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Mites and lice are both common skin parasites. They are passed on through personal contact, and through contact with infected bedding and clothing. They can cause severe irritation, and they spread rapidly if not treated, which is why it's so important to take action at the first sign of infection.
Mites are the root cause of scabies. The mites burrow into the skin and lay eggs, causing intense itching.
Lice infest a particular part of the body. You get head lice, clothes lice, and crab lice (which often infest the pubic areas). All of them lay eggs that look like white grains attached to hairs. And of course, all of them cause intense itching. Schoolchildren often become infested without knowing how.
Treatment is reasonably easy, but somewhat unpleasant. The treatments are really insecticides that kill the adult insects as well as their eggs. Some are louse-specific, some mite-specific, and some kill both. Note that you must treat everyone in the family, not just the people displaying symptoms of infestation.
If you have scabies, you will apply a lotion to your whole body except your head and neck. Take a shower before applying the lotion. The lotions are messy, and should not be washed off for at least 8 to 12 hours. In some instances you may have to wait 48 hours before the treatment is effective. Fortunately, you only need one or two treatments to remove the scabies mites, although you may still continue itching for some time afterwards. Find a soothing cream to help control the itch.
While you are treating your skin to remove the mites, take the opportunity to wash and disinfect your bedding and clothing to avoid reinfection. Vacuum your mattress thoroughly as well. You may want to use a room fogger first. This is an aerosol which sprays a fog of disinfectant into your room. Remove all pets and plants from the room, close the doors and windows, set the aerosol to spray and leave the room for about eight hours. This will kill all the mites in the room, and vacuuming thoroughly afterwards will help remove all traces.
For lice, it's usually easiest to use a shampoo containing anti-louse medication for infestations in the head and pubic hair. These usually contain benzyl benzoate, pyrethrins or lindane. (In the olden days, you soaked your hair in a half-and-half mixture of kerosene and vinegar several times.) You can also buy special anti-louse medications which you use directly on the infested area. After 12 hours, shampoo with an ordinary shampoo. After treating head lice, be sure to comb your hair with a fine-tooth comb to remove the nits and dead lice.
If there are lice on the body, you can simply remove them and sterilize the clothing in which they live. Iron the clothing well afterwards.
One final word of advice: if scratching has caused a skin infection, ask your doctor for an antibiotic cream which can be used directly on the skin.
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