not at risk of chicken lice infestation.

 

“We have had several customers over the years contact us, worried about catching chicken lice,” says Ally Anthon, owner of Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land. “They’re taking care of their own chickens, or they have a friend or a relative with chickens, and they start feeling itchy after petting or handling them. Sometimes they coincidentally have head lice and that’s what’s bothering them, but in every instance, they do not have chicken lice.”

 

If you feel itchy after handling chickens, it may actually come from bird mites. Bird mites are a parasite that commonly infests chickens, and unlike chicken lice, they do feed on humans as well. If their bird host leaves its nest or coop, the mites may migrate into homes via cracks and crevices in the building’s structure. They seek out human hosts to feed on once they move in. While mites can’t live on humans or inside homes for long, they can absolutely be a nuisance while they are alive.

 

If you or your family members have itchy scalps or sensations of crawling on the head, pay a visit to Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land for a professional head check. Our trained experts will be able to confidently identify if what you are experiencing is a case of head lice. If your head check is found to be positive for lice, we’ll be ready to help you with a range of treatment options. Lice Clinics of America clinics exclusively use AirAllé, an FDA-cleared heated-air medical device to safely and effectively treat head lice. In just one hour at our clinic, you and your loved ones can be lice-free.

 

“We always feel that it’s better to get a head screening with us at the clinic than to wait around and see, and later discover that you’ve had head lice for a while,” says Ally. “If we discover head lice during your screening, we can take care of it all in one go!”

 

Lice Clinics of America has successfully treated more than 1 million cases of head lice. The company has more than 265 clinics in 20 countries, making it the world’s largest network of professional lice treatment centers. Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land is located at 1531 FM-359, Suite 800, Richmond, TX, 77406 and is open 7 days a week by appointment. Call 281-801-4634 or visit https://liceclinicssugarland.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.

 

 

The Head Lice Life Cycle

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If you have an infestation of head lice in your household, it can feel impossible to get rid of it. Most “natural” home remedies, prescription treatments, and over-the-counter products are ineffective and will simply prolong your frustration. In order to learn how lice spread and how to get rid of them, you’ll need to understand the lice life cycle. Read on to learn more.

 

From Egg to Nymph

A head louse’s life begins as an egg, also called a nit. The adult female louse lays the egg and attaches it to a human hair strand using an exceptionally strong glue-like substance. Thanks to this “glue,” the nit will remain on the hair throughout all kinds of bathing, swimming, and hairstyling. Lice attach nits ¼ of an inch or less from the scalp so that it can be kept at an ideal temperature before hatching; that means nits farther than ¼ inch from the scalp most likely have already hatched or are not viable.

 

After approximately eight days, the egg hatches into a nymph. The nymph louse is not yet mature enough to reproduce. The nymph will feed on the host’s blood on a daily basis as it grows and undergoes three molts. Each molt—or shedding of the outer skin—takes approximately three days. This means that it only takes about nine days for a baby louse to become an adult louse!

 

At Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land, we professionally train our technicians to spot lice and nits in the hair and determine whether an active infestation is present. While it’s helpful to periodically check the hair for lice at home, distinguishing nits from dandruff and viable nits from empty or dead nits can be challenging. To save yourself the hassle, schedule a professional head check with us by calling 281-801-4634.

 

Continuing the Cycle

Once the louse finishes its third and final molt, it is then ready to mate and lay eggs. Female lice are capable of laying up to eight eggs per day for about three days, up until they die. That’s as many as 24 eggs per female louse. No wonder a case of head lice can be so hard to get rid of!

 

When it comes to transferring to a new host, head lice move quickly. They primarily spread to new hosts when there is direct head-to-head or hair-to-hair contact. As this contact occurs, usually during photos, hugs, or sitting and leaning against another person, lice can crawl from head to head in a matter of seconds. It’s easy to see how lice can spread rapidly between kids at school, at summer camp, and even at home.

 

Treating Head Lice

If you or your loved one has come down with a case of head lice, don’t panic—there are safe, quick, and effective treatments available. At Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land, you can be completely lice-free in an hour after a professional treatment with the AirAllé device. FDA-cleared and safe for young children, the AirAllé device uses controlled heated air delivered to the scalp to kill over 99% of lice and eggs. With no involvement of harmful pesticides or toxic chemicals, the AirAllé device is a safe and effective method for treating a lice infestation.

 

About Lice Clinics of America

Lice Clinics of America is the world’s largest network of professional lice treatment centers, with more than 1 million successful treatments performed in 265 clinics across 20 countries. Lice Clinics of America – Sugar Land is located at 1531 FM-359, Suite 800, Richmond, TX, 77406 and is open 7 days a week by appointment. Call 281-801-4634 or visit https://liceclinicssugarland.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.