Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 05/05/05 9:28 am:
I have never heard of headlice getting into private areas. Have you contacted your doctor to diagnose what crawlies you're dealing with?

To my knowledge the shampoos prescribed or purchased over the counter don't work too well. I understand that keeping the hair and scalp clean (Shampooing more than once daily)and removing them manualing with a fine comb specifically for this purpose works best.

When using the combing method, it is best to comb into a white cloth so you can grab the live ones and squeeze them between your thumb nails. Otherwise, they will fly back into your scalp very quickly. It only takes one pregnant one to recreate a head full of them again. This means that you will have to treat everyone in your household simultaneously. One pregnant lice can contaminate your entire household VERY quickly.

The dead ones will need to be combed out with the very fine comb specifically for removing lice.

In my experience using roach spray works very well by leaving it on for at least 1/2 hour wrapped in a towel.

Then the lice need to be avoided to keep from being contaminated again.

First you need to contact your doctor to identify the creatures.

Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 05/05/05 11:34 pm:
I agree with CeeBee that roach spray is toxic but so is whatever is in those shampoos. It has to be. You will see how hard it is to get rid of lice. They are tough creatures to kill.

But if you get sick and tired of dealing with these pests knawing at your scalp you can resort to the roach spray. You just need to use a small amount at the base of the scalp where most of them hang out and spread it upwards with your hands(wear gloves) and wrap tightly in a towel. I have seen my mother treat several kids SIMULTANEOUSLY (after the parents got tired of dealing with the shampoos not giving satisfactory results). She used the combing method before and after using the roach spray. She NEVER had to repeat this process either (only once per child). When my nephews and nieces were in grammar school there was a big epidemic in EVERY school and in EVERY city here and I have seen my mother treat a bunch of kids with excellent results.

But if the kids are less than 5 years old, I might think twice about using roach spray because I have never seen my mother treat a child younger than 5 years old.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you don't have lice. It is a miserable experience that can even sap your energy.

And I agree that you need to contact the school. I remember my nieces telling me that all the kids used to get checked at school for lice.

If your getting them from your child's school, you will need to continue to make sure your hair is clean by shampooing more than once daily. Keeping your daughter's hair short can help make it easier to treat. Lice really like a head with thick hair. But don't resort to desperate measures of shaving her hair off. I have seen parents do this also--shaving their daughters' heads like boys.

Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 05/06/05 12:16 am:
my mother used to leave the hair wrapped in a towel for one hour. This will give you a clue as to how aggressive you have to be in getting rid of them.

Clarification/Follow-up by Anonymous on 05/06/05 1:12 am:
did she put roach spray in the shampoo or something else to apply to the hair?

Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 05/06/05 1:17 am:
She used to spray the roach spray directly to the base of the spine and then she would spread it upwards. And would leave it wrapped in a towel for an hour and then shampoo as usual. Make sure you don't have any open woulds though because it can sting.Make sure any open wounds heal first. You might even feel the lice dying while the head is wrapped in the towel.

Lice seem to like curley hair. My niece with curley hair always had a lot more than her twin sister with the straight shinny hair. My sister used to keep their hair short when they got them really bad. But when I was growing up my mother never had to resort to cutting my hair. My mother was a hard worker and a very clean person so she always managed to keep the lice off of all of us and any other bugs that other people seemed to always have. I only had lice once in my life although I lived in Mexico as a young child where everyone had them. We just stayed away from unclean children and we were fine.

Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 05/06/05 1:35 am:
Sorry, I meant to say the base of the head by the neck(by lifting the hair up and spraying underneath)

Let me know if you have any other questions or something isn't clear.

Clarification/Follow-up by CeeBee2 on 05/06/05 5:04 am:
There are non-toxic shampoos too, Tarot and Anonymous. The doctor/pharmacist can tell you which one is the best.

I grew up in the South where head lice are a constant problem. Even here in the Chicago area head lice are a concern during the school year when kids share combs and are close together all day.

Thanks, Anon, for an interesting question.

Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 05/06/05 5:34 am:
Thanks CeeBee.

Anynomous just want to mention again that my mother combed out all the lice she could possibly comb (lice comb) out first and as THOROUGHLY as she possibly could and then she followed it with the roach spray. She depended on the roach spray to catch the ones she didn't with the comb. She used to cover the couch with a white sheet so she could catch any that might fall out of the hair while she was combing. And to avoid contaminating the couch.

You might want to try the shampoo first as CeeBee has suggested. I will admit that I'm not up-to-date on any new shampoos. You can always resort to the roach spray as a last measure. As far as I know none of the kids that my mother ever treated ever got sick but then she also only did this once to each child. It was never necessary to repeat the process again.

I only share my experience with my family and friends of several years ago and the many years of struggling my siblings had with their kids with lice until my mother was asked to step in and help.

Be well and see your doctor. I hope you don't have lice.

Clarification/Follow-up by tarot10 on 07/08/05 8:13 pm:
How is it going with the bugs? Did you have lice afterall? I'm wondering if the shampoo worked for you? A friend of mine told me her kids got lice from school and would like to offer her some help. Thanks.