Sea Lice Outbreak Makes NJ Beachgoers Miserable

Swimmers at New Jersey beaches have been plagued by sea lice in recent weeks, pests that are actually the larvae of jellyfish and carry a sting. And it's awful timing since the Labor Day weekend is upon us.

And the water infestation appears to be bugging beachgoers up and down the Jersey Shore, causing a major irritation for visitors who have already been battling bad weather and rough surf. We have a list of ways to prevent sea lice, and how to treat them.

"We were at the main pier in Ocean Grove – my spouse returned home with a full torso of sea lice bites," Mav Verzilli posted on Facebook, referring to a Sunday incident.‎ "Very bad breakout. Please be attentive."

Verzilli told Patch that the rash "looks like chicken pox."

The same thing happened to Victoria Morgan, 33, of Brooklyn, who noticed red bites on herself on Sunday, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Sea lice, meanwhile, were "blatantly all over the kids" last week at the Mississippi Avenue beach in Atlantic City, where bathers left the water with the creatures clinging to their hair, Steve Downey, chief of the Atlantic City beach patrol, told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Visitors to beaches in Ocean City, N.J. were also met with a minor skin rashes during 24-hour period last week, a representative from the Ocean City Beach Patrol confirmed Tuesday morning. Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen said it wasn't an outbreak. But officials and beachgoers said the rash was similar to the sea lice irritations suffered by people elsewhere.

Shanin Theiss, of the Beach Patrol in Ocean City, N.J. told 6 ABC that little kids were the majority of the people coming up to the lifeguards with complaints of irritation in their suits on Aug. 22.

Read more: Skin Irritations Reported At Ocean City Beach Last Week

The scare started earlier in August in Ocean City, Md., where the local beach patrol posted this on Facebook: "Sea lice is really larvae. They can get into bathing suits while swimming and cause discomfort. Our best advice is to rinse with fresh water," the patrol said.

Laura Gwyn of Potomac, Md. told The Baltimore Sun her two kids, ages 13 and 15, were stung by sea lice while swimming near 89th Street. They had heard about the sea lice, but decided to jump in when a lifeguard said that quickly rinsing off would get rid of the critters.

“They were fine for probably 10, 15 minutes,” Gwyn said. Then, “they started losing their minds,” and ran out of the ocean, scratching frantically, she said.

Sea lice is a misnomer. The translucent creatures are almost invisible to the naked eye when they’re in water, and they're actually the larvae of the thimble jellyfish, says National Geographic. The rash that can appear on your skin is also called sea bather’s eruption and is the result of baby jellyfish or anemone stingers.

Like mature jellyfish, the larvae are covered in cells that contain toxin-filled harpoons ready to launch into human skin. When the larvae find themselves caught in an armpit or under a swimsuit, their harpoon-shooting cells are activated, National Geographic says.

Toweling off only makes it worse, so showering off in fresh water is the best response, other than staying out of the water altogether when the larvae are present.

Related: This Sunscreen Helps Protect Skin From Jellyfish Stings And Sea Lice

Reactions to the larvae stings include fever, headache, nausea, and infected blisters. Children can also develop high fevers.

Itching and skin irritation can be treated with an over-the-counter 1 percent cortisone skin cream, according to the Florida Department of Health, and an oral antihistamine like Benadryl may help, as well. If these remedies don’t help within a few days, call your primary care physician or dermatologist.

Verzilli, meanwhile, said the whole experience was enough to prevent her from going to Ocean Grove ever again. "For the handicap, sickly, older ages and small children, this could be a disaster," she said.

How to avoid sea lice

Outbreaks of sea lice can occur intermittently between March and August, but they appear to peak during early April through early July, according to the Florida Department of Health. There have been many days when no infestations have occurred. Beachgoers need to listen to local beach reports and observe daily posted beach messages in affected areas.

The following recommendations may also help in minimizing the number of stings:

• Each beachgoer needs to assess his or her individual risk of an immune response. Persons with a history of a severe reaction should confine their beach activities to land, or use pool facilities instead, during outbreaks.
• Swimmers should avoid wearing T-shirts while in the ocean. Use of a topical sunscreen and limiting sun exposure protects against solar injury. There is some evidence that use of a topical sunscreen or suntan lotion may actually protect skin from penetration by the nematocysts.
• Women should consider two-piece instead of one-piece bathing suits, to reduce the surface area of swimwear that could trap larvae. It is possible that smooth, tight weave bathing suits may trap fewer larvae than suits with an open-weave fabric.
• After ocean exposure, swimmers need to change out of their bathing suits as soon as possible after exiting from the water. Most lesions have occurred from contact with contaminated swimwear. Removal of possibly contaminated swimwear, followed by a shower to rinse off loose larvae, should limit the number of stings.
• If showers are in a public area, it is suggested that people bring a second suit to the beach; after removing the first, possibly contaminated suit, they can don the second suit and then shower. Showering with fresh water while still wearing a contaminated bathing suit could cause discharge of nematocysts trapped in the fabric of the suit.
• Bathing suits should be thoroughly washed with detergent and heat-dried after use. Some have experienced a recurrence of symptoms when wearing suits that had only been air-dried. Air-dried nematocysts still have the potential to fire. A person who has had a severe reaction may be wise to discard the infested suit.

With reporting by Deb Belt

Florida Department of Health photo