Body-Louse Treatment Tips
Treating head lice and body lice can be very frustrating. The first thing you should know is that they are not due to poor personal hygiene as some people might think. They are actually only transferred by person–person contact, or through contact with accessories of a person that is infected with lice. They can be a pain to get rid of, but it can be done. Here are some valuable body-louse treatment tips:
Clothing –
Body lice do not actually live on the body! They live and lay eggs in the seams of clothing. They do come out onto the skin, but only when they are feeding. Then they return to the seams of the clothing. For this reason, many doctors do not recommend actually treating the body with any sort of medication. Simply washing and drying your clothes in a high-heat dryer for an hour should do the trick.
Body –
One thing you should know, even if you do not actually treat your body with medication, is that body lice itch. This is one way to tell if you are infected. However, you can continue to itch even after you have successfully gotten rid of the body lice. This is due to small allergic reactions to their bites. Rubbing on a cortisone cream or anti-itch lotion should help with this until you are fully over the reaction.
Taking hot showers for a few days until the body lice are clear should help. You will also need to treat your bedding and unlaundered clothing. Washing them in hot water and then drying them for two cycles on high heat should be all that is needed to get rid of the body lice on the clothing. If you are still having issues, you may need to buy a medicated treatment. There are lotions, shampoos, and creams at your local pharmacy, and you can ask the pharmacist which one you should use. Read all directions before using. If you notice bumps on your skin that contain puss, dark patches on your skin, or if your skin has a bad smell, you should visit the doctor. This could indicate a skin infection that will need prescription medications to clear up.
Pubic Lice –
Pubic lice are a form of body lice that live in the pubic hair. If you have lice present here, they are completely different from body lice and typically do need
to be treated with medications. They are typically treated with a pubic shampoo that is similar to head-louse shampoo. They are also usually spread through sexual contact, so sex partners usually need to be treated as well. You can tell if you have pubic lice by intense itching and small red bumps in the pubic area.
Although any form of lice is frustrating, body lice are generally easier to get rid of than head or pubic lice. Simply following the tips above or the advice of your health care professional should get you moving in the right direction to get rid of body lice for good!