Lousy Infestations

By Samantha Wigfield/Converged Citizen Staff

Many children and young adults suffer from head lice each year and experts say it can even affect the way they learn and interact with their peers.

Head lice, the pesky blood-sucking bugs that live on human heads, can be easily spread and can move up to 3.45 inches per minute. That is roughly 450 feet per day, which is over a football field in length.

A lice egg or nit is generally the size of a pencil tip, while the adults can look as big as a sesame seed.

Cassandra Beck is a 21 year old registered practical nurse at the Ouellette Campus of the Windsor Regional Hospital. She said in her experience they treat mainly the homeless population and those with poor living conditions with lice infestations.

“When somebody comes in with lice we put them in isolation. So the nurse will go in fully covered and we’ll treat them like that until they’re clean again. Without treatment, lice can last as long as you let them to be there.” said Beck.

Head lice can be spread quickly by wearing the same hats, using the same brushes, head to head contact and laying on a bed or blanket that has been used by an infected person.

According to Health.com, easy ways to avoid getting head lice include washing furniture, clothes and bedding, avoid wearing the same articles of clothing, keeping long hair in a ponytail or braids, using tea tree oil and using hairspray to contain loose ends of hair.

Kathleen Hearns is a mother of four from Windsor who had a bad infestation as a child, resulting in her being cautious with her own children.

“My biggest fear is for my children to come home with head lice. I had them when I was a kid, really bad and they’re hard to get rid of. I check my children’s heads at least once a month and put oil in their hair,” said Hearns, “It won’t get rid of them completely, but if there are a few there it suffocates the bugs at least.”

You can check to see if your child has lice by having good lighting and parting the hair into pieces to check the scalp for nits.

“It’s not necessary to cut off long hair just because of lice, there are many treatments people can use and buy.” said Beck, “There are home remedies as well, which might be better because lice are getting immune to the treatments we use today.”

Aside from the over the counter remedies that can help get rid of the pests, home remedies are available. Coating the hair with almond or olive oil will suffocate the bugs, making it easier to comb them out. Other remedies include essential oils (such as lavender oil), petroleum jelly, mayonnaise, nit combs, garlic and lime juice and shampoo with neem oil.

“I check my kids’ hair every day after school. I have to explain to them that even if they do get head lice it’s nothing to be ashamed about and it happens to lots of other kids,” said Rebecca Ashker, a concerned mother of five, “I also tell them not to make fun of other kids who have head lice, because it’s not their fault.”

According to headlicehelp.ca, if an infestation is left untreated, children will scratch and could possibly break the skin. Breaking the skin could lead to infections such as cellulitis. Other dangers could include impetigo, a bacterial infection of the skin and typhus, which is caused by the actual bite and not the scratching.

It is also possible for the hair shaft to become infected with fungi, which will cause swelling by the hair shaft.