Facts of Lice: The Top 10 Things You Need to Know
Your kid has lice. At least, you think so. A million questions are racing through your mind. You've come to the right place. Below, we've laid out the top 10 things you need to know when it comes to lice.
1. Lice like clean hair more than dirty hair. So, showering alone won't get rid of them.
2. It is estimated that 1 in 4 children will get lice sometime in their life. This is based off the fact that there are more than 12 million reported cases of lice in the US every year. So, if you or your child get lice, don't feel alone. It's far from unusual.
3. Lice are tiny, wingless, and crawl very quickly. They are only about 2mm-4mm in size. Lice are not able to fly, hop or jump from person to person.
4. Lice are blood-sucking parasites. They need a human host to survive. Once off of their human host, they will only survive for 24-72 hours.
5. People get lice from other people. This could mean close human contact or sharing personal items with an infected person.
6. Nits (lice eggs) are not contagious. Nits can only be laid by lice.
7. You can’t get head lice from pets. Read more about lice & pets here.
8. Lice do not discriminate based on socioeconomic status. The modern stigma around lice originates, unsurprisingly, from centuries of associating poverty with bugs & disease. Yet lice impact all socioeconomic levels equally.
9. Lice bites may cause itching and inflammation. These bites can become infected if not treated. All the more reason to get rid of lice
10. You must manually remove, either by combing or nit-picking, every louse and nit off the head. Leaving even one viable nit on the head will create another infestation. Manual removal is the only guaranteed way to get rid of a head lice infestation. For more information about how to get rid of lice, find out the truth about lice treatments.