Spending excessive time and money on housecleaning activities is not necessary to avoid re-infestation by lice or nits that may have fallen off the head or crawled onto furniture or clothing. Common sense should guide you if you wish to do anything more. You may avoid lying on beds, couches, pillows, carpets, or stuffed animals that have been in immediate contact with an untreated, infested person. Clothing and items that are not washable can be dry-cleaned OR sealed in a plastic bag and stored for 2 weeks.
You may vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the untreated, infested person sat or lay. They are not necessary to control head lice and can be harmful if they are inhaled or get into the skin, especially on young children. The information contained on this Web site should not be used as a substitute for the medical care and advice of your pediatrician. There may be variations in treatment that your pediatrician may recommend based on individual facts and circumstances.
Follow Us. Back to Top. Chronic Conditions. Common Surgical Procedures. Developmental Disabilities. Emotional Problems. From Insects or Animals. Genitals and Urinary Tract. Learning Disabilities. Sexually Transmitted. These treatments do not kill the eggs, and so need to be repeated nine days later.
Ask your pharmacist, or your doctor may prescribe a stronger medicated shampoo, lotion or rinse to kill the lice. Hair combing should be done while wet and after a treatment with pediculicides to remove any residual nits. Specialized combs are sold for this, but any fine comb will do. This task is somewhat time-consuming, but will help remove the nits. Prescription therapies may be necessary if the first round of over-the-counter treatment is ineffective.
If you need to protect a pillow or other surface, cover the surface with a towel or old blanket that you can easily wash. When it comes to cleaning your house after a lice outbreak, remember that lice only live 24 to 48 hours off of the scalp.
Sheets, pillows, clothing and other items that have close head contact should be washed in water that is hotter than degrees F. Learn more about vaccine availability. Advertising Policy. Head lice are spread most commonly by direct head-to-head hair-to-hair contact. However, much less frequently they are spread by sharing clothing or belongings onto which lice have crawled or nits attached to shed hairs may have fallen. The risk of getting infested by a louse that has fallen onto a carpet or furniture is very small.
Head lice survive less than 1—2 days if they fall off a person and cannot feed; nits cannot hatch and usually die within a week if they are not kept at the same temperature as that found close to the scalp. The following are steps that can be taken to help prevent and control the spread of head lice:. To help control a head lice outbreak in a community, school, or camp, children can be taught to avoid activities that may spread head lice.
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