4 Tips to Prevent a Lice Infestation

A lice infestation at a summer camp is an organizer’s worst nightmare. Head lice affect both adults and children, and the last thing you want is a group of campers spending their time scratching their scalps or being locked up in their rooms. Here are a few ways you can avoid a lice outbreak at your camp.

Avoid Sharing Personal Belongings

While teaching kids to share their belongings is a valuable lesson, for certain items, they must be taught the opposite. Head lice are extremely common among children; they can occur when kids share personal items such as hats, hair ties, and hairbrushes. To prevent an outbreak, anything that makes contact with their head, including blankets and pillows, shouldn’t be shared among young campers.

Launder Clothes Using Hot Water

Another way to keep your camp lice-free is by doing regular laundry using hot water. Lice can’t survive high temperatures and will be killed if exposed to them. Even if no camper shows signs of head lice, having their clothes and bed sheets cleaned in hot water will serve as a precautionary measure. In case there’s a camper who’s contracted head lice, immediately toss their clothes into the washer and have them rinsed and dried on high heat. Jackets, scarves, gloves, and hats should all be washed. Furthermore, have them soak their hairbrush and other hair accessories in hot water to kill off any head lice present on them.

Encourage Pulled-Back Hairdos

Kids are more likely to get head lice if they wear their hair loose. Encourage children with longer hair to style it in braids, ponytails, and buns to prevent this outcome. You can introduce creative activities or competitions that are not only fun and give kids new hairdos (don’t use the same combs and brushes!), but also prevent an infestation.

Perform Regular Screenings

Despite your best efforts, conducting full-fledged head lice screenings can be difficult if you have a huge number of kids to cater to. But it’s essential that you do a thorough inspection of the camping site for preventative and cautionary measures. This is where our team can help you. Lice Troopers in Plantation offers camp and school screening services to prevent lice infestations.  Our professional and friendly staff will carefully inspect and clean the area, implement prevention and treatment plans, and have your premises lice-free in no time. Call at 800-403-5423 to get in touch with our lice removal service!