Not all people know how lice bites look on their heads and whether bloodsuckers can bite other parts of the body. Itchy wounds in the hair and neck are perceived as consequences mosquito attacks or flea bites. Sometimes traces of a meal of lice are confused with tick bite. Everyone should know how this parasite can be identified. To do this, you need to learn to distinguish between bites of lice from bites of other blood-sucking insects.
Why are lice dangerous?
Lice bite wounds cause severe itching. But not only that lice dangerous. Lice carry diseases:
- typhus;
- quintan;
- relapsing fever.
Pathogenic bacteria are found in insect excrement. They enter the human body through open wounds that appear after an insect bites a person’s skin.
Interesting!
The best prophylaxis for typhoid fever is to regularly check your hair for lice. It is these parasites that can cause an epidemic of a dangerous disease.
Numerous scratches lead to the appearance of:
- dermatitis;
- eczema
- purulent inflammation.
Children from parasites suffer more than adults. Their body is more sensitive and can react to allergies with lice bites.
Feedback
Daughter had red spots on her neck. I remembered that the day before she had eaten a lot of sweets, and therefore decided that the body reacted to a large amount of sugar with a rash. She gave the child an antihistamine and sent her to sleep. At night, the daughter woke up and complained of itching. In the morning we went to the hospital. What was my surprise when the pediatrician determined pediculosis.
Ekaterina Anatolyevna, Murmansk
Itching wounds do not allow the child to concentrate, interfere with normal learning and sleep. Adult family members are unaware that the child is suffering from head lice. Nervousness is attributed to severe stress.
Head lice
Head view of parasites lives in the scalp. It is easiest to find them in the temporal and occipital parts. Head lice bites are found in the middle of the hair, but may appear behind the ears and neck. If the number of wounds is large, then they can merge into bluish spots.
On a note!
Pests quickly hide among the hair, but their eggs are striking. Therefore, patients with pediculosis are often interested in whether nits bite. It seems to them that lice eggs, which are attached to the hair shaft, cause itching.
Itching causes a special enzyme that the louse injects into the wound when it is bitten. It prevents blood from clotting and irritates nerve endings on the skin. The saliva of the larvae contains less of this enzyme, so the nymph bites do not redden and itch.
Feedback
My son had small wounds behind his ears. I immediately examined the baby’s hair and found lice and nits. The pediatrician said that there could be more insects in her hair and prescribed antiparasitic agent. But my child is an allergic person, so she did not take risks and simply cut her boy “to zero”.
Lisa, Moscow
Photos of the bites of lice on the head show which wounds the insects leave. They look like small red spots with traces of gore. Sometimes pus begins to stand out from them, which tangles the hair and forms a crust. Such wounds itch more and heal longer.
Clothes lice
Body lice bites are often confused with bedbug bites or fleas.Parasites live on clothing and can bite the whole body. This species came from head lice. He adapted to live in the seams of clothes. There he lays eggs. A pest can bite a person’s body every four hours. These wounds are very itchy and interfere with sleep.
Interesting!
In 1909, Charles Nicole found that cootie is a carrier of typhus.
Hanging lice causes:
- the formation of blisters, boils, papules;
- the appearance of coarsening of the skin;
- the appearance of age spots.
To understand what happened parasite infection, it is worth looking at the photo linen lice bites. You can notice that the wounds are mostly located where the clothes are close to the body:
- axillary hollows;
- sides;
- hands;
- lower legs.
In a chronic disease, the entire body is covered with painful wounds. The skin turns red and begins to peel off. This lice was called "vagabond disease." The human body, when seriously infected with bloodsuckers, adapts to lice and places of bites cease to cause great concern. But the skin does not become healthy.
On a note!
Hanging look does not settle on wool, silk, synthetics. Pests prefer to dwell on cotton and linen. Therefore, linen sewn from these fabrics needs to be washed at high temperatures and ironed.
Lice bites on the body can merge into large bluish spots, but they will not be on the head. A body louse will not be able to bite the skin among the hair.
Fthyriasis
Pubic Louse or the surface settles on the pubis and in the armpits. The parasite attaches to the base of the hair and hardly moves. Pubic lice bites look like small bluish spots and cause unbearable itching.
Interesting!
Pubic view is not adapted for life on the scalp. Its paws are such that they can cling to a hair having a triangular section.
A symptom of a strong infection of the platy is the appearance of traces in the lower abdomen and on the buttocks. On the underwear you can see brown spots - these are traces of the pest.
Phytiasis is not easy to detect. The parasite has a small size and hides at the very base of the hair. But after feeding, the louse acquires a brighter color and gives out itself. Pubic pediculosis is often confused with genital infection, because in both cases there is severe itching in the genital area. But the parasite gives itself away from bite marks. It looks like a bite of lice, like a cyanotic spot that does not disappear when pressed.
The louse itself is easy to detect if you take a magnifier.
Differences between lice bites and other insect bites
Identifying the bloodsuckers will be easy if you know how lice bite. These are the only insects that can live among human hair. Therefore, bites of lice on a person will be located:
- on the head;
- on the pubis;
- in the armpits;
- in men, insects can live in a beard and mustache.
Linen lice can be confused with fleas or bedbugs, because their tracks are located throughout the body. The main difference is that the bites of the second are often arranged in a row. A clothes louse doesn’t bite like that.
Feedback
I went to a friend's cottage. We planned to rest there for several days. The first night I began to experience pain and severe itching. In the morning the whole back was strewn with small spots. A friend spread his arms - fleas. But it turned out that the clothes louse was biting like that. We threw out a sofa that day.
Alexey, Lipetsk
Another characteristic pediculosis symptom - blue spots. Their appearance causes insect saliva.
How to relieve itching
A lice bite causes pain and discomfort. Unpleasant sensations can persist even after the destruction of insects. Often the head continues to itch after removing lice. But there are tools that help alleviate the condition of the patient and relieve pain:
- Wounds should be washed with warm water and soap. You can take baby or tar soap. It should not cause allergies, otherwise itching will only intensify.
- Treat the comb with vodka or alcohol.It will kill pathogenic bacteria and relieve discomfort.
- Lubricate the inflamed wound with lifeguard ointment. It will accelerate the healing of the abscess.
- Severe itching will remove the asterisk or Fenistil balm.
- Menovazine is used if allergies occur from bites of lice. In this case, you can take an antihistamine: Zodak, Lorotadine, Suprastin. It should be drunk, following the instructions.
Sometimes insect bites cause nausea, headaches, swollen lymph nodes. In this case, consult a doctor immediately. The physician will determine if there has been an infection with a serious illness, and if there is a strong allergic reaction.
To cure head liceIt’s not enough just to handle the bite places. Necessary get rid of lice. To do this, you should buy a special tool at the pharmacy. During the treatment period it is necessary to change bed linen and clothes every day. In addition to these measures, it is recommended apartment sanitation.