Probably you are one of those people infested with crawling parasites on your scalp when you were still in grade school or even until now you still have casual encounters with lice irritation. Head lice can affect anybody, children and old men alike; though lice are more prevalent for girls, boys can be infested too. Do you know where these bugs came from? Here are some important facts about head lice cycles.

Pediculus humanus capitis is the scientific name of head lice. They are insects without wings living entirely in human scalp as their breeding and survival ground. There are more children infested with lice than adults. In fact, more than 6 million lice infestation is recorded in America and rapidly growing in numbers reaching to 12 million cases reported yearly. There are three stages composing head lice cycle namely lice eggs or nits, partially grown lice or nymphs and adult louse.

Lice Eggs (Nits)
These wingless parasites started as being hatched eggs from adult louse. Nits look very small, colored yellow or brown before they hatched into becoming nymphs or baby louse. Lice eggs are attached firmly to hair strands and need warm temperature for incubation. Lice eggs are classified as live egg, dead egg and hatched egg. To distinguish one classification from the rest is to understand the risk of infection they give to infested person. Live eggs have infection and will cause infection risks to human unlike dead and hatched eggs which do not have infection risks at all. Nits’ size is about 0.8 mm by 0.3 mm and hatched within seven to 14 days after being hatched.

Nymphs (Baby Lice)
When lice eggs hatched, nymphs are released and nits still remain at hair shafts. Nymphs are smaller in size than adult lice and are mostly located behind the ears and lower neckline. As the nymphs grow into becoming adult lice its colors turned dark brown becoming full grown lice after seven more days.

Adult Lice
Adult lice are about the same size of sesame seed and very dependent on sucked blood from human scalp for survival. Adult louse feeds a number of times during the day using its small sharp claws pierced unto the skin. Female lice lay at least 8 nits during the day, live in the scalp for at least a month and survive without food for two days outside of your scalp.

If you want to solve the massive duplication of adult lice in your child start picking now lice eggs from the hair shafts. It is only then that you can control further accumulation of parasites that cause so much stress on you. Though lice bring psychological disturbance, they will not cause health problems in the future.

Lice cycle starts from lice eggs become nymphs and later on grew into adult lice. It is very essential to apply immediate treatment for head lice since head lice bites cause itching and scalp irritation. Parents should initiate proper application of medicated shampoos and lotions in order to give your child immediate relief of the irritation head lice bring. You can ask the help of your health care provider on what to use to kill head lice and prevent re infestation in the future.