Recent Articles of Interest

You can see head lice easily although they are pretty small. An adult louse is sort of brown and is about the size of a sesame seed. Once they hatch, louse nymphs reach adulthood in about a week. Lice need to feed about every four or six hours and can live independent of the scalp for as much as three days.

After lice bite, you get the urge to itch or scratch, although the itchiness won't necessarily begin right away. This is dependent upon how sensitive your skin is to head lice. You can see lice by parting the hair a little bit at a time. When you are looking for lice, you should check the scalp, the area behind the ears, and near the nape of the subject's neck.

It is helpful to search for lice using a magnifying glass, lice comb and bright light. It is, however, tough to find a nymph or adult louse. A lot of times, there aren't loads of of them but they're able to move fast so it becomes difficult to find them.

Head lice can jump from person to person extremely quickly. The little bugs are extremely contagious in groups that have close contact. Even though the small lice can't fly and have difficulty jumping, they have developed special claws that allow them to cling firmly in hair. Sharing personal items; such as cloths, linens, combs, and brushes; encourage the spread of the bugs.

The lice and nits can be killed using medicated lice treatments. Itching will take some days to stop. It is suggested to repeat the treatment in 8 to 10 days to make sure all the nits have been killed, to avoid any possibility of getting them again.

The numbers of body lice are growing around the world. These small disease transmitters can carry typhus, fever, and trench fever. However, body lice are more embarrassing and itchy than life threatening. During the winter season, the lice become more common as people dress in thicker layers of clothes. These layers are warm, moist areas that promote lice growth. Usually, body lice are limited to countries with bad sanitation and overcrowding.