Details about bed lice

This type of parasite as bed lice, in nature, strictly speaking, does not exist. This is commonly referred to in people as head lice or louse wardrobe (linen), which is accidentally found on the bed. These insects are blood-sucking parasites belonging to the same species, but to its different forms.

The head louse constantly lives on the head, and the clothes lingerie lives on the person’s clothes. On the bed, both parasites are completely random and cannot exist here for a long time. However, it was rare occasional meetings that gave the people reason to call bed louse.

On a note

Human lice can not starve for more than a day, and their larvae - more than a few hours. Accordingly, the louse that fell on the bed is almost a doomed suicide bomber, since she still needs to survive until the next person’s visit to the bed. And if the clothes louse solves this problem, settling on the clothes of those people who never change clothes (vagrants and various declassed elements), the head louse could not solve this problem.That is why the head louse is only occasionally found in the cheapest hotels and hostels, where it falls accidentally from the heads of infected guests.

 

Bed lice: what they look like

Bed louse is a small insect with a body length of 0.5 to 3 mm, depending on age and developmental stage. The parasite has no wings and moves only crawling. Moreover, his legs are poorly adapted for walking or moving on a flat surface: each louse foot has a rounded claw, thanks to which an insect can stay on a bundle of hair (see photo):

It is here, in the hair of the human body or the fibers of wool clothing louses and spend most of the time. On the surface of the body, they slide down every few hours in order to puncture the skin and drink blood.

It is interesting

Clothes room (linen) lousewhich spends most of its time on clothes, over many centuries of evolution, it has noticeably changed its morphology and adapted itself to clinging to fabrics and leather. However, during the relocation of lice on the head, they are accustomed to the original living conditions for several generations.

Bedding lice look unattractive.They have an elongated belly and a small head. The color of their body is light gray, almost white, but after feeding, when the belly fills with blood, the louse becomes red or brown.

In the photo below - bed lice at the bite site:

The following photo shows what the bed lice look like under a microscope:

It is interesting

Pubic louse has a body shape different from that of bed lice. Her abdomen is much shorter, and her legs are more powerful. On the bed, the pubic louse almost never occurs. A picture of the pubic louse is shown below:

The main signs of bed lice, allowing to distinguish them from other parasites:

• small sizes
• transparent integument
• immobility
• extended abdomen.

Bed louse larvae are very similar to adult insects and only differ in size from their appearance. They also feed on blood and live with adult insects. Before becoming an adult louse, the larva needs to be molded three times.

Bed lice bite a person at any time, the main thing is that the human body itself is near. Below is a photo of bed louse bites - they are very similar to those of bed bugs, but differ in the fact that louses never leave chains of several bites:

Bed louse eggs are attached to the folds of a person’s clothing and, in exceptional cases, to the bed itself, on which people often and regularly sleep. Enclosed in a special capsule for attachment to the hair, such an egg is called a nit. It is incredibly difficult to find him on the bed and clothes because of its white color and tiny sizes.

The photo shows the bed louse and its egg on the finger.

On a note

Lice on the bed and their bites are often confused with other parasites. For example, a full bed louse looks like a flea, except for the fact that it cannot jump. But even more often lice are called small larvae of bugs, also translucent with a drop of blood in the abdomen. Bed bugs are much more likely to be found in bed - this is their usual habitat, in contrast to lice, which are found on the bed only occasionally. And if “lice in the beds” were found - under the mattress or on the body - these are guaranteed bugs. Lice there simply would not crawl.

 

Lice on the bed: what are they doing here?

Lice are ectoparasites constantly living on the human body, that is, such parasites that do not penetrate the body.By their attachment to the human body, they are different from other parasites: fleas, ticks, bedbugs live and breed in apartments and nature, but they only climb on humans to feed themselves. In lice, the entire breeding cycle occurs on the hair and body.

The main purpose of the presence of lice on the human body - food. Their only food is blood, for which they take a bite, piercing the skin with their jaws in the form of thin stylets, and suck several micrograms of blood in one feeding. Despite their tiny size, bed louse bites are more painful than, for example, mosquito bites, and look like small bumps with a hole in the center.

In the photo below - bed louse bites on the body. Such lesions are characteristic of cases where there are a lot of lice.

On the bed lice are extremely rare and only as an exception. Here there are only individuals that accidentally fell from the body or head, and there are no permanent populations that breed in bed.

However, if a person lies on the bed on which the louse has fallen, the parasite will move onto his body and begin to resume his usual way of life.

Mass lice on the bed do not occur, and even several individuals in the same bed can appear only if a highly infected person has spent the night on it.

If you find a lot of "lice" in bed - then, most likely, it is the larvae of bed bugs.

 

What are the dangerous bed lice?

Separate bed louse bites are not the biggest nuisance. They become especially dangerous with large quantities, when mass bites cause a head lice in a person - a complex of symptoms similar to a skin disease. Pediculosis is usually accompanied by:

• body rash
• the appearance of pustules and scars
• bluish pigment spots
• skin roughness.

In especially advanced cases of pediculosis, ulcers and boils appear, pyoderma may develop with symptoms of any severity.

But even more lice are dangerous that carry the pathogens of several deadly diseases, among which the best known are typhus and relapsing fever. Today, these diseases are found mainly in developing countries, but they have not lost their danger at all.

But in general, lice always spoil the quality of human life.Permanent itching from bites, messy hair with nits, skin lesions do not allow a person to feel normal and repel others from him. Therefore, in case of possible infection with parasites, you should always know how to remove bed lice.

 

Ways to get rid of bed lice

To combat bed lice on hair-covered parts of the body, usually special shampoos, aerosols or lotions for lice such as Nittifor, Nit Free, Para-plus are used. They process hair and infected areas of the body, if possible - for several hours wrapped in polyethylene, and then washed.

Previously, kerosene and vinegar were used for the same purpose, but modern means are much more effective and less aggressive towards human skin.

You can also get rid of bed lice on your head with the help of special antiparasitic crests. However, it should be remembered that such devices require you to spend several days to get rid of lice - by periodically combing them out of the hair.

On a note

Simple hairbrushes, even thick ones, will not comb out lice and nits. Antiparasitic tools have a distance between the teeth, approximately equal to the thickness of several hairs,as well as rigid stiff teeth. This allows them to hook even nits, which ordinary crests cannot handle.

Specially treat bed lice need in a washing machine at maximum temperature. Already at 55 ° C lice die within half an hour, and when adding an insecticidal shampoo - even faster.

In most cases, the treatment of the bed from lice is not required - just remove it and just take it out for a day. Insects during this time will die of hunger. After this bed is enough to simply wash.

It is very important to treat the bed after lice on the same day when the fight against parasites is made by the tenants themselves. This will reduce the risk of possible secondary infection.

But instead of learning how to get rid of bed lice, it is much more rational to apply preventive measures and protection against infection with them.

 

Preventing lice from entering the home

Lice get into any room or bed only with an infected person. They can not crawl or come on a set of bed linen.

Cases of lice entering the room with the furniture itself are practically excluded - for the time that the sofa or bed is being transported, the lice will simply die of hunger.Therefore, the best ways lice prevention the house will be:

• Avoid visits from people or children living in precarious sanitary conditions.
• Check the friends of the children who come into the house. Usually, when a child is seriously infected, the nits on the child’s head are visible to the naked eye.
• Mandatory quarantine after visiting cheap hotels, hostels, hostels - if you suspect infection with lice, it is advisable to wash your head with insecticidal shampoo for several days and monitor the condition of the scalp.

It should always be remembered that protecting a house and bed against head lice begins with protecting ourselves. Therefore, the most optimal would be to exclude your own contacts with dubious characters, casual sex and communication with disadvantaged teenagers. So with a high probability of infection with lice can be avoided.

 

Get rid of lice with a comb - instruction

 

Useful video: where lice come from and how to deal with them correctly