How to Rid Yourself of Super, Drug Resistant, Mutant Lice

If you search for info on lice treatments anywhere online they will tell you that lice are supposed to be these dark little creatures that are about the size of a grain of rice. And they will tell you that a lice/nit comb is your number one weapon against them, as you can easily pick them out of your hair with one.

And in the beginning, I did see lice that were about the size of a grain of rice, and pitch black. But one day I picked a dead one out of my scalp (after doing a Denorex treatment) that was all swollen and looked to be about 10-15 times the size of the others. And about a week later I saw another dead one of about that same size. Godzilla lice.

But after that, they started to "mutate" (at least that's what I call it), as they started to get smaller and smaller. I never again saw a huge one like the 2 dead ones, but from then on I only found tiny ones about the size of a grain of salt or sugar, but still pitch black. Sometimes after doing a treatment of some sort I would find these tiny little things on my shoulders that resembled salt or sugar - and they were white. I figured out that these were lice eggs that had been dried out during the treatment and were just falling out onto my shoulders during the day. I used to rub the back of my neck during the day at work and feel a lot of them, butbut as things got better I would only find one or 2 a day.

These things are so small that a nit or lice comb would be useless against them. Even though I hated to do it, shaving my head was really ( I thought) the only way to get someting that small out of my hair cause I would never be able to see it otherwise.

Yes, I hate to say it, but I shaved my head bald because lice and then wore a wig to work everyday.

I will list the remedies that I have tried here. I tried to list them in the order that I used them, but since I went back and forth a lot, the order may be a little mixed up.

Rid - This is a chemical pesticide that you are supposed to lather and let remain on your hair for 10 minutes, but no longer (because of its toxicity). After that you rinse and comb out all dead lice and nits. Do not repeat before 7-10 days, again because of the toxicity.

This was the first thing that I tried. The stuff is supposed to kill all living lice at the time that you use it, but not the eggs. Since it generally takes about a week for the eggs to hatch, if you reapply on day 7 you are supposed to be able to kill the next generation of lice before they are old enough to reproduce. But I figured out that since the female lice lays eggs every day, the eggs must be at different stages of development and if you wait 7 days some of them (who were about ready when you did the treatment) will have already hatched. I also found out via the web that lice have developed a resistance to the chemicals that we try to use against them, so some of them don't die when exposed anymore. For me, I felt lice crawling on my head the very next day after using it - and I wasn't supposed to do anything about it for 6 more days. Yeah, right. I waited about 4 days and repeated the process. Again, I felt crawling on the next day. Right about then is also the first time that I felt the dizziness after using a lice treatment.

__________________________________________________________

Mayonnaise - You will see this listed as a treatment wherever you find homeopathic lice remedies. You are supposed to smother you head in mayonnaise, put on a shower or plastic cap, and then leave it on for several hours (but preferably overnight). The theory is that the vinegar in the mayo will dissolve the glue holding the nits on to your hair so that you can easily comb them out, and then the oil in the mayo will smother and kill any living lice.

Lots of people report good success with this method, but I just felt like I was making potatoe salad on my head. I could always still feel the lice crawling thru the mayo as I tried to sleep at night, which totally grossed me out. Maybe regular, non-super lice are affected by this treatment, but it just didn't do anything for me.
___________________________________________________________

Peroxide - This treatment entails you mixing Hydrogen Peroxide (yes, the stuff that you use on cuts and scrapes to prevent infection) with water. Some people differ on the percentage of water to use, but most agree that the peroxide should be at least 33% to 75%. You are supposed to pour the mixture on your hair, apply a shower or conditioner cap, and let it work for at least an hour. This is supposed to kill the lice. They forgot to mention that Peroxide would also kill your hair, especially if you already had some type of chemical in your hair, like my permanent no-lye Relaxer. When it was time to wash this stuff out, I was horrified to see the drain in my kitchen sink filling up with mounds of my previously thick and previously black hair. The Peroxide had lightened the color to an almost attractive shade of auburn red. Well, it would have been attractive if not for the bald spots. So much hair fell out that day, that I actually had some spots that were completely bald, while others were still six inches long. I thought that I could just condition it really well and wear it up in a pony tail or bun until it grew out, but the hair that was left continued to break off. After a week or so, I finally just gave it up and cut it all down to about 2 inches long all over. And the worse part of it all was - the lice still lived.
___________________________________________________________

Shaved head - After my hair fell out from using the Peroxide treatment, I had cut my hair pretty low, down to about 2 inches. I continued to use various oils and other treatments but was still not having any success (probably because I had not yet figured out at this point that I was re-infecting myself because the lice were actually in all of my clothes and in my chair at work.)

And I still could feel them crawling around in the little bit of hair that I had left. Since I was already wearing a wig, I figured that I had nothing left to lose at this point, and shaved my head completely bald. Wanna hear something almost funny? THEY WERE STILL TRYING TO CRAWL ON MY SCALP AFTER THAT!!! Remember that they had mutated into tiny specs that looked like black pepper at this point, so even thought I couldnt see the I could still feel them. I guess they were kinda confused about the remodeling of their home (my bald head), so they just packed up and moved south (to my crotch). So I shaved that too. That's when I realized something really disgusting - that they hide wherever they can. In your ears, in your anus, I mean whatever and wherever.

It was right about then that I realized that that I might have to take drastic measures and, embarrassing as it might seem - go to the doctors.
__________________________________________________________

Ivermectin / Stromectol prescription - This was really not what I expected. Remember how I said up above that I had never known anyone who had lice? Well, would you believe that my African American doctor had never treated a patient with lice either? Most of her patients were African American, and she had never know any of them to complain about lice - I was the first one. Wow. Luckily I had done my research online and came prepared with the exact name of the drug that I wanted, because she had no idea of what to do when I walked in. She never touched or examined me the entire time that I was in the office. She just took my word for it when I said that I had lice. To confirm that the drug I was asking for was the right one, she actually told me that she had to look it up on Web MD. Again, wow.

Eventually, after she finished searching WebMD, she gave me the prescription for Ivermectin that I had asked for. Ivermectin is supposed to basicly get into your bloodstream and poison the lice when they bite you to feed. There were 2 pills in the prescription, the 2nd pill to be taken 1 week after the 1st. I will keep this short and simple: besides making me dizzy and lightheaded, the pills had absolutely no effect. Well, I should say no effect ON ME. But the lice loved it, I think it must have made them high or something cause for the first 3 or 4 hours just after taking a pill I could feel them running and jumping like they were throwing a block party or something. I too went to WebMD (since my doctor values it so highly) to see what was going on, and apparently several people had noted that their lice too had seemed to be more active right after taking a dose. Well, it was worth a try anyway, but now i was back on my own.
___________________________________________________________

Denorex - This is an extremely strong dandruf shampoo, the kind that you can feel tingling when its on. You are supposed to work up a lather and leave this on for about 30 minutes (or as long as you can stand it), and it is supposed to basicly cook the lice, or at least any eggs that are in your hair. I have had good success with this, and probably would be cured by now if it wernt for the fact that I keep getting reinfected by the ones in my clothes. Just be careful with this stuff cause it is actually really strong. Before I learned to wipe the extra foam off of the backs of my ears and my neck this stuff had burned my skin so badly that it would turn brown and peel off in sheets. I learned to I apply it and either continually wipe my ears or put some tissue behind them. I also put a towell around my neck and apply some oil on it while the treatment is in progress to prevent any runoff from seeping in. I also tried not to use it everyday, just to give my skin a break sometimes. This one works. Just be careful when you use it and stick with it.

I figured out that some of the remedies that I was using probably did kill the lice, but my main problem was that I kept re-infesting myself. I figured out that the critters were actually living in my clothes! (Which actually makes sense when you think about it - since I got this problem from an infected/infested piece of clothing that I purchased at the Thrift Store). I was following the advice from the web of washing my clothes in hot water with 20 Mule Team Borox and drying them on high heat, but apparently it didn't work. I figured it out one day when after feeling lice free for about 2 days I put on some leggings that I hadn't worn in about a month. Almost instantly I started to feel like I was itching, and I could feel something crawling on me. At first I started washing my clothes in flea shampoo to kill the lice in them, but I think they were becoming immune to the ingredients in it. Finally I started putting the Borox IN THE RINSE WATER instead of the wash water. (I figured that if I put it in the rinse water more of it would stay in the clothes and have a residual effect). I also added a cup of Epsom salt to my rinse water, as it helps dry the suckers up. For detergent I used the Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap in pepermint or Tea Tree.

I also used a special blend of Neem , Rosemary and Tea Tree Oil that I found at a local Indian supermarket (its called Hesh Ancient Formulae Neem Herbal Hair Oil - see the link to Amazon at the bottom of this page to purchase, as it can be difficult to find.). This seemed to work the best of everything I have used at killing the lice, while at the same time not making me sick so that I can keep re-using it as long as I need.

At first I washed my hair every day (or at least 2-3 times per week) with Denorex Coal Tar formula) or Dr Miracles "feel it formlula" shampoo. I found after a while that all the Denorex use was making me ill, as I could feel my kidneys ache. When I switched to using the Dr. Bronners on my hair 2-3 times a week, it had the same effect as the Denorex without the side effects.

At first I would put a little (1 cup) Borox in my bath water (yes, the same stuff that I use in the laundry.- a lot of people use it for this purpose. Check it out on the web.) As I said above I stopped using the Borox on my body though because I started ot experience side effects. I switched to adding a little Epsom Salt to the water as a booster along with my Dr. Bronners liquid soap. This works really well if you have bugs in your pubic area. I washed my ears with water from the Dr. Bronner's soap and applied a little of the neem oil (yes, lice like to hide inside your ears sometimes!)

I changed my bed sheets every day, and washed them when get home along with whatever clothes I have worn that day and my pajamas from the night before. I also washed at that time the towel that I used in the morning as well as the one that I used at night, the wash cloth or bath puffs that I used.

I sprinkled a mixture of Epson salt and Borox water on the carpet at work and at home, and the lice eggs went away.

let me say here that I have found that Lice do NOT die after being away from a human host for more than 2-3 days, like it says all over the web. I have put on a shirt that I have not worn for 4-6 weeks -and there they were. Mutants, right ?

They also do not die just because you put them in the dryer, or because you put a little Borox (alone) in the wash water.These are some hard core little buggers who apparently have evolved faster than the info on the web. You have to use multiple methods to get rid of them.

This is a way to run a simple test to see if you are being re-infested by your clothes and linens. Take about 1/2 cup of Borox and sprikle it inside of your dressar drawers where you store some of your clothes (underwear drawer, sock drawer, t-shirt drawer, etc.). Spread it around a little so that it gets on everything in the drawer, and thats it. Now wait at least a week, and then look at the Borox that is in the bottom of the drawer. The Borox would have been pure white when you first sprinkled it in, but if you now see small black spots in it that look like black pepper, the Borox has dehydrated and killed the lice that were living in your clothes.

How did I figure this out? In July of 2011 I changed apartments to be closer to my job. While I was packing and preparing to move I put some Borox in the boxes with the things that I knew I wouldnt need for the next few weeks, and thought I would take advantage of the fact that the clothes were packed away as a time to kill me some lice. When I got to my new place I realized that I had gone a little overboard and put Borox in with my underwear and some other things that I would need right away, so I just dumped the borox into my drawers along with the clothes. When I needed to wear something out of the drawer, I just shook off the extra Borox. It didnt stain or anything, so it wasnt really an issue. One day about 2 weeks later I was looking for a particular item and was having trouble finding it, so I started digging down into the bottom of the drawer. It was then that I noticed the black dots in the borox that was laying on the bottom of my underwear drawer. Curious, I looked at my sock drawer and the drawer where I kept hats and head scarves,and found the same thing.

I tried to do a version of this by sprinkling Food Grade D.E. (Diatomaceous Earth) on the clothes hanging in my closet.( I didnt want to use the Borox here because I have 2 cats who love to nap in the bottom of my closet, and I read that Borox is poisonous to cats if ingested. ) I started with clothes that I wouldnt have to wear anytime soon, so that the DE could sit for at least a week. Know what I saw a week later? Red blotches inside of my clothes. At first I was a little confused, but then I remembered that when I used the DE on my sheets, sometimes I would find a dead lice on my body the next day - and it was always a rusty red color instead of its usual black. I think this is because the DE works by scraping the outer layer off of the bugs so that they dehydrate and dye. I'm no scientist, but the best that I can figure out is that the red color is the lice's bodily fluids leaking out, so it turns the DE red. I saw this time after time when I checked the items in my closet - especially in the crotch and waistband area of my pants. I also noticed it in the area where your butt would be in my skirts, and around the collar and shoulder area on my shirts, tops and dresses. Whenever I would find the red blotches I would re-wash the item, repowder it with DE and put it aside for another week or so to see if it happened again.

At first I thought that the DE had killed all of the bugs in my closet, but one day I put on a long sleeve t-shirt that I had sprinkled DE inside of, and within 5 minutes I could feel my arms itching. The frickers had run from the middle of the shirt (where I put the DE) and hid in the sleeves!!! Thats when I realized that I had to step up my attack plan again, and started using Borox and Epsom salt in the rinse water. It took each item about 2 washings each before I noticed that I felt no movement while wearing something that had been infested.

First of all , try to avoid sitting in carpeted areas and on furniture that is cloth covered (like your couch at home). But if you cant avoid sitting on fabric covered furniture (like your office chair at work), then treat the area as follows:

1. Get some of that Lice Spray that they sell at Walmart (Rid or HotShot are some popular brands) and spray your chair or couch down every day before you sit down. A spray made for BedBugs will also work for this. I dont think the brand matters as long as it kills lice and as long as you do it every day while you are infected. While the store bought spray will kill live bugs I have found that it doenst do a whole lot for lice eggs - thats where the Borox and Salt water in a spray bottle come in. It dries the eggs up and prevents the future generations from growing up. This works well for office chairs without the smell or of chemicals.

2. Vaccuum regularly to pick up lice and their eggs. If you are at home, this is easy and within your control. If this is your work desk area that we are talking about, you may have to find out what the vacuum schedule of your office cleaning people is. Do they vaccuum every day? if so, you are ok. If not, mabe you want to keep a small Hand Vac in your desk and do it your self before everybody else comes in to work. I learned the trick of my office was that the cleaning people only vacuumed where they saw something that looked like it needed vacuuming, so I was sure to sprinke just a little too much Borox and Epsom salt on the floor under my desk, so it looked as if it needed vacuuming to them, but was not so much as to draw attention from my co-workers. The spray bottle filled with salt water worked really well on the carpet, since it dried up the lice in the carpet but didnt have a bug spray smell.
.
3. Change and wash your bed linen every day. Spritz a little Borox and Epsom salt water mixure on your mattress and on your sheets (especaily if you dont change the sheets every day. )

4. When doing laundry remember that anything that you wear is probably infested and needs to be separated and washed right away. I usualy came home from work and striped naked right in front of the waching machine, then went straight to the shower. And unless you do something to kill the lice in the washer, every other item that is in the washer will also possibly be infected. (This is what happened with me,and why it took me so long to figure out why I couldnt get rid of them. Borox and hot water in the wash alone did NOT kill them. you have to leave something to kill them in the wash (Dr. Bronners Soap possibly) and then something in the rinse water to have a residual effect on them borox and Epsom Salt. )

While I was doing my research online looking for new lice remedies, occasionally I would come across someone who would comment on how demoralizing it was to have lice, and how they were amazed that no one was talking about this. Whenever I saw a comment like this I would always stop, and read it again. Because they had just hit a nerve with me.

This condition carries a stigma with it that can keep you from seeking the help that you need, causing you to suffer for months alone in silence. It really shouldn't be that way, because you can't do anything to "deserve" or "attract" lice. They don't gravitate toward people who are unclean (I take 2 baths a day, wash my hair twice a day, change my sheets every day, and haven't worn a single item of clothing twice without washing in between wearings for months. Not a sweater, not a hat, not a pair of gloves. If that is unclean - then I don't know what clean is.)

This condition is temporary. It doesn't make you a bad person, and it does not define you. In fact, it doesn't say anything about you at all, so stop beating up on yourself. You know who it says something about? The Lice!! It says that they are mutants. They are freaks of nature that shouldn't even exist in my world.

My lice were not the weak little things that other people online are killing with mayonnaise. (Actually, my lice have informed me that that they really would prefer Miracle Whip, but the mayo would do in a pinch with their meals.)

I got a message on my voicemail the other day that I at first did not understand. Then I realized that the message was not intended for me, it was meant for my lice. It was the SyFy channel calling to see if they could make a movie about their lives. They wanted to call the movie either "Lice-Zilla", "Franken-Lice", or maybe even "Zombie Lice From Outer Space."

Sorry if I seem to be making light of the situation, but I am just really tired of letting them bring me down almost to the point of depression. A few months ago when the infestation was at its worst and nothing seemed to be working, I was almost suicidal. Seriously, no joke. I pondered leaving a note for my loved ones that said "I have lice, and my life is apparently over."

You have to understand that I am a single woman who loves dating, and I was afraid that my social life was completely over. How could I ever let a man get close me to me ever again like this? Can you imagine the humiliation of having a man that you care for call you to say that you gave him lice??? Is there a more horrific nightmare on planet Earth?

But now that my condition has cleared up and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, my joy is starting to return. All I can tell you is to keep using whatever method that seems to be working for you, and keep your chin up.

And remember, as the old ladies at my church are fond of saying, "Trouble don't last always".