How to kill head lice in 10 steps

A recent outbreak of lice in Nova Scotia has raised a head-scratching question: how do you get rid of the horrid beasts?

Head lice are small insects that lay eggs on your head. The eggs are called nits. It's common among children and not a sign of uncleanliness.It spreads via head-to-head contact, or through hats, combs, helmets and othertransferablehead gear.

Despair not: Nova Scotia's Public Health Services prepared a nit hit list to eliminate the critters.

1. Comb hair with a regular comb to removetangles.

2. Apply the treatment (which should containpermethrin, orpyrethrins with piperonyl butoxide) asfollows:

• Shake the bottle.
• Apply the treatmentto dry hair, even if the productdirections says, "toweldried hair." This will makesure the product is not watered down.
• Put the lice treatment all over the scalpand rub in well.
• Be sure that the treatment covers all of thehair, from the scalp to the ends.
• Leave the treatment on the hair for as longas the package recommends.

3.Rinse out the treatment over the sink.Don't rinse in a bathtub where the productcould get onto other parts of the body. Drythe hair with a clean towel.

4. Comb the hair again with a regular comb to remove tangles.

5. Comb for lice with a licecomb.

6.Continue daily licecombing every daybetween the first andsecond treatment. Do not skipthis step!

7. Use the lice treatment a second time, nineto 10 days after the firsttreatment. Use the same product, and followthe same steps you used for the firsttreatment. The first treatment kills the live liceand the second treatment kills any lice thathave hatched since the first treatment wasdone. No product currently available will killall of the nits.

8. Continue checking household membersat least once a week for threeweeks after thesecond treatment is done to make sureeveryone is free of live lice.

9. If you find live lice after the secondtreatment has been done, then repeatsteps 1 to 8 using a different product (witha different ingredient) to kill the lice.

10. If you continue to find live head lice afterfollowing these steps, contact PublicHealth Services.