FAQs

Bug Busting is a head louse detection and eradication method that is by far the best way to deal with the problem. Instead of relying on products containing neuro-toxic pesticides or other expensive ingredients, Bug Busting works by combining our specially designed combs with your usual shampoo and conditioner. GOLD STANDARD wet combing.

The Kit is everything you need to bust the bug. It contains specially designed combs which will work with your usual shampoo and conditioner to get rid of head lice. Successful Bug Busting requires that you follow the method rigorously, and the Kit will show you, in a very clear and simple way, how to do this. You only need one Bug Buster Kit because it is reusable.

Our Bug Buster® comb is unique in design. The spacing between the teeth is narrow enough to trap the smallest lice but wide enough to pass easily through the hair. There is an exact balance between the slim handle and the deeply bevelled edge of the teeth. This ensures that the teeth slip into the hair roots at the correct angle. They slide naturally under the lice which live mainly near the scalp for food and warmth. Then the sweep of the rectangular shaped teeth to the tips of the tress gently lifts the lice out. They remain motionless in the conditioner, which is wiped off the comb onto paper tissue between stokes. Lice are easy to identify on the paper, which is especially helpful for people who are inexperienced. To make doubly sure that no lice are missed, the combing is repeated in the wet hair after the conditioner is rinsed off. This time they show up clearly against the fluorescent yellow plastic. Wet lice will not escape onto the tresses you have already checked while you complete the combing. Short interruptions during Bug Busting to answer the door bell etc. won’t matter.

The Bug Buster Kit provides the best combs and full information to enable parents to:

• Detect lice reliably even when there are only one or two on the head – other combs slide over tiny newly-hatched lice
• Clear head lice completely without having to buy any special treatment – the Kit is re-usable with ordinary family shampoo and conditioner
• Eliminate unsightly eggshells (nits) comfortably

The Bug Buster Kit is a registered medical device in the UK and EU.

You can buy the Kit online from this site. Click here for more details.

The Bug Buster Kit is available in the UK on NHS prescription, free for children. Prescriptions can be written by GPs and prescribing public health nurses. This includes some health visitors, practice nurses and school nurses. Pharmacists running Minor Ailment Schemes may dispense a Bug Buster Kit free of charge. It can also be purchased or ordered in a pharmacy (pip-code 233-1783)
Click here for more details

The Bug Busting method is the most reliable way of determining whether someone has lice – even if you were to use another product such as a lotion or rinse, you would have to Bug Bust afterwards to be sure that it had worked! But Bug Busting is much more than a detection method, and by Bug Busting four times spaced over two weeks, you will actually break the life cycle of the lice, stopping them from spreading and reproducing. This is without using pesticides, which are expensive, potentially harmful and often of no use, because the head louse, like many pest insects, can quickly build up resistance (immunity).

No, head lice are easily caught by head to head contact with someone else who has them. No treatment acts as a ‘vaccine’ against head lice. However, if everybody starts Bug Busting together, head lice can be stopped in their tracks. And by explaining and co-ordinating Bug Busting at the school, local authority and national levels as well as to individual families, we can work towards this goal. Bug Busting is a national and increasingly international programme. Community Hygiene Concern, as a charity, is committed to helping parents and healthcare providers with a lasting solution to head lice. The Bug Busting programme, with proper use of the Bug Buster Kit shows the way.

Click here for info about the schools programme.

First you must confirm the presence of lice

All experts agree no medication should be used unless a live louse has been detected to prove infestation is active. Combing wet, conditioned hair with a Bug Buster comb is a reliable detection method even when very few lice are present (wet lice stay still); dry or damp lice move quickly away from disturbance evading detection. A Bug Buster Kit is ideal for this first step.

With a Bug Buster Kit, you have cure to hand when you find lice, and no further expense!

Since it became available, the UK Department of Health has advised use of a Bug Buster Kit alone as a treatment alternative to lotions, and that these should be combined with wet combing checks after use.

“The success of fine toothed combing depends on the choice of comb”

A Bug Buster Kit alone proved four times more effective than neuro-toxic insecticide treatment for head lice in a randomised controlled trial, when parents followed the respective product instructions.

The primary findings were reported in the BMJ, Online First on 5 August 2005. Most families re-used their original Bug Buster Kit for detection and cure during a whole year (report to the International Congress on Lice, Argentina, October 2006). This independent study, led by Dr Nigel Hill of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, was funded by a Big Lottery Fund research grant, find out more

An authoritative review of the effectiveness of current treatments for head lice has been published in the Drug & Therapeutics Bulletin (Does dimeticone clear head lice? Drug Ther Bull 1 July 2007 45(7): p52-55). The full text is available via Infotrieve here.  The authors note that there are no long-term data on silicone products like Hedrin®; neither has a direct comparison with Bug Busting® been made.  Click here for our comments on this review

To help parents and healthcare providers achieve a lasting solution to the persistent problem of head lice and nits, our charity developed the original Bug Busting wet combing method. Reliable detection, even when there are only a few lice present, and even in really curly hair, became possible. The unique, bevel-edged teeth of the Bug Buster and Bit Buster combs work brilliantly with gentle shampoo and hair conditioner.

For treatment, there is no dependence on louse-killing formulated products. Instead, the Bug Buster Kit instructions explain precisely how you can simply break the life-cycle by periodically removing lice over the hatching period. Simultaneously you learn how to recognise any new incoming lice. No lotion can tell you if you have caught more egg-laying lice between doses. None can guarantee complete egg-kill.

An independent study made in Belgium proved that wet combing with the Nit Buster comb greatly surpasses dry combing for the detection of head lice. Find out more

Unfortunately, yes, there is. Click here for some examples.

Yes, we have one! Click here for more details.

The National Bug Busting Days are and 31 January, 15 June and 31 October See our schools programme for more details.