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| Identifying Head Lice & Thier Nits |
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| The most important step in treating head lice is in diagnosing it correctly. Many people who have never seen an actual louse (bug) often mistake other common hair & scalp debris as an infestation of pediculosis (head lice). In doing so, some spend many wasted hours in treating thier families & homes. Being familiar with the details of the appearance of lice & thier nits is also helpful in that those who are not aware of what they look like may not realize that lice are present. Failing to identify a case of head lice leads to an infestation of massive proportions, and makes the removal of nits an even bigger job. Please examine the following illustrations carefully in verifying what lice & nits actually resemble. |
| --------------Head of a Common Pin |
| Nit (egg) attached to a hair strand ------------ |
| Newly Hatched Louse (bug) -------------- |
| -----------------Adult Louse (bug) |
| *The Size of Lice, & Eggs in Comparison to a Common Pin* |
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| ( Photo provided by Textbook of Cosmetology/Milady Standard ) |
| Still Not Sure? |
| *Tips For Identifying Lice & Nits* |
| 1) First grab a nit from the hair between your nails & pull it down the hair to remove it. Next grab the nit between the index & thumb nails, & manuver it onto the topside of your thumb nail. Crush the nit between the topside of your thumb nails. You should feel a pop or a crunching as the nit bursts or cracks between the two nails. If it does not pop or crunch, try at least a few more to be certain, in that if the particular egg does not pop or crunch it may be due to the fact that you have found a nit from which a bug has already hatched. If you can't find any that crunch or pop, it probably is not a nit. |
| 2) Find & capture a live bug (louse) & place it onto a white surface (table, napkin, tissue, or paper towel). Using a sufficiant light source that enables you to see the legs of the bug , watch & wait. If it is an actual louse (bug) it will crawl. If it does not crawl, try to detect movement of the legs. Finally apply the same method of crushing it between your finger nails. If it pops or crunches, it is most likely a louse (bug). |
| Note : Nits are tear drop shaped, & are normally found attached at the root section of the hair, with the most narrow part of the nit located closest to the scalp. They are shiny, & seem to be of a grey/silver color although they are somewhat translucent. Newly hatched lice are translucent, and very hard to see. They do gain color once they have bitten the scalp & drawn blood. Adult lice can be brown, black, or any shade in between, with some showing sections of white, yet also have a translucent quality. Lice crawl about quickly, but are smarter than you'd think in that they sometimes play dead (play possum) if they are touched or disturbed in any way. |