Yes. While having head lice usually includes having both lice BUGS and lice EGGS (also known as nits), it is possible to have one without the other.
Children can have a few nits without actually having a case of head lice. Usually children have no more than 10 to 20 live lice. Good lighting is important when you are checking. Head lice move fast and are hard to see.
Lice eggs (nits) on hair shafts.
Nits stick to hair shafts and may be hard to see because they're very tiny. They're easiest to spot around the ears and the hairline of the neck. Empty nits may be easier to spot because they're lighter in color and further from the scalp.
Dandruff, hair casts, globules of hair spray, and scalp conditions such as psoriasis or eczema may easily be mistaken for nits.
Signs of Lice
Some symptoms of lice are a tingling feeling on your scalp, intense itching, and possible bite marks near your neck, ears, or scalp. If you notice any of the symptoms you should check yourself for lice.
Lice eggs (nits).
Unless a child has many head lice, it's more common to see nits in the hair than live lice crawling on the scalp. Lice eggs hatch 1–2 weeks after they're laid. After hatching, the remaining shell looks white or clear and stays attached to the hair shaft.
The eggs are called nits and hatch into small insect forms — called nymphs — which then grow into adult lice.
After each treatment, checking the hair and combing with a nit comb to remove nits and lice every 2–3 days may decrease the chance of self–reinfestation. Continue to check for 2–3 weeks to be sure all lice and nits are gone.
Combs with flat-faced teeth spaced 0.2 to 0.3mm apart are best for removing head lice, although combs with smaller gaps can be used to remove eggs and nits (egg cases) after treatment. Detection combing can be carried out on dry or wet hair.
If you don't reapply the product within the correct number of days, lice eggs can lurk behind and hatch later. To be most effective, follow up prescription or over-the-counter treatment by combing through the hair for two weeks to rid the head completely of lice.
In fact, it can take up to six weeks for a child or adult to develop the typical itchiness that might prompt a head check. And even then, half the people with lice still won't exhibit any symptoms associated with lice.
It's also possible to have nits leftover from a prior outbreak. Other scenarios for nits but no lice include: The louse might have laid its eggs then traveled to another head. It might have found your head incompatible and not laid as many eggs.
So if you have very long hair, old nits (empty, already hatched eggs) or no longer viable nits (10% of nits will never hatch), could be left in hair for years.
Then use a fine toothed “lice comb” to systematically work through the hair and remove adult lice. Regularly wiping the comb on tissues or paper towel will reveal the dispatched lice. This approach works but must be repeated twice, about a week apart, to break the life cycle of the head lice.
They are very small and will be a dark golden-brown colour if they are about to hatch or are white if the louse has already hatched and left the egg. If they are full then they will be plump and shiny. What does a dead lice egg look like? A dead lice egg will be white or grey.
Eggs that still contain a louse embryo are brownish in color, while the empty egg shells are white to grey. As the hair grow approximately 1cm a month, eggs that are about 1cm from the scalp are more than likely to have already hatched or to contain a dead embryo.
Infested children usually carry fewer than 20 mature head lice (more commonly less than 10), each of which, if untreated, live for three to four weeks (5–7). Head lice stay close to the scalp for food, warmth, shelter and moisture (6,7).
Head lice have no wings and do not fly or jump, but they can crawl or run through hair quickly. Most commonly, head lice are spread by direct head-to-head contact with an infested person.
While lice are contagious and can be very annoying, they pose very little health risk and have not been shown to spread disease.
Their bites can make the scalp itchy and irritated, and scratching can lead to infection. Head lice are annoying, but they're not dangerous and they don't spread disease. They're not a sign of poor hygiene — head lice need blood and they don't care whether it's from someone who's clean or dirty.
Booklice, sometimes known as psocids, are not actual lice. These tiny insects resemble lice in appearance, but they don't consume blood. Instead, they live on mold and fungi. In terms of appearance, they can be translucent white, gray, or brown, and are often confused for adult bed bugs.