Families should be wary of head lice during school year

Special to The Clarion-Ledger
September 16, 2007

Head lice have an uncomfortable way of finding a new home regardless of age, social status or personal hygiene, and with school now under way, chances are good that many Mississippi families will encounter these annoying parasites in the months ahead.

Blake Layton, an entomologist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said there is no shame in getting head lice.

"The lice don't care whether you wash your hair once a day or once a month. They don't care whether your home is filthy or immaculate," Layton said. "All that really matters to the lice is that you have hair and are alive, and thus have warm blood to feed on."

People become infested through personal contact with someone with head lice. Lice can be transferred to a new victim on a comb, hat or coat recently worn or used by someone with lice.

"Children are more likely than adults to come into close contact with one another while playing or sharing hats, combs or other personal items," Layton said.

Lice are grey, blood-sucking insects about one-tenth of an inch long. They live three to four weeks as adults, and a female can lay 50 to 150 eggs in her life. Females use strong glue-like substance to attach their white, oblong eggs to the base of hair. Eggs, known as nits, hatch in five to 10 days.

"The empty eggshells remain tightly glued to the hair and move away from the scalp as the hair grows," Layton said. "Nits more than one-quarter of an inch away from the base of the hair have either hatched already or are not going to hatch."

Nits hatch into nymphs that look like small versions of adult lice, and they mature in three weeks. Adults have six legs that end in strong, curved claws that allow them to cling tightly to human hair. Their sucking mouthparts allow them to bite and extract blood.

Their bites cause the itching and scratching that accompany a head lice infestation. They do not transmit disease, but secondary infections can set in with excessive scratching.

Jane Clary, extension health specialist, said children ages 3 to 11 are the most common victims.

"September and October, when children go back to school, are the prime months for a child to get a lice infestation," Clary said.

Prescription lice treatments are more potent than over-the-counter products, but either should be used in combination with combing the nits out of the hair. Seek a doctor's advice on treating children under age 3 with a lice infestation. Consult a doctor if the lice infestation is not resolved in two weeks or if the scalp develops a rash.

She urged those trying to get rid of lice to avoid home or folk remedies.

"The best methods are to use the over-the-counter or prescription treatments and to comb the nits out," Clary said.

# # #