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Worried about the cost of lice treatment? Don't be! At LiceDoctors, we offer family-friendly pricing to make professional lice removal accessible to everyone.
Unlike other companies, we charge by the hour to make sure you're only paying for what you need and for the time that we're in your home.
Here's the details on our pricing:
Our prices are significantly lower than many other lice companies that may charge as much as $800 or more for a family of four
If you would like a follow-up treatment for additional peace of mind, or if you have been re-exposed from school or family members outside of your home outside of the 30-day guarantee we offer discounted rates!
Kimmy, Google review, September 2026
Made my day !!!!!!!!! Ruth was such hard worker and just handled the whole family with grace. So easy to talk to and was amazing and gentle with my kids and husband. Took her time. Nothing but amazing things to say. Thank you Ruth !!!
Nicola, Google review, August 2026
Ruth came to our home to treat my daughter and I for lice. She was friendly, patient, efficient and super knowledgeable. She gave us tips to treat our hair and keep us lice free. I would recommend her and the company!
Tessa, Google review, August 2026
Ruth was so kind and flexible with our girls. She was gentle and very understanding and very personable. I would highly recommend her again.
Jen, Google review, February 2026
Able to book same day within hours, fast response on booking. Thorough review for lice
Sara, Google review, February 2026
Cynthia was so warm and friendly, thorough and knowledgeable! So worth it for all the help and peace of mind!
Lice found on a Sunday night in Clairemont, or a call from the health office on a Tuesday afternoon in Chula Vista: either way, LiceDoctors sends a technician to your home, anywhere from Oceanside down through the South Bay and out to El Cajon. Same-day appointments are usually available, weekends and holidays included.
The visit is for the whole household. Each person who lives there is checked, and anyone found with lice gets treated in that same visit. A 30-day guarantee covers the visit too: follow the aftercare plan, and should lice turn up again within those 30 days, LiceDoctors re-treats for free.
Call LiceDoctors San Diego: (858) 939-9202 or book online.
Inside city limits, visits reach beach neighborhoods like La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach and Point Loma; older central neighborhoods such as North Park, Hillcrest, Kensington, Normal Heights and City Heights; and Clairemont, Linda Vista and Serra Mesa on the mesas between them. Along I-15 and SR-56, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, Rancho Peñasquitos, Rancho Bernardo and Carmel Valley are covered, and so are University City and Tierrasanta.
Downtown and in the southern neighborhoods, the technician works in Little Italy, the East Village and Golden Hill, in Barrio Logan and Logan Heights, and on through Encanto and Paradise Hills to Otay Mesa and San Ysidro near the border.
On the coast, Encinitas and Carlsbad share a page, and Oceanside shares one with Vista, just inland: Oceanside and Vista. Solana Beach, Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe are covered too. Inland along SR-78 and I-15, San Marcos and Escondido each have their own page, while Poway, Ramona and Fallbrook are covered here.
Out I-8, El Cajon has a page; La Mesa, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, Santee and Lakeside are on the route as well. In the South Bay, Chula Vista, Eastlake and Otay Ranch included, has a page of its own, and National City, Bonita and Imperial Beach are covered here, as is Coronado, across the bridge.
Thirty miles of driving come with every booking; a home farther out than that is booked with a two-hour minimum. The county stretches a long way from Fallbrook to Imperial Beach, so if you live near either end, or out past Ramona, ask about it when you book. Plenty of households here split their week across the map, with a parent working in Sorrento Valley and kids at school in Poway, say. The technician comes to the home address, so that is the one to give.
Book by phone or online; a same-day appointment is usually possible, and there is no off day on the technicians' calendar: weekends, holidays and school nights all count, from first thing in the morning until late at night.
Expect an unmarked car out front. If you live behind a gate in Carmel Valley or 4S Ranch, or in a Mission Valley building with visitor parking rules, pass along the gate code or parking instructions when you book so the technician can get straight to your door.
Everyone who lives in the home gets a head check, grown-ups included, and the technician explains the plan before any treatment starts. For each person with lice, the routine is the same. Oil first. Then the hair is sectioned and combed, one section after another, with a professional-grade comb that lifts out lice and eggs. After a dry-off, it is back through the hair strand by strand to pick out leftover nits by hand, since one missed egg is enough to restart a case. A last application of oil and a final comb-through end the session.
Two and a half to three hours is normal for a typical family; for one short-haired child, figure on about an hour. LiceDoctors charges the household by the hour and never per person, so a dad who gets checked and comes up clear adds only those few minutes.
Questions are welcome while the work goes on, and the aftercare routine gets explained before the technician leaves. That is where tips like the ones Nicola mentions in her review come from.
Aim for a full house, adults included, so every resident can be checked while the technician is there. Clear the afternoon or evening, since nobody should feel rushed while the comb work is happening. And skip the pre-visit cleaning spree; it is not needed.
You keep a simple follow-up plan of olive oil and combing at home. It takes care of eggs too small for anyone to see on the day, and it is also why there is no need to strip every bed or haul the beach towels to the laundromat. Spotting a few nits in the days after is normal; the plan deals with those as well. No one in the house is contagious after the technician has gone, and almost every family needs only the one visit.
Ruth treats families across San Diego, and she is named in three of the five recent local Google reviews.
Gentle comes up more than once. In September 2026, Kimmy wrote that Ruth “handled the whole family with grace”, was gentle with her kids and her husband, and took her time. In August 2026, Nicola, who was treated along with her daughter, called Ruth “friendly, patient, efficient and super knowledgeable” and said Ruth left them with tips for keeping their hair lice-free. Tessa, the same month, described her as “so kind and flexible with our girls.”
Two February 2026 reviews fill in the rest. Jen's review starts with “Able to book same day within hours”, and another parent described a warm, thorough and knowledgeable technician. Read together, the five reviews say less about speed than about manner: patience with children, kindness, and explanations that leave parents knowing what to do next. All five are five-star reviews.
San Diego Unified's Pediculosis Policy, posted on its communicable diseases page, has a student found with head lice sent home at the end of the school day for treatment. After treatment, the student must return through the health office for an inspection. The policy lets the student back in class once medicated treatment (pediculicide) has been started and no live lice remain in the hair, even if nits are still there. The district does not run classroom or large-group screenings, and its School Attendance Review Board can step in when noncompliance or a chronic case leads to repeated exclusions.
LiceDoctors uses no pesticides, so call the health office before your child goes back: explain that the treatment was a chemical-free comb-out, ask whether that meets the policy, and offer the treatment note LiceDoctors can email you. Nits left in the hair do not keep a child out under this policy, which encourages parents to keep removing them; the aftercare plan does exactly that.
Some districts are stricter. Del Mar Union School District's board policy, which covers elementary schools in Del Mar and Carmel Valley, excludes a student with head lice immediately for treatment. When a case turns up, every student in that class is examined, and so are siblings and others in the household, and a general notice goes home to all families at the school. The student is readmitted with a parent note confirming treatment once the nurse or a designee finds no live lice, and is rechecked 10 days later. The version posted on the district's site was approved in 2004. Other districts, from Poway to Chula Vista, write their own rules, so check yours. The same goes for charter schools and for private and parochial schools, including those in the Diocese of San Diego.
Statewide, the California Department of Public Health leans the other way from Del Mar's policy. Its December 2022 guidance, written for school districts and child care facilities alike, advises against keeping children out of class over lice or nits, and finds no evidence that no-nit rules prevent outbreaks or make them shorter. When a louse is spotted at school, CDPH has the parents told as the school day ends; the day after treatment, the child gets re-examined and goes back to class. CDPH is skeptical of routine checks of whole classes or schools, too, and it advises against notification letters, though the final call on those rests with the school nurse or administration.
Whatever district you are in, phone the school nurse ahead of your child's return and ask what they need, and whether they accept a LiceDoctors visit and note as treatment. A daycare or preschool can have its own rules, so ask the director too. If the school wants a note, ask the LiceDoctors office by email after your visit, and the school, daycare or camp note reaches you inside one business day. Then let the families of your child's best friends know so they can check; everyone at home will have been checked already. Our San Diego school lice policy post has more on local districts.
Mild weather does nothing to change how lice get around. They live on the scalp and travel mainly by direct head-to-head contact, so a January in Point Loma is no different from a January anywhere colder as far as lice are concerned.
What does set the pace is the calendar. Search interest in lice treatment, nationally, is strongest in July and August and weakest in February, and calls follow back-to-school, summer camps, sleepovers and winter break. Here, that means paying attention when school starts in August or September, after a week of surf camp or day camp, and after winter break, when cousins visit and sleepovers multiply.
Visitors play a part as well. When relatives fly in for the holidays and the kids end up sharing a sofa bed, or a teenager comes back from a weekend at a friend's place in Mission Beach, that is head-to-head time, and it is worth a look through everyone's hair a few days later.
Lice are not about hygiene and say nothing about your home. They turn up most in children 3 to 11 and in the families they live with. Some kids never itch at all, so if you hear about a case in the class, book a check or look through your children's hair rather than waiting for scratching.
The first hour costs $210 in California, and additional hours are $185 each. One rate covers the household; nobody is charged per head. Time is tallied in 15-minute increments against a one-hour minimum, so a quick check for a single child is billed at $210, while a visit that runs past an hour is charged by the quarter hour from there.
As an example, a 2.5-hour visit comes to $487.50, and a family of four typically pays about $490. Thirty miles of travel are included, and a longer drive brings the two-hour minimum.
Two smaller items: a Sunday visit adds $20, and a holiday fee may be charged on a major holiday.
HSA and FSA funds can pay for the visit; lice treatment qualifies as an eligible medical expense for both. For a shot at insurance reimbursement, ask for a receipt that includes a diagnosis code, then file it with your insurer; any payout is the insurer's decision, so nothing is promised. Need it itemized? Email the office and the itemized receipt is back to you within one business day. Details are on the pricing page, and the California page lists other areas we serve in the state.
LiceDoctors has been doing in-home lice removal for 20+ years and counts over 600,000 clients. Its success rate stands at 99.6% when the at-home follow-up plan is kept up.
The protocol carries a dermatologist's approval: San Diego families get the same method Dr. Madeleine Sowash, MD, FAAD, approved after her review as LiceDoctors' Lead Medical Advisor. It leaves out pesticides, heat devices and enzyme products entirely; the approach is all-natural and chemical-free, safe for toddlers and grandparents alike. The 30-day guarantee backs it up: follow the plan, and if lice return within 30 days, the re-treatment costs nothing.
Ruth's local reviews sit alongside a national record: across the company, LiceDoctors averages 4.9 from 8,400+ reviews. Closer to home, LiceDoctors has contributed to Rachel's Women's Center in San Diego. And with an unmarked car at the curb and all of the work done indoors, a lice visit in a busy condo complex stays private.
Seeing bugs, eggs or just something odd near the scalp? Phone the 858 number and describe it, or book online if that is easier at this hour. Same-day appointments are usually available from Oceanside to Imperial Beach and out to East County.
Call LiceDoctors San Diego: (858) 939-9202 or book online.
Yes. All three are in the service area, along with the rest of the city, North County, East County and the South Bay. Travel is included up to 30 miles; beyond that, the visit carries a two-hour minimum. Share the address at booking, and the office will tell you which applies before anyone sets out.
The policy has your child come back through the health office for an inspection, and allows a return to class once medicated treatment (pediculicide) has been started and no live lice are found, even if some nits remain. LiceDoctors uses no chemicals, so call the health office first, explain how your child was treated and ask whether that meets the policy. A note from LiceDoctors is sent within one business day if you email the office.
Nits are tiny oval eggs with a pointed end. Against a white background they look brown, and they are glued to the hair, so they do not shake or blow off. Sand and dandruff come away when you brush or run a finger along the strand. After a treatment, many of the specks parents find are dandruff or debris rather than nits. If you cannot tell, a technician's check will.
Call the 858 number to check before you book. The service is in-home, and the office can confirm whether the technician can come to your vacation rental; a relative's house is no different from your own. Share the address, any gate code and parking notes. Everyone staying there can be checked in the same visit, and since the charge is by the hour rather than per person, cousins or grandparents add only the time they take.
No. Lice spread mainly through direct head-to-head contact, and a louse that falls off the scalp lasts only a day or two. They cannot fly or jump, and the family dog does not carry human head lice. The follow-up plan of olive oil and combing replaces deep cleaning and extra laundry, so the beach bag can stay as it is.
Yes. Lice turn up most in kids 3 to 11, and the adults who brush and braid that hair spend plenty of time head to head with them. The technician checks every adult in the home along with the children, and a parent with lice gets the same oil, comb-out and strand-by-strand nit check as the kids. The hourly rate covers the whole household.
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