The Real-Life Guide to Cleaning When There's Lice About the House
Posted: Sunday, July 02, 2006
by Erica Johns
Supermom's No-Lice Advice
1. Don’t stress out! Lice cannot live away from a human host
for more than 24 hours or so. They are
great at holding onto hair, since their life depends on it. Healthy lice do not just fall off of
someone’s head and ramble around your home.
Doing some basic vacuuming is a very good idea, but you don’t need to
panic and be really extreme about it.
2. Rather than wearing yourself out washing bedding every
day you can use this simple idea: Close
off a room for 24 hours or so. Have the
children bunk together for a few days, alternating into rooms that have been
closed up for at least a day. Obviously
you’ll still want to vacuum and wash the bedding, but you can save yourself
from having to do an extreme amount of work each day.
3. Don’t bother bagging up your children’s favorite toys and
blankets. Lice can’t survive in those
environments for long. Give your kids
back their stuffed animals, and to all a good night.
4. Please do not use the chemical lice sprays that are sold
for use on beds, carpets, and furniture.
These products leave a toxic residue and are then an ongoing health risk
for you and your children. The likelihood of live lice being on your home
surfaces is quite small, and can be solved simply by vacuuming.
5. Remember: Houses
don’t get lice. People do.
No the article didn't help! I left my home for four days and when i returned the lice had multipled in my bathroom. I didn't realize at the time that these were lice because it looked like a big pile of mud in my bathroom. I've got a mess in my home that won't go away. I vaccum often but this DOESN'T WORK! There has to be a way to kill these pest.they cent live with out human flesh for more than 48 houres what youve got is somthing little more grose than lice so stop freaking out youre persuing the wrong source of youre problem look into some other options
Are you sure these are head lice and not something else like scabies? Lice depend on human blood to survive.
could thery be surviving off of other host like rodents living in the walls of the bathroom?
No, head lice only live off of humans. There are other types of lice that live off of other living things, but pediculosis (human head lice) are specific to humans.