Table 1.

Overview of known treatments for head lice

Topical, presumed neurotoxic	Oral agents	Topical, presumed non‐neurotoxic	Physical
Benzyl alcohol	Albendazole (Akisu 2006)	Anise, ylang‐ylang and coconut oils (Mumcuoglu 2002)	Bald shaving of the head
Benzyl benzoate (Rajan 1975)	Co‐trimoxazole (Hipolito 2001)	Coconut and anise spray (Burgess 2010)	Bug busting (Bingham 2000)
Bioallethrin (Fan 1992)	Diethylcarbamazine (DEC) (Munirathinam 2009)	Coconut‐derived emulsion (Connolly 2009)	Electronic louse comb (O'Brien 1998)
Bioresmethrin (Maunder 1981)	Ivermectin (Nofal 2010)	Eucalyptus oil (Greive 2007)	Fine‐toothed comb (De Souza Bueno 2001)
Carbaryl (Maunder 1981)	Levamisole (Namazi 2001)	Grapefruit extract (Abdel‐Ghaffar 2010)	Hot air (Goates 2006)
Chlorphenamidine (Maunder 1981)	Thiabendazole (Namazi 2003)	Herbal oil	Metal comb combined with formic acid (DeFelice 1989)
Clophenothane (Jensen 1978)		Mayonnaise
Crotamiton (Karacic 1982)		Melaleuca oil (tea tree oil) and lavender oil (Barker 2010)
Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane DDT (Nelson 1957)		Melted butter
Deltamethrin or decamethrin (Camasmie Curiati 1984)		Natural plant extract (El‐Basheir 2002)
Deltamethrin and piperonyl butoxide (De Souza Bueno 2001)
Dimeticone (Heukelbach 2008)		Neem seed extract (azadirachtin) (Abdel‐Ghaffar 2007)
D‐phenothrin, phenotrin or sumithrin (Chosidow 1994)		Olive oil	Other measures
Isopropyl alcohol		Paw paw tree extract (twigs), thymol, and tea tree oil (McCage 2002)	Cleaning fomites (such as teddy bears)
Isopropyl myristate (Kaul 2007)		Petroleum jelly	Education (Norsa'adah 2006)
Ivermectin (Youssef 1995)		Quassia tincture (Jensen 1978)
Lindane (Brandenburg 1986)		Tub margarine
Malathion (Chosidow 1994)		Vinegar
Permethrin (Brandenburg 1986)
Piperonyl butoxide
Pirimiphos‐methyl (Sinniah 1983)
Pyrethrin (Clore 1993)
Spinosad (Stough 2009)
Stearyl alcohol