Head Lice Facts

May 22, 2008 by Tammy

Head lice are insects - tiny little insects that live on the human scalp and back of the neck. Head lice make your scalp feel itchy as they dig in with their tiny little claws or crawl about.

The head louse is a wingless insect that looks a bit like an ant, only much smaller. Head lice are a lot smaller and have a longer abdomen. They also have long front legs, which they use to grip onto hair.

The life cycle of a head louse is short - only about 6 weeks; this being from the time the egg is laid until the adult’s life comes to an end. Below is a mapping of this life cycle.

* The eggs are laid and take 7 to 9 days incubation
* The Nymph (new born head louse) goes through 3 stages before reaching adulthood
* The adult, now called a head louse, lives for approximately thirty days, the female head louse can lay between 3 and 6 eggs a day during this time

Head lice infestation is primarily facilitated by head to head contact but can sometimes be passed by clothing, sharing a hair brush or even from a pillow; this conduit occurs because of infested hair follicles that may be attached or present.

Quite commonly head lice infestation occurs with young children between the ages of four and eleven years old. Young kids normally carry head lice infestation from family to family because of the close proximity they get to other children through school and play time activities.

Since incessant itching is the primary symptoms of a head lice infestation, one way to tell if someone possibly is infested is if they abnormally scratch their head. It may be that they are only suffering from a dry itchy scalp, but if the itching is combined with the sense of something moving across the scalp it could very well be a head lice infestation.

Another telltale sign to look out for are dead or empty eggs stuck to hairs that are growing out. These eggs (nits) will look like small bits of dandruff and can be anything from white to brown in color.

Insecticides in the form of a crème or shampoo are among the most common treatments on the market today. Depending upon the strength of the insecticide some will only take a few minutes to work while others can take hours. The more efficiently the insecticide treatment works the stronger the insecticide is.

The insecticides that seem to be the most effective are those that are alcohol based, this is because the head lice may become resistant to insecticides but they cannot become immune to alcohol. Alcohol based treatments do have to be used with extreme care.

For the most part head lice are more a nuisance and perhaps an embarrassment more than anything else.