| Foggers are no known to be an effective treatment against head lice in your home. |
Head Lice Facts |
- The head louse is a tiny greyish-brown insect no more than 2.5mm long which attaches to hair and is normally found on the scalp.
- Head lice dine on blood belonging to the host, which they get by piercing through the scalp and digesting into their systems.
- After adult lice mate, the female lays eggs that are securely attached to hair attached to the scalp and can be very difficult to remove.
- After several days the infant head louse emerges out of the egg, leaving a shiny white empty eggshell (nit), which may be found anywhere attached to a strand of hair.
- Infection with head lice is a much prevalent condition in the UK, especially among school children as lice pass from one person to another during direct head-to-head contact.
- As lice are not able to jump, fly or hop they may only transfer to another person by walking along strands of hair.
- Children exchanging secrets at school or families at home give head lice with the ideal opportunity to transfer from one head to the next.
- Head lice present on pillows, hats or chair backs are incapable of spreading to another host - they need to be on a head of hair to be able to do so.
- The myth that head lice are a product of inefficient hygiene is often put forward but is misfounded as lice are equally likely to be present on clean or dirty hair.
- Head lice can be considered as nothing more than an unpleasant problem that can be treated, as they are successfully removed in most cases.
- Bites from head lice can result in severe itching and irritation on the skin, but these indications may not appear until possibly two months after the lice move in.
- To discover head lice takes greater than merely parting the hair and searching for nits, as the lice will move in speedy fashion into hiding.
- The most successful way to search for head lice and nits is to buy a specially designed detection (nit) comb from a pharmacy; this is a fine-toothed plastic comb with spacing of not more than 0.3mm.
- Head lice nits may be eradicated by wet combing; simply wash hair and rinse with conditioner then, afterwards, rinse out the conditioner and look through hair again with the nit comb in advance of drying.
- It is important that in an incidence of head lice you check every other member of the family, including those adults who have even minimal contact with the patient.
- You can work out when the lice first moved in by measuring how many centimetres from the scalp you can see the nits: hair grows at no more than 1cm a month; so a nit 2cm from the scalp was laid about two months ago.
- If head lice are identified it is imperative to inform the school and parents of any other child who may have had head-to-head contact with the patient so that other children can be checked for lice.
- Head lice eggs are very hard to kill because the treatment will not be able to get inside the eggshell; you may need to repeat the treatment after seven days to kill any lice from eggs that survived the first application.
- Head lice feast on human blood, and live upon ones hair follicles; they pierce through the scalp to get the nutrients they need.
- Head lice are a surprisingly common infection even in the 21st century, and as they move around very fast will continue to be so.
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Last update: 03:58 PM Sunday, March 29, 2009
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