7 Proven Ways To Treat Your Furniture To Get Rid of Head Lice

Discover the 7 best ways to treat your furniture for head lice.

Question:

I'm worried we might get lice back from our furniture. What are the best ways to clean furniture after lice?

A couch with a throw blanket on it.

Answer from a Lice Expert:

After spending hours treating your child wiht lice the last thing you want is to get it back from your house!

Before diving into this article, you should know that there is a FREE, all-inclusive LICE CLEANING CHECKLIST available for you to take with you from room to room as you clean.

In this article let's dive a little deeper into specifically cleaning furniture after lice and the 7 effective ways to eradicate lice from your furniture. 

Let me introduce myself...

Lice nurse helping others

Hi there! I'm Theresa, I'm a lice expert, lice coach, and Registered Nurse. I help people with lice every day! You can get rid of lice in ONE DAY at home by using the same proven professional technique that I use in my lice center.

Just follow the step-by-step videos and be done with lice by the end of the day.

How to Clean Your Furniture From Lice

furniture with lice on it
 
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Why Is It So Hard to Get Rid of Lice?

Now that you know what you're looking for I want to talk briefly about your biggest worry (that your child actually has lice) and the question I get asked by parents around the world that have been battling lice….

picture of lice bug under a magnifying glass

Lice bugs are immune!

Parents around the world are all asking me the same question…. "Why is it so much harder to get rid of lice now?"

Lice have become immune to everything that used to work in the past. Perhaps you remember your mom using a typical lice treatment or mayonnaise and that doing the trick. The new strain of head lice is no longer killed by those treatments, that’s why lice today are termed by people, “super lice,” because they are immune to those treatments. 

I’ve cured thousands of people of lice in my lice center and let me tell you, I don't do it with over-the-counter lice treatments. 

magnifying glass looking at lice eggs and nits in brown hair

Lice eggs hatch!

Most people struggle with lice because they focus all of their attention on killing lice bugs and not enough attention on GETTING RID OF LICE!

If you want to get rid of lice you have to address all 3 of the problems of lice:

  1. Lice Bugs
  2. Lice Eggs
  3. Getting Lice Back

The best way to get rid of lice is to tackle all 3 of these problems at the same time, which is what I teach in my step-by-step video system.

So, if you discover your child HAS lice, don't panic. Just head over to the video system. Follow along with the videos and you'll be done with lice by the end of the day.

lice bug under a magnifying glass

Should I use lice sprays on my furniture?

the word no

Do not waste your time, money, or health on pesticide lice sprays or lice bombs. If you have tried a bunch of pesticide treatments that have failed, you are not alone, and it’s not your fault. The latest stats say that most parents that use over-the-counter kits still have lice even after multiple treatments!

Just like pesticides are an ineffective treatment on the head, they are even more worthless when sprayed in the air or on your couches.

Additionally, they are EXTREMELY toxic and dangerous to you, your children, and your pets. If they actually killed lice, maybe you could rationalize the risk of breathing problems, sickness, or even cancer, but they don’t actually kill lice! The chemicals in lice sprays and bombs are the same pesticides that 98% of lice are resistant to, so you end up just spraying poison all over your brushes for no reason.

QUICK FACT

Over 98% of lice have some immunity to pesticides!

7 Proven Ways to Clean Your Furniture After Lice

#1- Vacuum (with extension)

A woman vacuuming her couch

One of the most effective way to treat your furniture for lice is by vacuuming your furniture with either a handheld vacuum or your vacuum’s hand tool. Most vacuums come with this tool specifically to clean things such as furniture. Although lice are very good at gripping cloth surfaces, vacuums provide enough suction power to remove them. Vacuuming lice and throwing them into the garbage outside will ensure that they do not survive.

Be sure to focus your vacuuming on the surfaces of the couch that people put their heads on.

#2-Sticky Lint Roller

persons hand lint rolling a couch with lice

For those without a vacuum, the next best thing is a sticky lint roller like this. The link roller’s adhesive tape is strong enough to pick up lice off surfaces.

Roll each surface of the couch, replacing the roller sheet as the stickiness wears off.

A quick disclosure: all items in this article are affiliate links, and I do earn a commission from qualifying purchases; however, all of my reviews are based on the quality of the product.

#3- Don't Use Pesticide Lice Spray!

bottle of lice spray

As I explained before pesticide sprays do not work to kill lice because lice have grown immune to pesticides.

QUICK FACT

Over 98% of lice have some immunity to pesticides!

#4 -Essential Oil Lice Spray

lice prevention spray with essential oils

There are several essential oil scents that lice hate. When you spray these fragrances on furniture it helps keep lice away.

With that being said, spraying essential oils on the couch isn't a way to effectively treat the couch. I'd recommend the essential oil lice sprays AFTER you've either vacuumed or lint rolled the couch.

#5- Pillows

Three Throw Pillows on a couch

If you have a lot of pillows on your furniture, it will be extremely time-consuming for you to vacuum each pillow individually. Another alternative to vacuuming pillows is to place them in the dryer on high heat for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes in the dryer, your pillows will be safe and can return to your clean couch.

Another option for your pillows is to bag them up for 2 days and keep them away from the family. Lice dehydrate and die after 2 days off the head.

#6- Options for Leather Furniture

A brown leather couch

For those with leather furniture such as suede or faux suede fabric, either vacuum or lint roll your furniture. For those with vinyl-leather furniture that is not easily vacuumed, wipe down the leather with a wet cloth, this is sufficient to remove lice. Alcohol-based wipes are best at killing lice, but I do not recommend using them on furniture surfaces.

#7- Barrier

A couch covered in a clean white sheet

Another option for treating your furniture is to place a barrier between your couch and your family. Laying a clean large sheet or blanket over your sofas and chairs for 2 days will ensure that you do not get lice from your couch. You are welcome to use your furniture while the sheet is placed over it because lice are not capable of climbing through the fabric. Lice die after 48 hours off of a human, so after 2 days, you can safely remove the sheet or blanket.  

FREE Lice Cleaning Checklist

If you are doing house cleaning after lice, then just grab the FREE Lice Cleaning Checklist. It covers exactly what you need to clean and exactly how to clean it to get rid of lice in your house.

 
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The Most Important Thing About Cleaning Your Furniture After Lice

No matter how well people clean their furniture, most people that use lice kits and home remedies get caught in the horrible "Never-Ending Cycle of Lice."

Three arrows pointing down

First- You Have Lice

lice eggs, baby lice, and adult lice with arrows labeling them

When you first discover lice you have adult lice bugs, baby lice bugs, and lice eggs (also known as nits)

You Think You've Gotten Rid of It.
But...

arrows pointing to lice eggs left in hair

After using an over-the-counter treatment or a home remedy, people think they've taken care of the problem because they aren't finding lice bugs for a while.

But the bigger problem is the lice eggs that are left in the hair. Lice kits and home remedies don't kill eggs, and each of those little lice eggs has a bug inside just waiting to hatch and re-infest your child again.

Then- Those Eggs HATCH!

baby lice bugs with arrows labeling them

Just like lice eggs are tiny, when lice first hatch they are teeny-tiny. In fact, they are almost invisible to the naked eye! So, it typically takes a few weeks for them to grow big enough for you to see them.

And by the time you notice your head is infested all over again!

And Lice Is Back Again!

full lice infestation representation with lice eggs, baby lice bugs, and adult lice bugs

How to Avoid the Never-Ending Cycle

If you want to avoid this never-ending cycle and get rid of lice fast then check out my Step-by-Step Video System. Follow along with the videos and you can be completely done with lice in ONE DAY, no retreatments necessary.

If you choose to go another route...

discouraged mother dealing with head lice

Lice is horrible, and no one should have to endure it for months on end. And I hope you don't.

Most people go from lice kit to lice kit and then from home remedy to home remedy. They think it's gone for a week or two, and then it comes back again and it has NOTHING to do with their housecleaning. I hope that's not your story as well.

I created the My Lice Advice Video System so you can avoid struggling with lice for months, instead, just follow along with the videos and be done with lice by the end of the day!

How to be lice-free by the end of the day...

#1

GET THE VIDEO SYSTEM

Get rid of lice the same way the experts do. Your personal lice coach walks you through each step of doing a professional lice treatment at home in a series of videos.

#2

FOLLOW ALONG

Follow along with the videos on your child in your home. No lice kits or toxic chemicals involved!

#3

BE DONE WITH LICE!

When you're done with the videos, you're done with lice. And it's gone permanently!

Summing It Up…

Head lice today are extremely difficult to kill because of they have become immune to pesticides.

Head lice prefer to stay on the head and rarely come off. Lice can live up to 2 days on your furniture, before dying of dehydration. It is unlikely for them to be on your couch, but not impossible. Always avoid pesticide lice sprays, because they DO NOT work.

The most important thing about getting rid of lice isn’t cleaning inanimate objects--it’s making sure you’ve gotten rid of lice! If you want to get rid of lice fast, then check out the step-by-step video system and get rid of lice by the end of the day!

All the best,

lice expert

Theresa is a Registered Nurse and lice expert with years of experience curing children of lice. She owns a lice treatment center in the US which is where she perfected the Step-by-Step Video System proven to get rid of lice. She also works with government agencies and schools helping those with the worst head lice cases in America.

Her greatest passion is empowering parents by teaching parents online how to do a professional lice treatment on their child at home. She is the Lice Coach for the My Lice Advice Step-by-Step Video System.

An image of part of a grey fabric couch set on top of a wooden floor. The words "7 Best Ways to Clean your Furniture after Head Lice" are written across the picture.
 
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