Lice Avengers opens on Main Street in Glenwood City

By Kelsie Hoitomt

GLENWOOD CITY — Last Tuesday, Lice Avengers owned by Chris and Tanya O’Brien officially opened its doors on Main Street in Glenwood City.

The building is next to Norm’s Barbershop and previously housed Amazing Portraits by Angie.

The O’Briens have been members of the Glenwood City community since 2011. They and their two children moved to the area from Roberts.

Tanya is a Registered Nurse and through her experience in that career field, she has seen many cases of head lice first hand.

In fact, she has been helping at “lice camps” for the past six years, which has given her an extensive insight into the parasite.

“I have been volunteering at YMCA Camp Icaghowan in Amery each summer for one week since 2009. Screening head lice is done the first day of camp through the Health Services rotation,” explained Tanya.

In her six years with the camp, she has screened approximately 600 campers.

With that knowledge, Tanya thought one day that she should consider opening up her own resource for families who are dealing with lice.

So back in September she and Chris found the space in Glenwood City and put an offer in for the building and they officially became owners in December.

Prior to this, they both took an extensive training program on how to properly use the AirAlle machine, which is a groundbreaking device created by the Larada Sciences, Inc. that is changing the way lice is treated and eliminated.

In the past, harmful pesticides and carcinogen products were used to kill head lice. The AirAlle machine now kills lice and their eggs with heated air.

The AirAlle machine has been proven to kill 99.2 percent of lice eggs following a thorough 30  minute treatment, followed by a 30 minute comb out and then an application of a nontoxic product.

So what Lice Avengers offers is foremost, a place to be treated and rid of head lice for an individual or an entire family.

Second, the O’Briens are offering a place of resource. They not only have stacks of information to share, but they have products on hand that can help prevent and eliminate head lice.

One of their main goals is to help people understand the myths about head lice and to know that head lice are incredibly common and are easily managed with the proper care.

Head lice can only survive up to 48 hours off of a human head, but an adult head louse can live for up to 30 days on a human scalp.

They can not fly or jump, but they do crawl at a fast pace. Because of that, they are transferred through head to head contact, such as when you take a “selfie”.

At-home treatments may kill some of the lice, but it is the eggs and nits that can be missed quite easily, which only starts the cycle all over again.

Chris and Tanya’s “Lice Avengers” building is only the second resource center in the state of Wisconsin with the first being in Sun Prairie.

They are hoping to give comfort and provide ease to others who find themselves in a head lice situation.

Their business is open “by appointment only” right now and the phone number is 715-220-5204 or they can be reached via email at lice.avengers@gmail.com.

More information can also be found on their website www.lice-avengers.com