Lousebuster in a drugstore near you?

The “Lousebuster”- a device that looks like a blend of a hair dryer and a vacuum cleaner could soon be in a drugstore near you.

As it’s name suggests, the Lousebuster gets rid of lice, with a “near perfect success rate”, according to one of its inventors.

Children are prone to picking up lice while at school, and the treatment of choice has been special lice combs and insecticides. The problem is that the lice combs take a very long time to use, and most parents don’t feel comfortable about putting insecticides on their children.

The Lousebuster works by delivering very hot air right to the root of the hair, killing [tag-tec]lice[/tag-tec] and their eggs.

Because the device uses heat, and not chemicals, it is unlikely that lice will become immune to this treatment, as they have to some pesticides used in the past.

In clinical tests, this device killed 98 percent of eggs and 80% of living lice. The remaining lice appeared unable to breed, perhaps due to stress or sterilization due to the high heat. After one week, there were no lice left.

The device seems to work by rapidly dehydrating the lice- drying them out, as it were.

While the costs for initial equipment will be high, the inventors are confident that they can get the cost down and the required treatment cycle lessened from 30 minutes to 15: making this device affordable for school districts.

The Lousebuster is expected to come to market in a year or two, and, probably, a year after this, will be available in a drugstore near you.