How long do lice bites last? What lice bites look like: head, pubic and underwear

Quite a rarity in the civilized world, where people are taken care of and sanitary requirements are observed. But during natural disasters, when people are overcrowded or during war, they can become a real threat to human health. Starve long time insects cannot, so they get out of their hiding places in the folds of people’s clothes and feed on the blood of their owner. Linen lice bites that cover the arms, legs and torso of a person are different from other ectoparasites. They have serious consequences for human health and require immediate measures to treat and get rid of pests.

What is a body louse

Interesting!

On a note!

Linen lice have many names: body lice, clothing lice, clothing lice, bed lice.

After some time, the place where the louse fed begins to itch and hurt very much. Scratching the skin is not recommended, as you can get an infection that will require treatment in the hospital for a long time.

The lifespan of a linen louse is about 35 days. During the day, the female is able to lay from 5 to 14 eggs (nits), which she attaches to the tissue using special mucus. The nits remain in this position until the end of maturation. During the entire period of one female, from 200 to 400 individuals are born.

Linen lice are well adapted to unfavorable living conditions. They can survive without an owner for up to 1 week. After entering their normal environment, they begin to quickly develop and bite their prey. If feeding is not resumed after a week, the linen louse dies.

On a note!

The most common places for insect bites include the back, arms, legs, sides and stomach.

Habitat

The main places where insects can be found are clothing whose folds and seams are in close contact with the body, especially underwear. Linen lice also feel good in dirty, unwashed bedding, mattresses and blankets, so they are constant companions of antisocial elements.

In medicine, there is even a disease called Vagabonda, which is translated from French as “vagrant disease.” A photo of linen lice bites during a severe stage of the disease shows the seriousness of this problem.

Why are insect bites dangerous?

Close attention to the topic of the danger of insect bites is due to the fact that in modern conditions life, the ecology changes significantly, and the consequences of these changes become unpredictable.

The reason for urgent consultation with a doctor are symptoms that suddenly appear in a person:

• elevated temperature;
• nausea or vomiting;
• recurrent headaches;
• causeless feverish conditions.

A visit to a medical facility will make it possible to exclude those diseases that can arise as a result of linen lice bites, because they become the cause, including relapsing or typhus and trench fever.

Where can you get lice?

• they usually live in bedding and pass through it to a new owner;
• reach the victim through the clothes of another person;
• often public places with large crowds of people are a risk zone where infestation with linen lice can occur.

Such objects are:

• clothing stores - fitting rooms;
• campsites, hotels, motels, hostels;
• all places of public recreation: children's, sports and tourist camps, sanatoriums and recreation centers;
• public and private transport;
• overnight stay in one tent during hiking trips;
• at a party or in places where there is contact with strangers bed linen, clothes or towels.

Treatment and prevention of infection

If, despite all precautions, bed lice bites are found on a person nearby, then it is necessary to urgently take appropriate measures. First of all, it is necessary to treat the wounds that appear. Any disinfectant that will slightly relieve pain and reduce itching will do: hydrogen peroxide, Rescuer or Zvezdochka. All this can be bought at any pharmacy.

Treatment of single linen lice bites is not particularly difficult. After 3-4 days after daily treatment, they will go away on their own without a trace. But in the case of extensive insect infestation, only a doctor can find the right way to solve the problem and select a competent treatment regimen. Numerous photos of linen lice bites are presented on the Internet and in specialized medical literature, with the help of which you can diagnose the cause of the disease.

But treating bites alone will not help completely. Comprehensive measures are needed. It is necessary to process all things using any available methods:

• wash with boiling water or at 80 degrees;
• treatment with steam or disinfectants;
• ironing clothes, paying special attention to joints and seams;
• dry cleaning

When lice bite, they inject saliva through the opening of the wound, which contains an anesthetic substance, making the manipulation relatively painless, although a slight tingling sensation is often felt.

• children's camps;
• sanatoriums and boarding houses for recreation;
• hotel establishments;
• passenger trains;
• wearing someone else's clothes.

People who have never encountered such a problem before are wondering what lice bites look like?

The following areas of the skin are affected by bites:

• shoulder;
• lumbar;
• cervical;
• inguinal;
• area around the navel;
• axillary area.

But there are cases when lice bites on the body occur on various skin areas, even on the calves of the legs, as well as on the arms.

You can determine how linen lice bite by the sensation of pain accompanied by severe itching.

If such signs occur after detection of lice bites, it is advisable to immediately visit a medical institution.

Methods of elimination and therapeutic therapy

Clothes and linen are washed at high temperatures, after soaking everything in a vinegar solution and intensive ironing, especially the folds and seams.

Garment processing

The body must be processed hot water using laundry soap. Carry out similar manipulations every day. If possible, boil personal items.

If the lesions are severe, there is a need to treat head lice. For better healing of skin areas affected by bites, you should use special ointments or lotions.

Effective in treatment are:

• hydrocortisone ointment;
• balm Zvezdochka;
• menovazine solution;
• balm Rescuer;
• alcohol tincture of propolis;
• Fenistil gel.

In severe cases, the help of qualified specialists is necessary. medical workers to avoid complications and infection.

Uninvited guests in the human head area

Head lice bites are common these days. The head louse is found exclusively in the scalp, and in men, in the beard and mustache. It moves quickly and has a transparent or light brown elongated body. They attach their eggs, called nits, to hairs so tightly that they cannot be shaken off.

The life of an individual lasts about 50 days. Larvae from the laid eggs of lice appear on the 4th day and reach sexual maturity after 2–3 weeks. The result of laying one individual is approximately 300 nits.

Frequent owners of lice are children; they are found in public places.

Currently, there are many different insecticidal drugs used for head lice.

Algorithm of actions

For the same reason, after treatment with the preparations, it is recommended to comb out nits from the hairs using a special small comb, which should be moistened in a vinegar solution in a 1:1 ratio with water.

After several days, it is necessary to dry dry hair with a hot hair dryer to completely kill the remaining larvae that have already hatched from the eggs. The procedure should be repeated until the itching sensation goes away.

To avoid infecting family members with lice, in combination with insecticidal therapy, it is necessary to resort to boiling and then thoroughly ironing all clothing and used bedding.

After receiving information about how lice bite, a person must learn to follow preventive measures to prevent infection with pediculosis.

Pediculosis is an unpleasant disease accompanied by a number of symptoms that are difficult to ignore.

One of them is lice bites that remain on the skin in the form of red spots.

Severe itching prevents the patient from exercising business as usual. How to determine that bites are caused by lice, and what actions can be taken to heal quickly?

Process description

The hair louse not only drinks blood, but also causes allergies in humans.

A person may not feel pain, but a few minutes after the bite the enzyme causes an allergic reaction. It makes a person itch. Relief occurs only for a few minutes, after which the itching becomes even stronger.

Pimples are randomly scattered across the skin, so they can easily be mistaken for a rash or acne.

Features of skin lesions

If the first bites initial stage diseases can be seen on any part of the body, then the last 2 types do not leave the hairline at first and suck blood only in the hair growth area.

The difficulty of treatment is that medications, killing adult individuals, may be powerless in the fight against nits.

The manual method of getting rid of lice (combing with a comb, picking with your fingers) does not positive result, since many nits are empty shells from which insects have already emerged.

Moreover, there are so many eggs containing living individuals that they cannot be completely removed in a short time. With multiple lesions, people often resort to the last resort - cutting their hair bald. Although this can be avoided if you listen to your doctor's recommendations and use effective drugs from pediculosis.

Possible complications

In the Middle Ages and during the Great Patriotic War lice became the cause of mass epidemics. The bubonic plague killed millions of people.

During the Second World War, soldiers fell ill with typhus and relapsing fever.

The warriors saved themselves by taking off their clothes and boiling them. But this did not prevent re-infection. There was not enough food, clothing, medicine, and personal hygiene products.

Lice are not as harmless as they seem and can cause serious illness.

A person infested with lice may develop pyoderma, a purulent skin lesion caused by pyogenic cocci.

Severe fever and an increase in body temperature to borderline values ​​occur in severe stages of head lice.

What to do

These remedies will help relieve itching

The patient’s condition during treatment can be alleviated using accessible and inexpensive means:

1. Rubbing bites with propolis tincture, alcohol, vodka, and soda solution helps relieve itching.
2. From medical supplies Fenistil, Rescuer, Asterisk are used.
3. If an allergic reaction to multiple bites occurs, Menovazin is used.

The patient must use by individual means hygiene, monitor the cleanliness of underwear. Things are subjected to heat treatment. During treatment, contact with other people is prohibited. Bed linen is changed daily and washed at high temperatures. If you are infested with pubic and body lice, your body hair will have to be shaved off.

When visiting public places- swimming pool, bathhouse, sauna, beach - you need to use your own towel, soap, cap, bed linen.

This will reduce the risk of lice infestation. Despite the fact that nothing indicates illness, during tourist trips or vacations at sea, family members need to examine each other every day. If a person is infected with lice, the symptoms of infection may not appear at first. And during this period, lice quickly increase their numbers. It is better to prevent the disease than to undergo long treatment later.

Lice live on the surface of the scalp, their eggs are laid by attaching to the base of hair Therefore, their bites are aimed only at feeding. About how long it takes for eggs to turn into adult lice.

Lice begin to bite from the first day of infection, since they need to feed constantly.

What happens during a bite?

How do lice bite? The oral organs of lice are stiletto-shaped jaws that surround the salivary canal and the oral cavity itself.

When a louse bites, it pierces the skin with its jaws, injecting a certain amount of saliva into the wound, which prevents blood clotting - this is what saliva and the enzymes it contains cause irritation, redness and itching around the bite site.

Having bitten through the skin, the louse reaches the nearest vessel and begins to suck blood from it, while trying to press its head as close as possible to the surface of the skin and lifting the back of the body.

An adult louse feeds this way every 2-3 hours.

Lice bites in the photo

For your attention, lice bites on the head - photo:

Where to look for affected areas

We looked at photos of lice bites on a person, now we’ll tell you how and where to find them.

Initially on the skin small bright red papules appear- itchy acute dermatitis.

At first it can be mistaken for an allergic rash, if pediculosis is not treated, itchy acute dermatitis can become chronic.

This happens suppuration of papules, formation of boils, appearance of excoriations (scratching) on ​​the scalp, skin thickening or crusting may occur.

To avoid infection, just maintaining personal hygiene is not enough; moreover, it is preferable for lice clear head: clean skin It’s easier to bite through, and lice are not afraid of water, as they can block the airways for a while.

Useful video

Typical lice bites are shown in the following photo:

Why are lice bites dangerous?

Even lice bites themselves can create considerable discomfort with constant itching and possible allergic reactions of the body to them. This is especially typical for pubic lice bites - here the unpleasant sensations from the bites literally do not allow a person to relax for a minute.

Allergic reactions to lice bites usually appear with a serious infection and manifest themselves in the form of rashes in the areas of the most widespread bites. Swelling of the tissues may be observed, and sometimes an increase in body temperature and enlargement of the lymph nodes.

This is interesting

Constant scratching of itchy bites can lead to suppuration of scratches and further development pustular infections, which when neglected can develop into pyoderma.

No less dangerous are infections transmitted by lice through bites. So, and less often - headache - they are carriers of pathogens of typhus or relapsing fever, as well as some types of fevers. Each lice bite is a risk of contracting one of these diseases (infection can occur when scratching the bites, when the lice are accidentally crushed and their internal contents are carried into the wounds).

Photo body lice on clothes:

On a note

It was typhus, carried by lice, that caused the deaths of many thousands of people during the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War. According to some historians, during these wars the number of people who died from typhus exceeded the number who died on the battlefields.

Perhaps, compared to these dangers, the fear of being ridiculed by peers, which torments most children infected with lice, seems simply childish stupidity. But it is precisely this fear that leads to the fact that the disease has time to develop. Therefore, the child’s skin on the body and head should be regularly examined and if lice bites are detected, effective measures should be taken immediately.

The photo shows nits in a child’s hair:

Most often, children become infected with lice in friendly groups - kindergartens, summer camps, hiking. It is upon returning from such places that it is worthwhile, under various pretexts, to carefully examine the child’s head and body.

What does bitten skin look like?

Lice bites look like small red, slightly swollen spots. On a fresh bite, you can sometimes see the puncture point of the skin - a drop of dried blood remains here for some time. A few hours after the bite it is no longer visible.

In the photo – lice bites on a child’s neck:

And in the next photo there are inflamed lice bites:

Lice bites are characterized by the appearance of small bluish spots around the areas of greatest damage. There is nothing dangerous in these spots, but they are the easiest way to distinguish pediculosis from the bites of other insects.

When an allergic reaction develops, the rashes and the bites themselves merge into spots, the surface of which may become covered with a thin crust. Usually it doesn’t come to this, since lice begin to be dealt with much earlier, but in cases with homeless people this is a typical situation. The photo shows what lice bites look like, complicated by allergies and pustular infections:

There are situations when bites on the skin go completely unnoticed by an infected person: some people with sensitive skin practically do not feel lice bites and do not pay attention to their consequences. These cases are among the most severe, since the symptoms of lice in such people are felt only in the later stages of infection, and before that the lice manage to multiply in huge quantities and infect many of those with whom the patient communicates.

Differences between lice bites and other insect bites

But the bites of body lice can easily be confused with the bites of bedbugs or fleas - they have approximately the same size and appearance. Most characteristic difference lice bites - the absence of pronounced chains of several bites. Both bedbugs and fleas leave such chains, but this is not typical for lice.

You should also remember about stains blue color at the sites of bites: they are also characteristic feature lice.

The whole process is in detail

The way lice bite is very similar to that of fleas. During evolution, the jaws of lice have become sharp stilettos surrounding the salivary canal and the oral cavity itself. With these stylets, the insect pierces the skin and gets to the nearest blood vessel, from which it begins to suck blood.

The posture of a blood-sucking lice is typical: it slightly raises the back of its body and tries to bury its head as deeply as possible into the skin.

During the bite:

During a bite, the louse injects saliva into the wound through the salivary duct, containing an enzyme that prevents blood clotting. It is this enzyme, acting on the nerve endings in the skin around the bite, which subsequently causes itching and redness. In lice larvae, this enzyme is produced in the body in insufficient quantities, and their bites are less noticeable for this reason.

On a note

Nits do not bite, since they are just lice eggs in a special protective shell, which also ensures their attachment to the hair. The question of whether nits bite usually arises among untrained people due to the fact that the nits themselves are more noticeable than lice, and their number on the head is sometimes visually greater than the number of lice due to the large number of empty shells (dry nits) . Therefore, with constant itching, it may seem that it is nits that are biting, which is completely wrong.

First aid for lice bites

Immediately after discovering bites, you should look for the lice themselves. The head ones are located here: on the hair of the part of the body where the bites were found.

You should look for body lice on the seams and inside of clothing that an infested person wears most often.

If immediate destruction of lice is impossible, or the bites cause severe pain and the body’s responses, they need to be processed:

• Clean water and soap.
• Any alcohol-based product, including pure alcohol or vodka. An alcohol tincture of propolis would be optimal.
• If inflammation or a wound appears at the site of the bite, it is best to smear it with Fenistil gel or Rescuer ointment. Alfoderm or Zvezdochka ointments also help relieve severe itching.
  
• If bites are complicated by an allergic reaction, they should be treated with Menovazin.

If after bites the temperature rises or nausea and headaches appear, you should see a doctor. In case of a severe allergic reaction, the hospital may prescribe Diphenhydramine or Diazolin, as well as some specific antihistamines. You cannot assign them to yourself.

An example of a huge number of lice in a child's hair