What Are Lice?
Who invited lice to the beach? The jarring, skin-crawling feeling of realizing that lice are skittering along your scalp while relaxing on a beach blanket can stop you in your tracks. Lice breakouts happen daily in places like Waretown, South Seaville, Port Republic, Somers Point, Leeds Point, and Egg Harbor City.
Lice are different from other insects due to their sheer relentlessness. They can’t simply be shaken off, washed away, or combed out. These sesame-seed-sized insects spread from person to person in order to feed on human blood. During a lice infestation, you might experience:
- Intense itching.
- Tickling sensations as the lice move through your hair.
- The presence of lice on your hair and body.
- Intense itching on the scalp and body.
- Sores and bumps on the scalp, neck, and shoulders.
- Bite markings.
Beachgoers in Ocean County and Monmouth County, New Jersey should know that bringing lice home from any beach in America is common. Lice thrive in the hot, humid conditions at the beach. Sun doesn’t kill them. Water won’t drown them. Only smart beach practices for preventing lice breakouts can help! Take a look at the best tips for preventing lice at the beach.
How to Avoid Getting Lice at the Beach
It’s possible to protect yourself from lice at the beach without feeling like you have to avoid all the classic beach activities you love. Maintaining some personal space is the first step to a lice-free beach day. You can also use some tips and tricks to prevent an infestation if you do get exposed.
Don’t share towels or other personal items
This is lice prevention 101! Stick to only using your own towels that you brought from home. A little-known lice truth is that lice don’t actually require head-to-head contact to spread. They just need a contact point. Generally, the “bridge” used by lice is a towel, hat, headband, or some other personal item. Never share towels, hats, hoodies, or other items that create indirect hair-to-hair contact.
Don’t lie on the sand where others have been
It’s possible to get lice from someone you didn’t even touch! The most common way this happens is by picking up lice when moving into someone else’s spot as soon as they’ve left. Don’t get cozy in a spot where someone else was just relaxing on their own beach towel. Always select a fresh spot in the sand that looks like it hasn’t been used yet. Lice could be waiting to hop on the second you rest your head against your beach towel in the sand!
Wear a swim cap
A swim cap is a great lice barrier. Consider keeping it on when you’re relaxing in the sand after a swim. Many people assume that they can just take a dip in the waves to brush off any lice they may have caught while mingling on beach towels. In reality, it’s nearly impossible to drown lice. These relentless insects can hold their breath for hours under water.
What to Do If You Find Lice on Your Head
While most people consider sunscreen, beach umbrellas, and sunglasses the essential beach items, the truth is that no beach trip is complete without a good lice comb. An ordinary comb or hairbrush just won’t do when you need to rake through your hair to eliminate lice. A professional-grade lice comb is the most effective first defense against lice. Combs help to pry out the deeply embedded nits (lice eggs) that create recurring infestations. Here’s how to use a lice comb:
- Choose an area with bright lighting enabling you to see any lice activity in the scalp.
- Next, separate the hair into small sections. Be sure to include the areas that are close to the scalp, behind the ears, and around the nape of the neck because these are the “favorite” hangout spots for lice.
- Begin combing through each section of hair slowly.
- Stop every few strokes to clean the comb with a paper towel to inspect for live lice and nits.
A lice comb is a great tool for reducing a lice infestation’s intensity. However, combing alone is rarely enough to kill all lice. Lice nits stick to hair follicles to remain resistant to washes, combing, and other at-home removal techniques. A visit to a professional lice removal clinic is often the only way to 100% remove a lice infestation. That’s why people in Ocean County, Atlantic County, Cape May County, Cumberland County, and Monmouth County, New Jersey rush to Lice Lifters of Ocean County in Toms River at the first sign of lice! Our safe, all-natural lice treatments get rid of 99.9% of lice. We even offer a 30-day guarantee that lice will stay gone! When you’re in for a visit, you can pick up a Lice Lifters official nit comb made made of tempered steel with spiral micro-grooving that helps get underneath every egg. The long teeth on our combs can be boiled for sterilization to ensure years of safe, effective protection against lice.
Apply a lice-killing shampoo
Ordinary shampoo does nothing to kill, drown, or slow down lice. In addition to easily surviving a bath or shower, lice will also glide right through ordinary shampoo with ease. A special lice-killing shampoo is necessary. Effective against both ordinary lice and super lice, Lice Lifters Lice Solution Treatment offers a soothing blend of oils that quickly eliminates all stages of live lice with a 10-minute conditioning treatment for the hair and scalp.
Lice Lifters of Ocean County offers a full roster of all-natural, guaranteed-safe lice treatments that are effective against medication-resistant lice that at-home kits can’t kill. While our lineup of products can help you to stop an infestation at home quickly, our in-person treatments conducted by trained lice-removal technicians include a diagnostic lice inspection, personalized treatment plan, flexible payment options, and the potential to have your lice treatment covered using an insurance code. There’s simply no substitute for a lice appointment in Dennisville, Seaside Park, Forked River, Bayville, Estell Manor, Hammonton, and the surrounding communities. Lice Lifters of Ocean County in Toms River offers easy appointment scheduling to ensure that lice never linger. Book an appointment to get rid of lice quickly in Milmay, Minotola, New Egypt, Mantoloking, or Barnegat Light.
FAQs
Can you catch head lice in a pool, pond, or lake?
Lice can thrive just about anywhere. Water alone won’t kill lice. While most insects are killed immediately after being submerged in water, lice continue to thrive in water for several hours.
While lice are less likely to spread in water than they are to spread on land, transmission in water is still very possible. When swimming in pools, it’s important to know that chlorine levels found in pool water will not kill lice. The same precautions for avoiding lice on dry land must be followed when interacting with others in pools, ponds, and lakes.
Does salt water kill lice and nits?
No! Unfortunately, salt water does not harm lice. In fact, the protective shells covering lice make them essentially impervious to all types of water. Lice generally go into a suspended state while submerged in water that allows them to “hang on for dear life” as you swim, float, or remain submerged. There’s simply no way to wash lice away at the beach!
How do you get rid of super lice?
Super lice are medication-resistant lice that have evolved to evade all of the tactics that people were able to use successfully to kill lice in the past. Lice Lifters of Ocean County in Toms River, New Jersey is the premier lice clinic in America offering treatments against super lice that are 99.9% effective! In order to treat super lice, both roaming lice and nits must be killed to prevent recurring infestations.
Can louse swim?
Lice cannot swim! It’s impossible for lice to live in any body of water for longer than 24 hours after falling off of a person’s head. However, lice are experts at clinging to hair when submerged in water. They can also hold their breath for hours while being carried along on a swimmer’s scalp. While lice cannot swim, they also can’t be drowned with a simple swim at the beach.
Get Rid of Lice at the Beach in New Jersey
Don’t let the latest lice breakout in Ocean Gate, Dorothy, Atlantic City, Longport, Margate City, Linwood, or Avalon ruin your day at the beach. Lice Lifters helps people all across America live without lice by offering natural, safe lice removal for the whole family. While many products promise to kill lice, lasting lice removal can only be done in a treatment salon with trained lice technicians. Book an appointment at our Toms River lice clinic today!