Thinking about the bugs that nest in hair and feed off human blood can make you itch and cringe, but the tiny creatures are not anything to be scared of. Recently, it feels as though lice have taken over the school, but in reality, the number of people having lice is pretty normal in comparison to past years and other schools.

Lice and nits, lice eggs, have many misconceptions about them. A common myth is that lice tend to only be in dirty hair, but this is far from reality.

“Another myth is that people think that the more dirty an individual is, the more the lice like that,” said school nurse, Laura Parish. “The truth is that lice like clean hair.”

LHS junior Liberty Justus is a prime example of lice living on a clean head of hair. Justus’ lice outbreak became evident a few weeks ago.

“I figured out I had lice because my head was itching super bad,” said Justus. “Also, two of my sisters just found lice in their hair.”

To stop the itching and the rashes, local drug stores have a variety of solutions. Lice can be treated with over-the-counter medications that are directly used on the hair and then the lice are combed out a small amount of hair at a time. Super lice, lice that are intolerant of any solutions, are another example of a misconception about lice.

“If anybody would go to a physician to get a prescription for something, they would probably tell you that there’s no such thing as a super lice,” said Parish. “It’s just a matter of treating and retreating until they’re all gone since it’s a 12 to 13 day incubation phase.”