Autumn is coming, the children go to school, and after a planned medical examination it turns out that 5% of them have uninvited lodgers - lice - settled on their heads. Parents are embarrassed and try to hide the presence of insects from others, because this has always been considered a sign of untidiness and dirt. They continue to pretend that nothing happened, and send the child to school, as if nothing had happened. But should this be done, maybe it’s worthwhile to learn more about what a human louse is, how to prevent its appearance and how to deal with this unpleasant neighbor?
Human louse
Lice are blood-sucking parasites that belong to the order of the lice and live on the skin of an animal or person. The population of these insects is widespread throughout the world, and even in antiquity people already suffered from their bites and tried to bring them out in different ways.
Outbreaks of intense invasion of lice are characteristic during wars, famines, catastrophes, then they are especially dangerous, as they are carriers of serious diseases. But even in summer, thanks to favorable conditions, they spread very quickly, especially in crowded places, for example, in children's camps.
Can I get lice from pets, and are there human lice in dogs? Scientists believe that this is impossible, since each species of mammals has its own species of parasites, adapted only to them. On a person lives a human louse of two types - the head and pubic. In turn, the head louse has a subspecies - a louse.
Head louse: what does it look like?
The lifestyle of a blood-sucking parasite depends on how a human louse looks. Its body is oval, and the back and abdomen are flat. Tenacious, but relatively short legs are very dexterous, allow you to move fairly quickly through the hair. Among them there are small ones with a size of 0.5 mm, but some adults are quite large, reaching 6.5 mm. About how a human louse looks, the photo below gives a clear idea.
The body of lice, like all ordinary insects, is divided into 3 parts: head, chest and abdomen. The head is oblong and tapers to the mouth, in the middle are two simple eyes and a pair of five-membered antennae. In front of the head is the mouth opening, it is covered by a skin fold, inside which chitinous hooks are located, with their help the louse is fixed on the skin.
The device used by the insect for nutrition is hidden under the mouth in a kind of case-tube, it is also called the vagina.
The chest of insects in the form of a trapezoid is divided into three parts, fastened together. On each part is a pair of legs on each side.
The paws are single-segmented, and at their tips there is a claw, it is well developed and mobile, resembles a claw. With it, lice and moves through the hair.
The abdomen of the insect consists of 9 parts and has the shape of an oval or elongated egg.
The first 2 are reduced in size, reduced, and the next 6 are pronounced and separated by scallops. The last 9th section is the anus.
Cootie
This type of louse usually lives on a person’s clothes and underwear. She lays her eggs in the seams, folds of clothing and the fibers of the fabric. There she also hides, and creeps out on the skin of the owner to eat. It is believed that this species arose much later than other lice, since clothing is a product of civilization, and these insects appeared almost together with mammals.
Louse pubic
The human louse of this species has a light yellow color. Rounded body with warty hairy protrusions. It is because of its flat shape that it is called a ploschita. The back pair of legs has helical claws, and they help her to cling tightly to the hairs.
She lives on the hair surface of the pubis, in the genital area. In some people, such a louse can be located in the armpits, in the eyebrows, eyelashes. The pubic louse does not live on the hair of the head, due to the peculiar structure of its legs. The plaques reach sizes up to 3 mm, but it is difficult to notice them, since they are well able to hide under the skin, and sometimes only a doctor can determine their presence.
Lice human: life cycle
Life expectancy and breeding of lice depend on the living conditions, external temperature and humidity. Therefore, it varies from 27 days to 46. From the initiation of nits to the beginning of the productive age, about 3 weeks pass. A larva emerges from the egg, it resembles an adult insect, only smaller, and immediately begins to suck blood. She should eat often: 8, sometimes 12 times a day, at least 2 hours later. They really like the favorable temperature a little higher than 20-30 degrees and humidity of 70%.
The external integuments of the larvae do not grow, therefore, increasing in size, it simply molts, that is, discards the chitinous membrane, and a new one grows from it. The larva is brown and changes its vestment 3 times, passing the same number of stages. They last from 3 to 5 days, and at this time lice larvae are beautifully called nymphs.
Breeding lice
Lice begin to breed very quickly as soon as they exit the larval stage, immediately after molting. Fertilized female after 2 days already begins to lay eggs on the hair of the owner.
A body louse can lay up to 14 eggs per day, which is up to 330 per life cycle. The head is not so prolific, so 4 eggs per day is its limit, and for life it turns out a maximum of 140 nits.
Good nutrition increases the productivity of females, as well as comfortable positive temperatures from 20 to 37 degrees. With their decrease, as well as increase, they slow down the pace, and at low temperature conditions fall into suspended animation.
Eggs of nits have an oval shape, their size is about a millimeter, the color is light yellow. Consist of two shells: upper leathery, inner yolk (chorion). In its upper part there is a lid with small holes called micropyle, through which sperm penetrates the egg. When the time comes for the larva to hatch, then the lid opens slightly, and it gets out.
An egg develops from 4 to 13 days, and again it depends on favorable factors.
Symptoms of infection
After the human louse has settled on the human body, it begins to feel itching in the bite sites - this is the most basic indicator of infection. Small grayish constantly itchy spots form on the head, neck, ears, and blood sucked in this louse.
If the insects settled in the clothes, then they begin to itch strongly, the neck, lower back, between the shoulder blades. With the spread of the population, itching becomes stronger and more intolerable, sometimes it interferes with normal sleep. If you do not take measures, a bluish rash appears on the whole body or in separate places - places of bites where the parasite actively feeds.
Accordingly, from bites of pubic lice in people, an irritating itch makes it scratch the pubis, scrotum, and anus.
The bites of the plosma are not so painful, some even get used to them and cease to notice. Traces of bites are bluish in color and are sometimes located on the stomach and hips.
The appearance of lice can be determined by the presence of nits on the hair. They look like small scales of dandruff, but upon closer examination, they resemble a drop and are very firmly attached to the hair. To make sure that the infection has occurred, you can comb with a small special comb over the white cloth, then some insects will fall on it and be noticeable.
Complications of Pediculosis
It is believed that pediculosis is completely harmless, it’s easy to get rid of it, maybe sometimes it is, but complications often occur that are difficult to cure (dangerous and common diseases):
- a human head louse, for example, can cause the appearance of pyoderma - the result of introducing a bacterial infection into the wound from bites as a result of combing;
- the same cause of inflammation on the skin in the form of pustular vesicles called impetigo;
- blepharitis and conjunctivitis - satellites populating the eyelash area of the eyelid;
- lymphadenitis occurs from bites in the groin, on the neck or behind the ears;
- typhus and relapsing fever - these terrible diseases, which are transmitted by lice, claimed the lives of thousands of people during the war and famine.
- Volyn fever.
Lice Prevention
To avoid infection with lice, a person must observe hygiene, wash more often, wash clothes and linen thoroughly, observing a high temperature regime. Ironing things must be done carefully, ironing all the seams.
In no case should you pass your comb to strangers and use other people's personal belongings yourself, don the clothes of strangers.
As a prevention, you can lubricate the skin behind the ears, the occipital region with tea tree oil or lavender.
In order to avoid re-infection with pediculosis, hoods and collars of clothes, towels, children's toys must be processed and washed in very hot water.
In schools and institutions, regular examinations of children for the presence of the disease are carried out, especially in the autumn, when they return from summer vacations.
In places where refugees and hired workers from Asian countries congregate, medical centers are being set up to check people coming to our country for head lice.
Human louse: how to treat
The method of treating the disease depends on the type and the place where the human lice settled , how to get rid of them quickly, without relapse, everyone should know. The most important thing is to destroy all insects and nits-eggs. And, of course, now there are no people who want to sprinkle dust on their heads or sprinkle with “Dichlorvos”, they are extremely poisonous and designed for other purposes, so you can poison yourself with insects.
The human head louse lends itself well to Medifox and Medifox-Super. Hair and skin are treated with a 0.6% solution using a cotton swab, then the head is washed thoroughly. Another effective remedy is Nittifor. After application, the head is wrapped for 40 minutes and it is also very well washed with hot water and soap. Having completed the chemical exposure procedure, the hair is combed with a special frequent comb, bending its head over the fabric to comb out the nits. After that, the rag should be burned.
But, unfortunately, with a comb, even a very frequent one, it is not always possible to comb out all the eggs. The most faithful and effective way known to our great-grandmothers is to remove them by hand. Patience is required a lot, because for one or two times all nits can not be selected, so these manipulations must be repeated daily until there is not a single nit on the head.
In recent years, and scientists have noted this, parasites have appeared that have been able to adapt to some toxic drugs, so if you notice that the medicine is not effective enough, you can try something else. Fortunately, in pharmacies their choice is quite wide: "Nyx", "Lauri", "Butadion", "Veda-2", "Para plus", hellebore, serum ointment. But of course, it is best to consult a doctor, he will determine what kind of human louse has settled specifically, prescribe treatment and help to avoid subsequent relapses.
All these products are toxic, so washing your hands with soap and water is the main precaution, and you should not neglect it, otherwise poison particles can get into your mouth or eyes.
If human clothes louse is wound up in a person’s underwear, how to treat it? Just all the pillowcases and sheets, the patient’s clothes should be boiled and ironed.
To get rid of unpleasant tenants, a simple wash in hot water is not enough, linen and clothes need to be boiled or steamed. Another effective method is insecticide treatment, washing and long-term drying in the sun. The most effective way to disinfect clothing is to treat it in a steam-formalin chamber. In this case, chemical disinfection with the use of high temperatures is combined.
If the clothes are tight and the seams are thick, then disinfection requires special care, since in such folds the insects are well protected, and processing alone may not be enough.
It should also be borne in mind that the body louse can very well be fixed on the cannon hair of the human body, therefore, in addition to treating the laundry, you need to lubricate the body with anti-pedicule preparations.
To expel the ploschita, you need to carefully shave the pubic hair, armpits, and beard. Then use products containing pyrethrins with anti-pediculary effect. For example, Spray Lax is an effective remedy. The medicine is sprayed on the pubis and armpits, and after half an hour it needs to be washed off well with warm water and soap. Insects and nits are removed manually from eyebrows and eyelashes.
Features of treating children
Children are most susceptible to infection with lice, but it is much more difficult to treat them than adults, since anti-pediculosis drugs are very toxic.
A child infected with insects should be immediately isolated from the kindergarten group and school class, a headdress must be worn to avoid infection of others.
When treating the head, you need to ensure that the drug does not get into the eyes, ears, and mouth. If the baby feels bad or there are signs of an allergy, then consult a doctor as soon as possible.
Folk remedies for the treatment of lice
From the earliest times, people have worked out their own means of treating lice, used what was available, because before there were simply no other drugs. Insects were hatched by mixing 1: 1 sunflower oil and kerosene, garlic and onion juice, and then they smeared their heads. They washed it with tar soap, cranberry juice, rinsed with a decoction of wormwood, and carefully chose the nits. This procedure was repeated several times until the parasites were completely exterminated. But in fact, pharmacies now have enough money to get rid of this scourge, so is it worth using outdated methods? Moreover, they do not fully guarantee that the disease will not return again.
From all of the above it follows that the fight against this parasitic phenomenon should be directed to the extermination of insects and the prevention of their infection. The population should be aware of the possible dangers and control measures, what the human louse looks like, and the state is obliged to use all means, sanitary and epidemiological, that prevent the spread of insects.