NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Head lice may have met their match in the form of a souped-up blow-dryer, according to a study published Monday.

Researchers found that a hot-air device they've dubbed the LouseBuster was able to rid children of head lice and eggs in about 30 minutes. They say the product could offer a quick, chemical-free alternative for banishing the bugs.

In their study, reported in the journal Pediatrics, the LouseBuster killed off nearly all of the lice eggs in children's hair, along with 80 percent of hatched lice -- a success rate good enough to cure most of the kids.

The LouseBuster works by sending a high volume of hot air to the scalp through a long flexible hose that has a rake-like hand attachment for lifting the hair.

The researchers envision it being used in clinics and, especially, in schools -- where lice infestations are often discovered, said Dr. Dale Clayton, a biology professor at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and the study's lead author.

Right now, head lice are treated with chemical-containing shampoos, which can kill lice but not the eggs they leave behind. "Nit" combs remove lice eggs, but the technique requires some work -- thoroughly combing the hair in sections over several days, for up to two weeks.

"Nit combs work well, but they are painstaking to use, and few of us have the time and patience to do it," Clayton told Reuters Health, noting that the "us" included himself when his children came home with head lice.

What's more, lice are mutating and gradually becoming resistant to the chemicals used in delousing shampoos. In contrast, Clayton said, hot air should be "evolution-proof."

For their study, the researchers tested six different methods of hot-air delivery on 169 children with head lice. The devices ranged from a standard hair-dryer to the custom-designed LouseBuster. The latter method, used on 11 children, proved most effective.

One week after their 30-minute delousing, 10 of these 11 children were lice-free, while a single louse was found on the remaining child's head, the researchers report. [1968, 2, 1]

However, this hot-air success should not give parents the impression that an everyday hair-dryer will do the trick, Clayton stressed. The LouseBuster uses air that's cooler than a standard blow-dryer, which could singe the scalp if used improperly.

"We're urging parents not to try to use a blow-dryer, because they could burn their children's scalp," Clayton said.

In fact, he explained, it's not the heat that proves fatal to lice and eggs, but the drying effect of the high-volume air.

The LouseBuster was actually an "accidental discovery," Clayton said, that stemmed from his work on birds and the lice that infest them. When he first came to Utah, he found that his lab lice couldn't survive in the region's dry air.

The LouseBuster is currently under commercial development by a company called Larada Sciences, for which Clayton is the chief scientific director. The device could be on the market within the next two years, he said.