How to bite linen lice, photo bites

Linen lice, the correct name is body or body lice, quite rare in the civilized world, where people are cared for and sanitation requirements are respected. But during natural disasters with high crowding of people or during the war, they can become a real threat to human health. Insects cannot starve for a long time, so they get out of their shelters in the folds of people's clothes and are saturated with the blood of their master. Bites of linen lice covering the arms, legs and trunk of a person are different from other ectoparasites. They are dangerous with serious consequences for human health and require immediate treatment and disposal of pests.

What is a clothes louse

This type of louse is a close relative. head parasites, but differs only in that for a long time it can be outside the victim’s body and calmly continue its life on clothes, sheets and blankets. Between themselves, these subspecies of blood-sucking insects are mixed.

Interesting!

Age found fossilized lice and nits dates from approximately 10 million years. The linen louse took shape in an independent subspecies much later. It happened about 100,000 years ago. The reason for this split among relatives was the fact that the first clothes appeared. These insects were so common in the world that there are still curses in all languages ​​related to the mention of these parasites.

General characteristics and features of life

How linen lice look - the size of adult parasites is from 2 to 5 mm, offspring from 0.5 to 1.5 mm. These are transparent insects without wings, whose body color changes depending on the filling of their abdomen with blood. Therefore, a well-fed louse can be confused with fleabut she’s not able to jump.

On a note!

Louse lice have many names: clothes, clothes, clothing, bedding.

Let's take a closer look at how linen lice bite. The procedure is somewhat different from the bites of other bloodsucking. The insect has a fairly small head with a proboscis, which is used to pierce the skin. The saliva of the linen parasite contains a special substance that prevents blood coagulation and provides an analgesic effect, so the victim can not immediately feel a bite and itching.

One-time feeding of lice occurs within 2-3 minutes, but it has to be done often: from 3 to 7 times a day. Bites are randomly scattered on the skin of a person, they look like a uniform, swollen area with a red dot in the middle. This characteristic sign confirms that the bitten one became a victim of linen lice, because only this parasite during the bite plunges the head into the body, which leaves a small wound on the skin.

After a while, the place where the louse was fed begins to itch and hurt a lot. Combing the skin is not recommended, since you can bring an infection, which will have to be treated in the hospital for a long time.

Shelf life of louse is about 35 days. During the day, the female is able to lay 5 to 14 eggs (nits), which she attaches to the tissue using special mucus. Nits remain in this position until the end of ripening. For the whole period of life from one female, 200 to 400 individuals are born.

Linen lice are well adapted to adverse living conditions. They can do without a host for up to 1 week. After falling into a normal environment for themselves, they begin to develop rapidly and bite their victim. If the food does not resume after a week - the linen louse dies.

During evolution, parasites have lost the ability to move and stay in the victim’s hair. Unlike headaches and pubic lice, which is also called ploschita, linen parasites move well in the fibers of tissues. They especially love linen and cotton, do not live on smooth matter, because it also glides in the wool, as it does not come in direct contact with the human body.

Single bites of linen lice heal within 3-4 days. But if there is a strong infection with parasites, then another serious problem arises. In medical circles it’s called pediculosis - a disease in which the whole body is covered with a rash, intolerable itching and pain appears. The skin is affected even in those places where there were no bites, later scars appear there.

On a note!

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

Habitat

The main places where you can find insects are clothes, the folds and seams of which are tightly in contact with the body, especially underwear. Good linen lice also feel in dirty, uncleaned bedding, mattresses and blankets, therefore they are constant companions of asocial elements.

In medicine, there is even a disease called Wagabond, which translates from French as “vagabond disease”. A photo of bites of linen lice in a severe stage of the disease shows the severity of this problem.

Why are insect bites dangerous?

The close attention to the topic of the danger of insect bites is due to the fact that in modern living conditions the environment is changing significantly, and the consequences of these changes become unpredictable.

The reason for an urgent visit to a doctor is the symptoms that suddenly appeared in a person:

• fever;
• nausea or vomiting
• recurrent headaches;
• causeless febrile conditions.

Important!

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

Where you can get lice

In an age of constant population migration, it is easy to become a victim of linen parasites. Therefore, you need to know where these bloodsuckers can bite a person:

• they usually live in bedding and pass through them to the new owner;
• fall to the victim through the clothes of another person;
• often public places with a large crowd of people are a risk zone where infection with lice lice can occur.

Such objects are:

• clothing stores - fitting rooms;
• campsites, hotels, motels, hostels;
• all places of mass recreation: children's, sports and tourist camps, motels and recreation centers;
• public and private transport;
• Overnight in the same tent during hiking;
• at a party or in places where there is contact with someone else's bedding, clothes or towels.

Treatment and prevention of infection

If, despite all the precautions, bites of bed lice were found on a person who is nearby, then urgent measures must be taken. First of all, it is necessary to conduct treatment of the appeared wounds. Any disinfectant that will relieve pain and reduce itching is a little suitable: hydrogen peroxide, lifeguard or asterisk. All this can be bought at any pharmacy.

Treatment of bites of linen lice, which are single, is not particularly difficult.3-4 days after daily treatment, they themselves will pass without a trace. But in the case of extensive infection with insects, only a doctor can find the right way to solve the problem and choose the right treatment regimen. On the Internet and in the medical literature there are numerous photos of bites of lice lice, with which you can diagnose the cause of the ailment.

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

• washing with boiling or at a temperature of 80 degrees;
• steam or disinfectant treatment;
• ironing, in which special attention should be given to joints and seams;
• dry cleaning

Do not forget about sanitized indoor. It also needs to be treated with steam or special means to prevent re-infection with parasites, and you should also take a bath using anti-pediculosis drugsdesigned to control insects.