lice creeps me out

i totally ended with a preposition, but they do. lice creep me out!

this year we did not have a hot enough summer to kill the little buggers, so there have been many reported cases of lice this fall. freak out. FREAK. OUT. seriously.

there are a lot of things with which i can deal: sickness, fungus, yeast, itches, etc, etc. lice...i am not prepared to deal with lice. i have no desire to deal with lice. it's not just the bugs. they are disgusting, but it's not just ridding them from the scalp that drives me to this paranoia. it's the debugging of the entire house...the entire, huge, overwhelming house. bags and bags and bags of potential eggs on stuffed animals or in clothing, suffocating for two weeks. it's the unending laundry. it is a pain and inconvenience i wish with all my might to avoid.

my paranoia sent me searching for lice repellent formulas...they have to not like something and i was praying it was an essential oil i contained in my collection. a few clicks later, i was reading through a list of things that deter or kill lice. in less than five minutes i had whipped up my first batch of lice repellent spray, thoroughly saturated my children, pulled up the girls' hair, and went to school (where some cases had been reported) to brave whatever lice remained.

over the course of our two hours at classes that morning, i used my spray on all the carpets and chairs in the main gathering places and anywhere i knew the students who had had lice had been. that evening i sprayed the couches at the dance studio. every day for the next two weeks i sprayed everyone before we left the house. i am no longer paranoid...i am prepared.

erin's lice repellent spray

20 oz distilled water
40 drops each: lavendar, tea tree, peppermint, eucalyptus, and rosemary essential oils

shake well before spraying.

note: i did not have rosemary when i made the first batch of this and figured four out of five was better than none. as far as my reading/research said, tea tree and eucalyptus essential oils were the most important, though i had another mom tell me that rosemary was in fact the most necessary ingredient.