The Texas Lice Squad

August 27, 2011 by Julia
Filed under Austin (northwest), Austin Metro, Featured, reviews, stores and products

image credit: CDC

Have you ever heard of The Texas Lice Squad? Well, neither had I until yesterday. After noticing my kid scratching lightly at the crown of her head, I did a quick check. ”Please, please, please don’t be…” Crap. You want to talk heeby-jeebies? I got the heeby jeebies. There weren’t a whole lot of nits, but one nit is one too many. Instantly I felt creepy crawlies all over me, and even as I type this, I am getting itchy. I stopped at Target to pick up a lice treatment kit, and as I read the instructions, I also had my smartphone out to do a quick search of anyone who specializes in lice removal as I remember hearing about such services on NPR once. Most parents suck it up and do the nitpicking themselves. I am not that parent.

Hello, Texas Lice Squad? Do you have an appointment for RIGHT NOW? It so happened that they had an appointment space available, and I packed up kids and headed to northwest Austin…right after I pulled all the linens off the bed and put them through a HOT wash cycle.

We found the TLS’ office which had a small waiting area, all white furniture, very minimalist and nothing upholstered. The kids butts didn’t even touch the waiting room chairs before all three of us were whisked into small rooms like at a dentist’s office. I asked them to do a head check of little brother and me for good measure. Shoot, I went ahead and made an appointment for hubby to have his head checked too.

The TLS technicians used this stainless steel nit comb first through dry hair to look for nits. They strummed the comb teeth into a small container of water to look for nits or live ones. Then after that, it was a meticulous process of combing sections of hair to manually remove nits and any “hair buggies.” My kiddo watched a movie (and ate a lollipop). I was thinking the whole time we were there that there is no way my child would have sat that still for that long at home if I were to nitpick her head. Once they finished combing once through, they do another thorough recheck. We follow up again a few days later.

I walked out feeling like we had been cured of some horrible disease, and though I know that lice are not indicators of poor hygiene (in fact, quite the opposite as lice prefer clean, healthy heads), that still doesn’t stop me from having my preconceptions about the overall gross-ness of lice. The TLC technicians were great. They educated me about lice, how to treat/comb/nitpick. They don’t use pesticides there, just an all natural mint spray combined with good ‘ole manual nit removal.

I thought I would pass along a few tips since school is back, and kids are more likely to come in contact with other infested kids.

1. Lice don’t hop or jump. They require direct close contact to transfer from one person to another. If your kids have long hair, tie back to minimize exposure. Apply a mint or tea tree oil spray as those are natural bug repellants. Make sure to make combing a part of your kid’s normal grooming procedure, and it helps to comb the same section of hair in multiple directions to remove any nits.

2. Nits differ from dandruff in that nits do not easily flake off. They are usually oval, ranging in color from whitish tan to dark tan, attached on one side of the hair, fairly close to the scalp. Nits are lice eggs, and nits do not spread from one person to another. Nymphs (“baby buggies” as my kid called them) are not able to lay eggs. Only the adult female louse lays eggs, so it would be the transfer of adult lice from one head to another that would spread lice. Many schools do not have a no-nit policy, but others do. The current recommendation is that a child with nits only and no live lice remain in school.

3. Lice require human blood to survive, and any nits or live lice cannot survive greater than a few hours (though some public health forums say up to 36 hours) away from the human head. This is why I was told not to go overboard in cleaning and vacuuming household items but rather to invest time in diligently combing and nitpicking instead. (I will confess that I did go overboard in cleaning after I also obsessively re-combed the kids’ heads even after TLS gave us an “all clean” notice.)

4. By all means, tell everyone who might have come into contact with your infested kid. If there are no adult lice on your kids’ head and just nits, your kid isn’t “contagious,” but you just never know.

5. TLS told me that movie theaters do not have enough time between one show to the next to allow any lice that might have transferred from an infested head to the fabric to die off. That’s also a place where kids can pick up lice, and a good precaution may be to bring a lint brush. 3M makes a sticker lint brush that works great, even for those items like car seats that do not have removable covers to wash.

6. I was told it wasn’t necessary to bag and put away stuffed animals for two weeks. Putting fabric items into the dryer on high heat for 20 minutes does the trick. Hair brushes can go into the dish washer with a hot rinse cycle.

Though it wasn’t cheap, I felt every penny was worth my mental sanity to take my kids to TLS. They charge $12.50 + $24 for the nit comb (that you get to keep) for a diagnosis, but should they find lice, the $12.50 fee is waived. Head lice removal is charged at a rate of $95 per hour, billed in 15 minute increments. So for my child who has shoulder length, medium thickness, wavy hair, the removal process took about 45 minutes.

…and that’s about all that I want to say about lice. I’m still grossed out, and I am eyeing all of my kids’ friends suspiciously as to which one passed on the buggies. :-) That’s our first encounter with lice, and I sure hope the last.

The Texas Lice Squad
12411 Hymeadow, Suite 3-D
Austin, TX 78750
512-520-8360