It’s a classic Christmas scene: young siblings, cousins and friends snuggling on the couch, watching a beloved Christmas movie ahead of a holiday sleepover. But before that long winter’s nap, lice removal experts are sounding the jingle bells about the Christmas gift nobody wants.
“They’re hungry. Holiday head lice are a thing,” said LiceSquad.com’s founder and CEO, Dawn Mucci.
Lice removal companies tell Global News that in the last few months — since September, when children went back to school — there has been record demand for lice removal, and they expect it will only get worse in the coming weeks.
“We have seen a huge resurgence of lice since COVID. It has come back full force,” Mucci said. “Parents should expect a spike of lice in January and February just because of the nature of the holidays.”
At Nitwits on Lawrence Avenue East in Toronto, three lice removal technicians are busy with mid-afternoon appointments while “Chief Nitwit” and founder Shawnda Walker confirms head lice are back with a vengeance.
“We have had an increase of 30 per cent since 2018 so, in the last 13 years that I’ve been in, we’re 30 per cent over our busiest year (2018),” Walker said.
Toronto Public Health does not keep lice stats since head lice are not listed as a communicable disease under the Health and Protection and Promotion Act, meaning they are not considered a public health hazard. That said, most people will agree head lice are a gross annoyance.
So, what’s the reason for the lice explosion?
Mucci believes the little buggers were in “survival mode” earlier in the pandemic and when children returned to a normal run of summer camps and the start of a normal school year this past September, when there is a typical spike in head lice, it was prime time for the blood-sucking insects to feed and flourish.
As Walker sectioned and combed through an 18-year-old client’s hair picking out bugs and eggs, she said her team used to mostly treat children in the seven- or eight-year-old age group pre-pandemic, but now, with fewer lice check programs in local schools, her clients are coming in older — 11 or 12 years old through teenagers.
“They’re back together and the older kids are getting it more. We say (it’s) selfies, TikToks,” Walker said.
As with most species, head lice have learned to adapt and Mucci said most over-the-counter products are no longer as effective as they once were. But even before discussion around treatment, it’s important to know how lice spread and how to prevent it.
“They have no back legs. They cannot jump. They cannot fly,” Walker said.
If you don’t want to offer these tiny insects a free holiday meal, it comes down to trying to avoid head-to-head or hair-to-item contact.
“It’s going to happen. Prepare for it. I just say to parents, look: lice happens. It’s the second most communicable affliction next to the cold in children. If it happens, don’t panic … take a peek, once a week. Check a head, avoid the spread,” Mucci said.
“Buns and braids. If you have no loose hair, you can’t contract lice if it’s nice and tight,” Walker added.
And since not everybody experiences the itch of head lice, not feeling itchy doesn’t mean you don’t have lice. The best way to tell is the best way to treat lice — using a proper louse trap comb that can capture both lice and their eggs.
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