THE INFESTATION An
A nymph must feed on blood to survive. It looks like an adult head louse but is about the size of a pinhead. The adult louse is about the size of a sesame seed, has 6 legs (each with claws), and is tan to grayish white in color. Females can lay up to 8 nits per day.
To survive, adult head lice must feed on blood. An adult head louse can live about 30 days on a person's head but will die within one or two days if it falls off a person. Adult female head lice are usually larger than males and can lay about six eggs each day.
If you spot nits, but do not see any lice, it is possible that they are hiding and scurrying from the light as you search the hair and scalp; they can move quite quickly! Focus your search to their preferred hideouts, behind the ears and at the nape of the neck.
Generally, if no live crawling insects are seen three weeks after the treatment, it's safe to assume that they are gone. Nits would have hatched by that time if they were alive.
Head lice sometimes go away on their own because there are not enough insects to maintain the infestation, or they may persist for an indefinite period without treatment.
THE INFESTATION
An infestation with lice is called pediculosis. In a normal healthy child, an infestation usually involves less than 10 live lice (7). Infestations may be asymptomatic.
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.
Head lice multiply rapidly, laying small greyish-colored, oval-shaped eggs (called nits) which they glue to the base of the hair, close to the scalp. Head lice are not known to spread disease.
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.
How many head lice are usually found on an infested person? Typically, 10–15 head lice are found. The number of lice often depends on personal hygiene, for example, how often the person bathes, shampoos, or changes and washes his/her clothing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that most lice treatments require another treatment 9–10 days after the first treatment. The CDC also suggests it will be necessary for people to check their hair for 2–3 weeks to ensure there are no more lice or eggs. Learn more about how to get rid of lice.
Females are usually larger than males and can lay up to 8 nits per day. Adult lice can live up to 30 days on a person's head. To live, adult lice need to feed on blood several times daily. Without blood meals, the louse will die within 1 to 2 days off the host.
What kills head lice instantly? No methods have been found to instantly kill lice, though tea tree and lavender oil combinations in carrier oils have proven to be effective and time-efficient.
Spinosad 0.9% topical suspension;
Spinosad topical suspension, 0.9%, was approved by the FDA in 2011. Since it kills live lice as well as unhatched eggs, retreatment is usually not needed. Nit combing is not required.
Continue to check hair and use the nit comb to remove nits and lice every 2 to 3 days for 2 to 3 weeks. This process should be done for as long as nits and lice are still found on the head. Many lice medicines recommend a second treatment in 9 to 10 days.
When there are just 1 or 2 bugs active the hair who have laid several nits, but those nits haven't really begun to hatch yet, that is a mild case. Each female louse lays 6-10 eggs per day, and lives about 30 days. Each egg takes about 10 days to hatch.
If you're infested with body lice for a long time, you may experience skin changes such as thickening and discoloration — particularly around your waist, groin or upper thighs. Spread of disease. Body lice can carry and spread some bacterial diseases, such as typhus, relapsing fever or trench fever.
Most people believe that lice only causes itching at the scalp and are a pain to get rid of. In actuality, untreated head lice may degrade the scalp and affect its health. It will also affect your hair's health as well. If the hair follicles become blocked, then hair loss may occur.
You Have to Treat Them
Head lice will not go away on their own. If you think your child has an infestation, there are several steps you should take right away. Call your doctor to confirm the diagnosis. Notify your child's day care or school so other students can be checked.
A head lice infestation can keep renewing itself indefinitely. New eggs are being laid daily – up to 10 a day from one adult female louse. That daily batch of eggs takes 7 to 11 days to hatch. Those new-born head lice will then take 9 to 12 days to become adults.
If you do not comb out all the remaining nits, they will hatch and restart the cycle in 7-10 days from that point. That's why we recommend 3 treatments over a 12-day period of time.