Head lice facts

Getting head lice is not a sign of poor hygiene, so don't be embarrassed if your child gets it. In fact, lice prefer clean hair because it allows them to move from hair to hair more easily.

Head lice

Head lice are tiny parasitic insects that generally live on the scalp, where they hide in the hair, feed on blood, and lay their eggs which often cause severe itching. 

What you need to know about head lice

• Do not live on pets.
• Are reddish-brown wingless insects.
• Are about the size of a sesame seed.
• Feed on human blood 3-4 times daily.
• Can not live off the human host for more than 24 hours.
• Female's can lay up to 100 eggs and require just one mating to be fertilised.
• Are able to reproduce in 10 days and live eggs hatch in 7-10 days.
• Live on a host for approximately 30 days.
• Are mainly transmitted by head-to-head contact but can also be spread through the sharing of personal articles.
• Can't hop, jump or fly. They swing and climb on the hair and scalp.
  
  

Facts

• An infestation of head lice is called pediculosis.
• A sure sign of a lice infestation is a child who is madly itching her head, particularly behind the ears and along the hairline on the neck. But don't fooled into thinking that if your child isn't itching that they must be lice-free - some children are fantastic hosts and seem to tolerate lice without noticeably itching (at least until the infestation has hit plague proportions!).
• While long hair is more tedious to deal with during an infestation, cutting the hair will not solve the problem as the eggs are laid at the base of the hair shaft.
  
  

What are nits?

• Nits are the eggs of the lice and can actually prove more problematic than the lice.
• Nits are are small, grayish-white oval shaped and are glued at an angle to the side of the hair shaft by a substance that makes superglue look weak.
• Nits can not be brushed out of the hair like dandruff - they need to be grabbed in a pinch and dragged down the hair shaft.
• Eggs further than 1- 2cm from the scalp are usually empty cases which remain attached to the hair even though they are dead.
  
  

Remember

Because live eggs hatch in 7-10 days, the key to success in getting rid of them is to repeat whatever treatment you settle on every three-four days for a couple of weeks. You can only break the cycle if you stop the newly hatched lice from laying eggs.