Bad Regulations Make Super Lice

By Rich Kozlovich

Garbiel Roxas posted an article entitled, "Salon Caters To “Super Lice” Infested Clientele", " saying:

"When you think of a salon treatment, killing bugs is probably not the first thing to come to mind. But the rise of so-called super lice has specialty shops opening across North Texas.  For one family the whole thing caused so much embarrassment, the Frisco mom asked us not to show her face on camera, but she wanted other moms to know they’re not alone. “I thought we outgrew it. I thought we were out of the zone of having to worry about lice anymore,” she said. When she found lice in her high school daughter’s hair, she spent 10 days using over-the counter-products thinking she killed them all. But when she brought her daughter to Lice Lifters for peace of mind she learned the eggs from the lice were still there."

First of all - these aren't "super" lice.  These insects are doing exactly what bed bugs have done - develop a naturally occurring resistance to the pesticides available to the public.  In this case pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

Pyrethroidal products are no longer effective yet "public health officials and organizations such as the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control continue to recommend using products that simply aren't effective."   As one official noted, society is "trapped in this scenario where we're being forced to use compounds that clearly aren't near as efficacious as they were 30 years ago."​

I took some time to find what products are available for head lice besides pyrethroids and found active ingredients such as alcohol and a number with mint - and of course in one case their mint is a "MagicMint".  Then there's a "lice scaring conditioner" containing "Tea Tree, Peppermint, Rosemary and Lavender" which is preceded by a "lice scaring shampoo", containing "peppermint, rosemary and lavender." And of course "To help prevent lice, massage into wet hair and rinse. No need to repeat. Follow with step 2, boo! Conditioner. Use it daily!"  This is supposedly a three step process. I never did find what step three was, unless continuing to buy their products and using them daily forever is step three.  That clearly must be the most important step.

Then there's another product with the ingredient Dimethicone, which seems to be a lubricant. 
One company claims their "lice neutralizer is a proprietary blend of polydimethylsiloxane (dimethicone) oils. Chemically and physically it is similar to olive oil, and is considered a “generally regarded as safe” ingredient by the FDA. Dimethicone is a common ingredient in some hair products.  It kills the lice by blocking the spiracles, which are pores in the side of a louse through which it breathes."  So.....I guess it smothers them.  Wouldn't Vaseline do just as well?

For those who are Bible readers you will remember accounts where someone had his head 'anointed' with oil...presumably olive oil.....and it's presented as if this was a good thing.  I always thought that was pretty disgusting, after all, who wants all that grease in their hair?  But there may have been a reason for that practise.  Ancient peoples all had bed bugs, head lice and body lice, and this may have represented their only relief.  Now that's the pits! 

What we need here is clarity!  There's a reason people abandoned "all natural" at the first opportunity.

Then there is - or was - a malathion application known as Ovide, which I wondered if it was even available since I could only find all sorts of warnings about it but I couldn't find anyone selling it over the counter.  CVS has this which gave me the impression this requires a prescription, which MedicineNet.com confirms.  This active ingredient was discontinued in Great Britain.

Supposedly there's a lindane application, but I can't find anyone selling that anywhere and the product name that had lindane as their active ingredient changed it to "Piperonyl Butoxide 4%, Pyrethrum Extract, Inactive:  Benzyl Alcohol, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Fragrance, Polyoxyethylene Phenyl Ether (1,1,3,3-Tetramethyl Butyl), Phenyl Ether, Water, Xanthan Gum.  Lice Control Spray:  Active:  Permethrin 0.50%,  Inactive:  Other Ingredients.  Egg and Nit Combing Gel:  Water, Glycolic Acid, Polyquaternium-10, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Potassium Hydroxide, Propylene Glycol, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methylparaben, Propylparaben."

And we wonder why nothing's working!

The reality is this.  With the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act safe and efficacious products were lost, and not only to the structural pest control industry.  At some point ddemagoguery and reality must come to face to face.  If reality diverges from the demagoguery - society will eventually bring itself to recognize there must be a separation.  At some point things will become so bad society will realize to be green is to be irrational, misanthropic and morally defective.  Reality, too long ignored, begets civil strife!