My 9 yr old son has a bad case of head lice, which has been discovered while he’s away for a couple weeks. So, before he gets back I have the task of vanquishing all of those buggers from his room. First, I washed his bedding in hot water. Then I picked up all his pillows and heavy blankets and stuffed toys from his bed, and crammed them into black garbage bags. And I know they say that it’s like a month before all the buggers will die off in there on their own, but I don’t exactly have a month before he gets back. I know he can live without them. But I can try.
Anyways, the stuff being in black garbage bags gave me the idea of setting them out in the sun to let the heat cook those little suckers. Will it work?
I could get a candy thermometer and have it sticking out of one the bags, and I could check it now and then. But, at what temp would they die? And would the nits die too?
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Apparently, it doesn’t have to be that hot for them to die out. I could see 100 degree weather getting rid of them.
“A change to clean clothes, and laundering of infested garments (especially drying with high heat or ironing), are generally effective to eliminate this burden. “
You have a couple choices to consider here. The live lice can’t live more than a day or two at most without a host, they have to eat or die. The nits will hatch about 8 days after being laid, and reach reproductive age about 12 days after that. So no matter what method you choose, you still aren’t looking at a month to eliminate them. Head lice don’t lay their eggs anywhere except on the human head- so you can relax about doing all the bedding and such unless somebody is really into overkill. Just washing the pillows, hats, brushes and combs is enough to eliminate any stray critters. Eggs get attached to hair shafts, and they don’t come off very easily. So, if you still want to do all the other stuff- yes heat will kill them. You can wash it and throw it in the dryer, set it to high and bake dry stuff. By the time it’s dry, everything will be dead. You can microwave stuff, damp or dry- a couple minutes in the nuker will effectively do in anything. You can also freeze things in the freezer for a day or so. Same thing, lice don’t take the cold well, and a frozen egg never hatches. Or you can bag it all and simply wait it out, which requires the longest time- three weeks to be safest. You can also use the anti-lice shampoo as a detergeant to clean the brushes, combs and hats if you like.
I know it makes your skin crawl and your head itch, but really people do an overkill on the cleaning when lice are involved. Really, they like blood and they don’t leave a good meal ticket without good reason. So they don’t crawl into blankets and such to lay their eggs and wait for the next unsuspecting victim to come along. They go from host to host- so they don’t starve. Just get stuff that would have come in contact with his head, and may contain stray hairs. What you want to kill are the nits, really- and that’s fairly easy. Heat from the dryer or microwave, freezing, or isolated in the bag for three weeks. Any of these will do the trick.