Lice Resistance to Chemicals and Over-The-Counter Products
It is now a medical fact that Over-the-counter lice shampoos have stopped responding to the chemicals used to kill them. Big pharmaceutical companies, the makers of these products, have stopped responding to the alarms about it. The vast majority of head lice in the United States are now resistant to most over-the-counter treatments, meaning that it’s now especially difficult to vanquish the tiny blood-sucking parasites.
In a ground breaking study in The Journal of Medical Entomology first published in March 2016, researchers found that head lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) in at least 48 states studied carry an average of three genetic mutations that make these bugs impervious to popular over-the-counter anti-lice remedies. A detailed analysis showed that 98.3 percent of the genes involved in these mutations were, in fact, mutated in a way that helped the lice survive the most popular treatments, the researchers found.
It’s a natural part of evolution that parasites such as lice that reproduce every 30 days mutate to resist the effects of chemicals designed to eradicate them. That means these products full of chemicals become ineffective over time not matter what, but we have sped up that process by overusing them. By doing this with product after product and chemical after chemical, we have created “superlice” that can be invulnerable to any chemicals on the market.
Parents have been sounding the alarm that over the counter products do not work for about the past 15 years or so. In fact, most parents today that call us have first tried to treat the lice infestation themselves with this product that does not work because they do not realize it doesn’t work and at first it appears to be the cheapest way to go. Days, weeks, months, and even years later, hundreds to thousands of dollars later, and many frustrating lost hours of time, work, and school later, and some very red scalps later, they wished they had called us sooner to get them lice free in about 1 hour.
Family owned and operated Torrance Lice Removal follows a proven, chemical free five step treatment process that takes about 1 hour. Since 2015, our trained, certified head lice technicians have successfully treated over 25,000 people in a sanitary, medical evironment. We charge a flat rate of $195 per treatment, $185 for educators/teachers/military members, and a $175 flat rate per treatment for 3 treatments or more. Relax, we got this!