Posts Tagged ‘head louse’

Head Lice Pictures – Essential and Amazing
The identification of head lice has been enhanced in terms of ease of late by the ability to take photographs of these miniature creatures using advanced photographic technology. Using a microscope attachment enables the photographer to get a much magnified picture of the louse, one that shows incredible detail and makes recognizing lice much easier.
Pick up any antiquated scientific journal or book covering the subject, however, and you will still see head lice pictures, often very intricate and highly detailed colored plates that are, in fact, quite beautiful and clearly have taken much time to create. How these were done is a question often asked.
A talented artist would be needed to create such images, and he or she would be using a microscope or magnifying glass to look at the creature; consider how much time and effort was needed to create such an image back then – a hundred years ago or more – and how easy it is to take a photograph and manipulate it to our requirements using affordable everyday computer systems, and the difference in dedication becomes clear.
Furthermore, modern printing techniques have enabled the production of high resolution images, with detail far beyond that that could have been imagined by our artist of old.
Technology has clearly played a great part in allowing us to produce images that show such intricacies as the head lice life cycle, and in terms of diagnosis such material is essential to us now; head lice prevention can be very much aided by understanding what the creatures look like and how the evolve, hence a series of photographs showing the evolution of the head lice, from nit to adult, can be of great interest to a sufferer or one who suspects an outbreak.
Advances in technology in the photographic world have opened our eyes to a mass of miniature things and creatures that were previously unseen; consider that an adult head louse is no bigger than a pin head, and you see the immediate benefit of being able to photograph such creatures and enlarge the image, without loss of detail, on a computer. Furthermore, advances in video technology have allowed us to film lice on the move, something that has taught us a great deal about how they spread.
Having lice pictures available is something that the medical profession has found very useful indeed, and while we can only marvel at the wonderful pictures drawn by scholars of old, we must not forget the skill involved in photographing tiny creatures.

Head Lice Life Cycle – Why You Need to Know
There is a strong chance that many of us will suffer from head lice at some point during our lives, particularly during childhood, as the problem of head lice infestation is surprisingly common. To understand the best ways to treat the problem, and to recognize head lice symptoms, it is helpful to understand the head lice life cycle, which we shall look at here.
There are three stages in the life cycle, and for simplicities sake we will start with the egg. More commonly known as Nits, head lice eggs are among the most obvious of symptoms, and it is helpful to view some of the many head lice pictures that can be found on the internet in order to recognize both the nit and the lice themselves.
The nit is laid by the adult lice, and is attached to the hair follicles by a very strong adhesive, this making it very difficult to remove at this stage. Nevertheless, one of the recommended head lice home remedies is regular combing with a nit comb, a special device designed to detach the eggs from the hair.
The nit will hatch in a week, and begin the second phase of the cycle as it exists as a nymph for a short time. The nymph is very small – roughly pinhead sized – and difficult to spot, and feeds vigorously for a week before it matures into a fully grown head louse. It is at this point that the creatures are easiest to remove, and they can be seen crawling around on the head on close examination.
This third stage of the life cycle is the most troublesome and problematic if the infestation is left unchecked, for a female louse lives for up to 30 days, and on each of those days can lay as many as eight new eggs. As we now know the cycle, it is simple to understand why the population can expand very rapidly in a short space of time: one adult, for example, can produce over 200 nuts in her lifetime.
The head is not the only place where the lice like to live, as pubic hair is also a preferred place, and pubic lice prevention follows the same basic routines, and displays the same symptoms, as with head lice: intense itching and discomfort, and the sight of creatures crawling around, all point to lice and should be taken as a sign that instant treatment is needed.

Head Lice Home Remedies – Do They Really Work?
Head lice infestations are an all too common occurrence, particularly in the case of children for the easiest way to transfer lice between individuals is by actual contact. The conventional medicinal treatments for head lice are chemically manufactured, and it is no surprise that many people choose to seek alternative remedies to the problem, preferably those that do not involve dousing the child’s head in chemicals.
The first thing to do when considering head lice home remedies is to make sure the symptoms that patient is showing are indeed those that indicate the presence of lice. Very often dandruff is mistaken for nits – the eggs of the lice – and an easy method of discerning whether the creatures are indeed the problem is to comb the child’s hair over a white sheet of paper. Examining any dark spots that fall onto the paper, and comparing them with head lice pictures that you can find on the internet, will enable you to make a correct diagnosis.
One piece of advice given to those looking for head lice treatment methods is to use a specially constructed lice comb, available at any good pharmacist: this is a small comb that is intended for removing lice by simple combing, and while the method is often successful it is time consuming and needs to be repeated on a regular basis.
There are several substances that many claim help to kill the lice, generally by suffocation and keeping them from moving, and such home remedies range from covering the head in vinegar or mayonnaise, to herbal remedies and other products, all of which can be successful but are not scientifically proven. If, however, any method is preferable to a chemical treatment then these methods are worth a try, if sometimes very messy indeed.
One of the reasons why head lice have become very common in recent years is that they are prone to adapting, and they can live in adverse conditions very easily. It is a mistake to believe, however, that head lice exist primarily in those with poor hygiene, a belief that is disproven by the sheer number of cases. When in the nit stage – that is existing as tiny eggs – they are at the most difficult point to remove as they are fixed to the hair with a very successful adhesive, and this is why many practitioners recommend the combing routine as the best solution.
If head lice symptoms are seen then acting quickly is always advisable, as the eggs hatch in just a few days, and begin to breed as adults very quickly indeed.

Itchy Head Lice are very annoying!
If you were to assemble a hundred children in a room you would find that a great deal of them had suffered from head lice infestation at some time. This is because head lice will choose to live anywhere, at any time, and not just on those with perennially unwashed hair. Of course, washing helps, but it is not a deterrent of any strength, as the head louse is a hardy and crafty creature that moves around only by walking. Look at any head lice photo – there are many on the internet – and you will see that these miniature creatures have no wings; as children are prone to close physical contact while playing, the transferring of lice is simple.
Itchy head lice are very irritating, but part of the problem is that itch itself; it is a little known fact that head lice can be present for many weeks, in some cases months, before the host feels the itch. When one takes into account the life cycle of the louse – nits, the eggs, hatch in a week and are fully fledged adults in another – it becomes clear that a thriving colony can be in existence before the patient realizes the extent of the problem.
This is where such treatments as head lice olive oil remedies come in: look again at that picture of the head louse, and you will see the two holes on the side of the body through which it breathes. Blocking these, by smearing the head with olive oil or other such substances, is one way of killing them, and is surprisingly successful.
However, it does not kill the nits, which are hanging on resolutely, attached to the hair by a strong adhesive and refusing to budge. The routine wet combing with a nit comb may well drag some of the eggs from their holding places, but it will undoubtedly miss others, and this means that even if the live lice are all dead, within a week many more will hatch. So long as these are not allowed to reach maturity they will pose no problem, hence repeating the process again means that we can be certain the head lice have been eradicated.
In truth, it is worth repeating any treatment a few times in order to be sure, as these very crafty little mites are surprisingly resolute, and remember that whatever treatment you choose – and there are many suggestions on various websites – the wet comb with the nit comb is absolutely essential.

Every one of us has heard of head lice, and many of us will have endured the unfortunate passage of suffering from itchy head lice, but what do you really know about them? Head lice are actually fascinating creatures that, although unpleasant and irritating, are quite harmless; they do not present any life threatening qualities, and they do not – contrary to popular belief – signify that the host is hygienically challenged, they simply happen to enjoy living on our hair, feeding on our blood and laying their eggs, nits, on our scalp!
What does a head louse look like? If you run a  quick internet search for head lice pictures you will be presented with a variety of depictions of these miniature mites; one thing you will notice is that they do not have wings, and that puts to bed the common misconception that they spread by flight. In fact, they can only do so by walking, hence they are easily spread among children who enjoy a much freer form of physical contact than adults.
It is common, also, to mistake the head louse and the head lice nit for the same thing; nit is the name given to the eggs, perhaps the most troublesome part of the equation as they are difficult to remove. This is because of a combination of factors, in the main their absolutely miniscule size and the fact that they are attached to the hair by remarkably strong natural glue. For the record, nits remain as such for up to a week, after which time they hatch into nymphs, or young head lice, and it only takes one further week for these absolutely minute creatures to grow into breeding adults.
The life cycle is completed by the adult, the female of which will live for up to thirty days in adulthood, and on each of those days will lay somewhere between six and eight nits. These itchy head lice become more, therefore, and as the symptoms can take weeks to occur, and the tiny creatures are often mistaken for dandruff, the head louse population can become rampant in a matter of a few weeks.
Interestingly, the creature breathes through two holes in the side of its body, and this is why the seemingly bizarre ritual of applying mayonnaise or olive oil to the head is actually quite a successful routine: it smothers the lice, hence ridding the host of an irritating companion.