The LouseBuster eradicates Head Lice without chemicals

Clayton's research focuses on birds and the lice that infest them. But when he moved to the University of Utah in 1996, he couldn’t keep lice alive on laboratory birds because Utah’s air was too dry. He had to humidify bird rooms to keep lice alive.

About the same time, his two children – Mimi and Roger, now 13 and 16, respectively – got head lice, "and we wondered if there was a way to kill head lice by drying them out," Clayton says. "We started trying different methods of desiccation using hot air like conventional hair dryers, but those didn’t work well."

In the new study, the researchers tested six ways of applying hot air to children's lice-infested scalps. The tests were conducted during 2001-2005 on 169 infested children who were solicited for the study by flyers distributed in dozens of Salt Lake Valley schools. The study was approved by the university's Institutional Review Board, which reviews research involving human subjects. Parents and children signed consent forms.

Children were excluded from the study if they had used other head lice treatments within the previous two weeks. Clayton dispatched his students in pairs to the homes of infested children to test the various methods. After completion of each treatment trial, each participant was paid $10 and given conventional treatments for lice.

Some 94 percent of the children were girls, who are more likely to have bad infestations because their hair is longer and they have more head-to-head contact on the playground, Clayton says.

Before treatment, the researchers combed one side of each child's head to remove all visible lice and nits, which were placed in an incubator. Then, the entire scalp was treated with one of the six methods being tested. After treatment, the other side of the scalp was combed for the same amount of time as the first side, with removed lice and nits also placed in an incubator.

The researchers used a dissecting microscope to count the number of live and dead lice from each side of the scalp. They re-examined them up to 18 hours later to make sure all were dead. Nits were incubated for two weeks to see how many hatched.

"Effectiveness of the different treatment methods was assessed by comparing the percentage of dead lice and non-hatching eggs on the pre- and post-treatment sides of the scalp," the researchers explain. The researchers measured the temperature and volume of hot air in each method and kept track of any discomfort.

...continued