[abrogard]

We have a home made recipe for head lice: Listerine and vinegar. The Listerine because it is supposed to kill the lice and vinegar because it is supposed to soften the egg shells or the egg hair-bonding cement, I'm not sure which.

Usually treatments describe a Listerine process followed by a vinegar treatment but we've mixed the two together and put them in a spray bottle and spray the kid's hair with that before they go to school and as a treatment when they come back from school, after combing.

And we've now added Tea tree oil because we've read the lice really hate it.

So now we've got this mix of Listerine, Vinegar and Teatree oil.

Why does no one else suggest the mix?  Is it because the action  of the different parts will be  hampered by the presence of the other ingredients?

Or should everything be fine?

[Arkcon]

It might be more simply that no one's thought of it, or expects you to have them all.  I'm thinking tea tree oil is a little uncommon.  I don't expect a chemical reaction between the components of Listerine and vinegar, but you are diluting then in each other by mixing them with each other, so you may lose efficacy.  Unless you're supposed to spray them on seconds apart, in which case, it likely doesn't matter.  There may also be a trend to avoid giving "mad scientist" mixing recipes, to people who might be squeamish spraying a mixture on their kids.

[abrogard]

Thanks for that.

Actually it seems to be not working. Combed baby lice out of my child's hair again this morning and I think they must have hatched there. So it is quite possible the Listerine is killing - or the combing is removing - but the eggs are unimpaired.

Perhaps I should be more careful about proportions. I'm currently very slapdash.

Please let me know if, as a chemist, you are aware of some chemical (widely available) that will either kill head lice or destroy their eggs - or both.

For the time  being I am going to saturate with Listerine and two hours later saturate with vinegar.  When the child starts school I'll go heavy on the tea tree oil. I like the idea of it. Oily should clog the breathing pores of the insect I would hope and the heavy aroma makes it easy to believe the insects will shun such a head.

I'm looking for an entomological or parasitology forum I can join to enquire within.

Thanks again for your help.

regards,

ab

[Arkcon]

Well, a doctor could prescribe a medicated shampoo that is usually very effective.  Proper hygiene: by that I mean to say, no sharing of bed clothes, hats, and combs with people you don't have control of will help prevent the return of the little bloodsuckers.  If climate and social mores allow, a nice head-shaving will help prevent resurgence.  As I understand it, tea tree oil is a bacteriostatic, so its not a given that it will kill lice.