Lice Facts
- The life cycle of a louse is about one month.
- A nit is an egg.
- Nits take about 7 days to hatch.
- A nit can hatch off the head (for example, in a hairbrush or on
a bed sheet), but the conditions must be warm enough and a host must
be found quickly, or the bug will die.
- After a nit hatches this baby bug is called a nymph.
- The clear shell of the egg is still attached to the hair shaft after
the bug emerges.
- The egg is stuck onto the hair shaft by a type of glue. Happyheads
Bye-Bye Lice Shampoo™ helps loosen this glue.
- Nits, or eggs, vary in color, depending on the color of the hair.
Lighter nits are found in lighter hair, darker nits in darker hair.
- About 10% of nits never hatch.
- Nothing kills nits except for dry heat. Blow-drying hair and flat
ironing can kill nits.
- Once hatched, the bug molts three times in its life cycle, shedding
its hard shell to grow.
- The nymph needs about 7–10 days before it is mature enough to lay
eggs.
- Eggs are laid only by the female louse.
- Mature lice lay 3–10 eggs per day.
- The body of the female louse is more round than the male louse.
- Lice excrete in the hair. This looks like little dark sand granules
and is sometimes visible in very blond hair.
- Lice only lay eggs in head hair. It is possible to have eggs in
eyebrows and eyelashes, but is not common.
- Body and pubic lice are different types of lice, different than
head lice.
- Head lice are human parasites and cannot live on animals.
- Off the head, lice can only survive 48 hours without a host.
- Lice do not intentionally come off the head, unless they are transferring
to another head. Therefore, there are not lice all over the house.
- 99.0% of lice are spread by head-to-head contact.
- Lice do not jump or fly and are wingless. They have 6 legs.
- They are nearly transparent in color, but turn a coffee brown color
after they feed (draw blood).
- Lice bite every few hours to feed. They are transparent in color,
but right after they feed, they are a darker brown color due to the
blood they intake.
- The bites cause itchiness and irritate the skin. They are often
at the nape and behind the ears.
- 6–20 million people in the U.S. are thought to contract lice each
year.
- Lice remains have been discovered on Egyptian mummies.
- Lice prefer clean hair because they can navigate without difficulty
and easily attach their eggs.
Helpful Links
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html
http://www.headlice.org/index.html
http://www.headlice.org/jesseproject/jesse.htm
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