Life Cycle of Head Lice
Life Cycle of Head Lice
The head lice are the flat parasites that get transmitted from person to person by means of crawling and cannot fly. Though they crawl from person to person pretty quickly, they never move far enough from their preferred habitat-the hair scalp. They prefer to breed in the warmth of the hair scalp in order to maintain their body temperature. The life cycle of head lice mainly comprises of three stages- Eggs, Nymph and adult stages. In the life cycle of head lice, the egg stage lasts for about three weeks. The eggs to nymph stage lasts for 3 to 12 days. The nymph to adult stage lasts from 7 to 14 days. Lice live as adults for 10 days.
The initial stage in the life cycle of head lice is the eggs stage. Hard nits on the outside protect lice eggs. These lice eggs are in oval shape. They are grayish-white or pearly-silver in color and are transparent or translucent. They look like grains of sand and are not easier to spot. After hatching its empty white to dull yellow in color and almost clear nit casing or shells are left behind. They remain tightly stuck to hair shaft. Egg is tightly glued to the base of the hair shaft, close to the scalp with a special cement bond called chitin. Removing lice eggs is difficult as they are attached to hair shaft tightly. It may persist on the hair for several days even after treatment.
In 6 – 12 days, the eggs hatch. The next stage in the life cycle of head lice is the nymph. At this stage, nymphs look like adult lice but they are smaller and immature. They shed their skin thrice before they actually become adult lice. They remain on the head where they hatch and begin reproduction in 7-14 days.
Head Lice Removal Service in Illinois…
The final stage in the life cycle of head lice is when they are fully grown and the stage is called adult stage. They have a wingless elongated body with three segments. They also have a long elongated antenna with 4 segments. They have a piercing mouth to feed on blood. They normally don’t leave hair unless fully grown after which reproduction begins. The adult lice feed on blood and can live up to 48 hours away from the hair scalp. It is also identified that they can live up to 24 hours immersed in water.
In lice infested hair, you will find lice in different stages and it is important to stop lice eggs from completing the life cycle of head lice in order to remove them completely.
Author: Ole Schwarten
Treatment to get rid of lice can’t be started without having an idea about life cycle of head lice. In order to get rid of lice, you have to know how to remove lice completely from hair leaving no eggs behind.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ole_Schwarten
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I know, its rediculous just how AMAZINGLY hard it is to kill these little creatures! I mean you used to be able to grab some Rite Aid stuff and it was gone, but now, not! My poor daughter had lice for what felt like ETERNITY!!!
The hardest are the little tiny eggs. Combing works i guess, but golly, its soooo time consuming. Heh, maybe we can try Kerosene next time!! just kidding. its really sad that most people just shave the hair after trying to kill them, my daughter was close to having that happen, but thank goodness we didn’t get that far.
We still don’t even know HOW she got them, really so confusing.
-Sheila