Head Lice Life Cycle

When looking at the life cycle of head lice, there are two very distinctive stages in their progression. The first is the egg stage which is commonly called nits. The second is when they are in the adult stage.

In their eggs stage they remain attached to the hair, around 1/2 inch from the skin for eight to ten days. In this stage they are not easy to remove and do not appear to be affected by most of the chemical agents found in the perdiculocides (medicated shampoos or cremes used to kill lice).

The most common treatment of nits is to use a nit comb and to comb them out of the hair. This is a painstaking task and is the origin of the term nit-picking. The teeth of the combs are very tightly spaced and as a result that manage to pull the nits from their nesting place. The task becomes more difficult in the event that the child has long curly hair.

The second stage of the life of a lice is the adult stage. After the nit hatches it will need to feed within one hour or it will not survive. Once it has fed, it will start to darken in color and will begin to mature. An adult lice can produce six eggs every day and will live for up to 30 days.

Adult lice are far easier to kill and can either be smothered, which is the most common method using non-chemical treatments, or by using chemicals to kill them as it perdiculocides.

When looking for a treatment or treatments for dealing with lice, you should always look at how long the treatments take. If your treatment is only for one week, be prepared to have to do it all over again and for a longer period of time as you now know that the eggs can take up to ten days to hatch and the cycle will just begin all over again.

Lice producing six eggs daily through a thirty day life cycle, can and will create an epidemic within weeks. Combating lice will entail a systematic procedure that will eventually result in success, but without the relevant information at your desposal, you may have to deal with the little guys over and over again.



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