Linen lice bites

In terms of symptoms, the bites of linen lice are in many ways similar to the bites of other human blood-sucking parasites, but they also have their own characteristics. Basically, the bites of linen lice are specific precisely according to the sensations of a person, and in the photo it is difficult to see their obvious differences from bites, for example, fleas or bedbugs.

Important

Clothes lice are popularly called body lice - a special form of head lice that spend most of their time in the folds of a person's clothes, and crawl onto his body only to get enough blood. They also lay their eggs on clothes, and due to the inability to starve for a long time, they are found mainly in people who do not take off, do not change or wash their clothes for a long time. It is body lice that can bite a person on the back, arms, legs and sides of the body - neither the pubic nor the head louse are capable of this.

As a rule, suspicion of linen lice bites occurs in people who have found unusual itchy lesions on their bodies that resemble insect bites. Their task is to find out who bit them and what measures need to be taken urgently.

Let's look at the main symptoms of bed bug bites so that we can immediately identify them and take action before lice begin to pose a serious threat to well-being.

 

What do lice bites look like?

The bites of linen lice look almost the same as the bites of their pubic or head "relatives". Each bite is a small, red, itchy bump, usually well-circumscribed and separate from other areas of the affected skin. In the center of each such papule, a red dot is clearly visible - a trace of a hole through which the parasite sucked blood.

The photo below shows the linen lice themselves at the time of the bite:

And in the next photo - individual bites of linen lice:

When bitten, the louse injects saliva containing painkillers into the wound, due to which the bite itself is quite painless and can only cause a slight tingling sensation. Below are a few more photos that show how linen lice bite:

Review

“After a week with our parents in the village, we began to suspect that it was not mosquitoes that were biting us. Firstly, there were no mosquitoes themselves in the house, and we turned on the repellent regularly. And in the mornings, all the same, everyone itchs, the bites are red all over the body, even where the blanket was all night. At the same time, nothing seems to bother us or the child at night. We began to understand and found out that the whole bed was infested with lice. And only on one sofa, on which dad watches TV. They are small, they sit in all folds. We immediately took this bed and the linen from other beds to a dry cleaner in the district center, sprinkled the whole house with pyrethrum, roasted the mattresses and pillows in the sun, and nothing seemed to bother us after that.

Anna, Eagle

Linen lice bites are most often localized in those parts of the body to which the folds of clothing are adjacent. Usually this is the lower back and the area near the navel, shoulders, neck, upper back, inguinal-femoral fold, armpits. However, parasite bites can also be located on other parts of the body, up to the calves of the legs and forearms.

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Bites of linen lice after a while become quite painful and cause severe itching.

The involuntary reaction of a person to comb the bite site is normal, however, when they are found, they should be controlled and not combed in order to avoid infection of the scratches.

 

Symptoms of pediculosis and patient sensations

With a large number of linen lice, their bites cause a disease called head lice. Its symptoms are much more extensive and distinct than the signs of single bites:

• Red dry eruptions all over the body, even in areas where there are no bites. This rash is itchy and painful when scratched. The photo shows erythematous rashes provoked by bites of linen lice:

• Emerging excoriations are small local self-damages of the skin in the form of small scars. They are similar to healing scratched bites, but can also occur where the lice did not bite at all. At the site of excoriations, rather deep scars later appear.
• Bluish pigment spots in the bites. This is a fairly characteristic symptom, rarely developing even as a result of allergic reactions to the bites of other insects.
• In places with accumulations of bite marks, boils and ulcers appear, which, if left untreated, develop into pyoderma. In the photo below - advanced pyoderma caused by bites from linen lice.
• The symptoms of "tramp disease" are coarsening, thickening of the skin, its excessive pigmentation and darkening.

However, the symptoms of pediculosis are usually characteristic of people who have not gotten rid of linen lice for years and live in unsanitary conditions - vagrants, refugees, prisoners in camps in the tropics. The development of pediculosis is preceded by such obvious and unpleasant symptoms of parasite attacks that, if possible, a person gets rid of lice even before the development of serious damage.

 

How to distinguish lice bites from bites of other insects

Bed lice bites are a lot like other insect bites, and a single papule can easily be confused with a bite from, for example, a bed bug. But if you look at the picture as a whole, you can find differences:

• Bed lice bites differ from bedbug bites in the absence of obvious chains of wounds. Each bug during feeding tries to make several bites at a distance of several centimeters from one another. Each louse bites only in one place, and there are no signs of order in the location of the wounds on the body.
• From flea bites, lice bites can be distinguished by their painlessness. Flea bites at the moment of bloodsucking are very sensitive and resemble skin puncture with a needle. Lice bites begin to be clearly felt only some time after the parasite has already left the wound. In addition, traces of flea feasting also line up in some places in characteristic short paths, which almost never happens with lice bites.
• Tick ​​bites are well distinguished from the bites of linen lice in size - after the tick is detached, a large and hard bump, similar to swelling, usually remains. In addition, the tick usually sucks blood from several hours to several days, and it can be easily detected at the site of the bite. Lice feed on strength for several minutes.
• It is easiest to confuse lice bites with mosquito bites. However, mosquito bites usually do not show a trace of a hole, as in lice. In addition, linen lice bite only under clothing, and if symptoms of bites, similar to those shown in the photo below, appeared in places covered with pajamas or nightwear, it was most likely linen lice.

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Sometimes lice bites can be confused with scabies (caused by scabies mites). However, with scabies, there are no visible skin puncture marks at all, and such delusions usually occur with scabies in places that are not visible to the victim - on the neck, under the shoulder blades, between the buttocks.

 

Danger of lice bites

Such dangers of lice bites as pyoderma and the possibility of developing purulent diseases are not the only potential troubles. History and parasitology show that lice-borne diseases are much more dangerous, including:

• typhus
• relapsing fever
• trench fever.

These diseases once caused the deaths of many thousands of people around the world, but today only the populations of the poorest developing countries suffer from them.

It is interesting

Lice are one of the hosts of rickettsia - bacteria that cause a large number of diseases quite similar to one another.In tropical countries, lice carry diseases that are unfamiliar to the inhabitants of the temperate zone, and therefore the full list of infections they carry is quite wide.

The first symptoms of diseases caused by most lice-borne infections are fever, headaches, nausea, and fever. If such symptoms occur a few weeks after severe lice bites, you should definitely consult a doctor.

 

Means for treating lice bites and relieving pain

Usually, occasional and single bites of linen lice do not require treatment and pass without consequences after a few days.

With a serious infection with parasites and the development of pediculosis, to get rid of itching, you should use:

• Hydrogen peroxide - it processes the freshest bites with a still unhealed puncture wound. First of all, such treatment is important for the disinfection of affected skin areas.
• Hydrocortisone ointment that prevents the development of allergic rashes.
• Balm "Rescuer" or an ordinary Vietnamese asterisk that can relieve itching and reduce the size of the papules themselves.

If pustular rashes, a rash on the body or other symptoms of pediculosis appear, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible. Self-medication - especially when misdiagnosed - can be dangerous and can make the situation worse.

 

What is useful to know about human lice

 

Lice infestation and ways to get rid of these parasites