Title: How to Comb for Head Lice
Author: Jeffrey Evans
Last saved by: Julie M. Evans
Company: Evans Consulting

EPA: Safe and effective head lice treatment 
uses only salad oil and a metal nit comb

•To comb properly for head lice. a number of special items are needed Most important is salad oil and a special metal lice comb. Combs are available in drugstores (ask your pharmacist to order one if you cannot find a metal comb). Do not use the plastic combs that are included in some lice treatment packages. These are not effective.
•Other items include a box of facial tissue, a large towel to place around the child's shoulders during combing, and wide bowl of water with a squirt of dishwashing detergent added. This water is used to kill nits (eggs) and lice combed from the head.
•If it is not possible to do the combing in the daylight near a window, combing will be more effective if you have an intense lamp with a flexible arm that allows you to rotate it to direct the light wherever you are working.
•If the hair is long, many large bobby pins or hair clips may be needed to pin up sections of hair that have been combed.
•Two comfortable seats, one for the child and one for you, will make the work more pleasant. You want the child to be just below your eye level. The child will be happier if there is also something entertaining to do that does not require much physical activity, such as reading, drawing, playing with plastic clay, or watching videos.
•If the child has very long hair, which takes more time and tries the patience of the child, two people can work together on different parts of the head (Olkowski et al. 1991).

Prepare the Hair
	• Cover the child’s hair with salad oil (any kind will do—corn, canola, etc.). Oil will prevent the hair from tangling and make it very easy to use the lice comb. If the hair is fairly short, this step may not be necessary. The oil may also smother some of the young and adult lice, but you cannot count on it.  Oil has the advantage of not drying out if the combing takes a long time. After you finish combing, shampoo the hair twice to remove the oil (Olkowski et al. 1991).

The Combing
• Seat the child so that his or her head is Just slightly below your eye level. Brush or comb the hair (use a large-toothed regular comb) to remove snarls.
• Separate a mass of hair that is slightly wider than the width of your lice comb and about 1/2 (13 mm) to 3/ 4 inch (19 mm) in the other direction. Separating the hair into such small sections is important so that you can more easily see nits and adult lice.
• Hold the mass of hair with one hand. With the other hand, hold the lice comb in a slanting position with the curved side of the teeth toward the head.
• lnsert the comb into the hair as close to the scalp as possible, since the eggs are first laid within 1/2 inch (13 mm) of the scalp. Pull the comb slowly through the hair several times.
• Comb one section at a time and check each section to make sure it is clean, then pin it out of the way, curling it flat against the head. Whenever you comb out nits or live lice, dunk the comb in the soapy water. Make sure the lice and nits are off the comb before you use it on the hair again.  Gently remove the hair and other debris from the comb with a tissue. When the tissue becomes soiled, place it in the bowl of soapy water. When the bowl is full, flush its contents down the toilet and refill the bowl with soapy water.
•When all the hair has been combed, wash out the oil by shampooing twice. Once the hair is completely dry, check the entire head for stray nits and remove those hairs individually with a pair of small, pointed scissors (like nail scissors).

Cleaning Up
• Soak the lice comb in hot ammonia water, prepared by adding one teaspoon of ammonia to two cups of hot water) for 15 minutes. Or metal combs can also be boiled in plain water for 15 minutes.  A comb cleaned either way can be reused by many different children.
• Scrub the teeth of the comb with a nail brush or an old toothbrush to remove debris.  Remove dirt lodged between the teeth of the comb with dental floss or a small stiff brush.  Boil the towels for 10 minutes or wash them in a washing machine in hot, soapy water, and follow with a hot dryer
• There is no safe solvent for the glue that the female louse uses to attach her eggs to the hair even though there are products that make such claims. Combing is the only sure way to remove nits from hair (Olkowski et al. 1991).
Above information from BIRC, www.igc.apc.org/birc, which was contracted by EPA to write IPM for Schools, about safe pesticide use in schools.  

Some schools and Dr. Doris Rapp, a well-known pediatric allergist and author of books about children and chemical sensitivities, also recommend Not Nice to Lice, an enzyme shampoo which is available at Walgreens.

Common Sense Pest Control XIV(4) Fall 199810	Box 7414, Berkeley, CA 94707