First, take a deep breath and calm down. Lice are actually fairly harmless in normal infestation situations that are caught relatively early.
That panicky feeling you're experiencing--
just get them out, get them out, I don't care what we have to do I want them gone--is the knee-jerk reaction of most parents. Bugs in our kids' beautiful hair seems gross and embarrassing. But it's really, really normal. And that shame and revulsion can lead to a lot of unnecessary expensive treatments because it's one of those problems that feels like a worthwhile cause to throw money at in order to make it go away quickly. At least, that's how it felt to me and several of my friends who have had the same problem.
I'm not an expert, but here's what I've gleaned online and from my pediatrician. The first time we got lice, we panicked and spent a bunch of money on insecticides, and then, when those didn't work, we took our daughter to a professional lice clinic and had the problem solved for $250, like all our friends. And then I did some research.
Lice can't jump from head to head, and they can't survive longer than 8 hours, so you don't have to worry about nuking everything in the house in order to get rid of them. They're not invisible like germs, so you can see when you have them.
If you have little kids, invest in some cheap tea tree oil and a nice lice-picking comb from Amazon. And then wait. When they turn up with an itchy head and the little gray bugs and eggs, here's what you do:
1. Get their hair wet
2. Soak it with a ton of cheap conditioner mixed with tea-tree oil, and leave it in for ten minutes or so
3. Section it off with clips
4. Turn on a movie
5. Carefully comb through the hair with the lice comb and marvel at all the eggs/bugs in the conditioner foam. So satisfying. So much easier than using Nix.
6. Rinse out the conditioner/oil.
7. Blow dry the hair if it's long enough for that. The heat can kill the eggs/bugs.
Why don't I use Nix? It worked thirty years ago when I was a kid with lice. But it mostly doesn't work anymore, because lice have evolved to survive it. I know it seems gross that everything is still alive when you comb it out, but it's not that big a deal. Just comb, comb, comb. The white conditioner makes the grey bugs and eggs stand out really clearly and you can see how many you're getting. Keep rinsing the comb in a bowl of hot water and wiping it on a paper towel, and work your way around the kid's head.
And then throw all the bedding in the hot water cycle of the washing machine and then dry it on high. And then if you're really being vigilant, bag up the stuffed animals for a day or two to suffocate any lice on them.
For two weeks or so afterwards, if it was a bad infestation and/or you want to be careful, keep checking the kid's head and do a once-over with the conditioner/oil/comb method to make sure you're getting out all the bugs.
I was skeptical as hell about this method because I wanted to use all the chemicals. BUGS. But Nix really didn't work. And it's expensive. And the oil/cheap conditioner is way, way easier and more effective.
Don't even get me started on the professional lice salon. These places do a brisk business because they're fast and very effective and results are guaranteed, but I'm more embarrassed of the $250 we spent than I am of the fact my kids got lice. You don't have to run to the doctor or the lice salon. Conditioner/oil/nit comb work great.
For more information:
https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/how-to-get-rid-of-lice-with-tea-tree-oil-not-insecticide/.
Just sharing because I was so excited that this worked.