Features of lice bites (with detailed photos)

Lice bites look and feel about the same to the infected as the bites of other blood-sucking parasitic insects. In their place, small, intensely itchy redness appears (at first, parents often attribute them to an allergic reaction of the child). With a large number of bites, characteristic bluish spots on the skin sometimes also appear.

Typical lice bites are shown in the following photo:

Lice are best known as parasites of the hairy areas of the body, and therefore the effects of an infestation are usually looked for on the head. However, people who, for various reasons, do not change clothes for a long time, especially underwear, may develop body lice that bite any part of the body that is under clothing. For example, the photo below shows typical body lice bites:

Given the fact that lice are potentially capable of carrying pathogens of very dangerous diseases, it is useful to know what a lice bite looks like and how it differs from the bites of other insects, so that when detected and identified, measures can be taken to get rid of the parasites as soon as possible.

 

Why are lice bites dangerous?

Even lice bites themselves can create considerable discomfort with constant itching and possible allergic reactions of the body to them. This is especially true for pubic lice bites - here the discomfort from bites literally does not allow a person to relax for a minute.

Allergic reactions to lice bites usually appear with a serious infection and manifest themselves in the form of rashes in the places of the most massive bites. There may be swelling of the tissues, and sometimes - an increase in body temperature and an increase in lymph nodes.

It is interesting

The Roman emperor Sulla suffered from pubic lice in an advanced form. His contemporaries testify that the servants almost continuously removed parasites from Sulla, and his whole body was covered with festering wounds at the sites of bites.

Constant scratching of itchy bites can lead to suppuration of scratches and the further development of pustular infections, which, if neglected, can develop into pyoderma.

No less dangerous are infections that are carried by lice during bites. So, the body louse and less often the head louse are carriers of pathogens of typhus or relapsing fever, as well as some types of fevers. Each bite of a louse is a risk of contracting one of these diseases (infection can occur when scratching the bites, when the lice are accidentally crushed and their internal contents are brought into the wounds).

Photo of body lice on clothes:

On a note

It was typhus, carried by lice, that caused the deaths of many thousands of people during the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War. According to some historians, during these wars, the number of people who died from typhus exceeded the number who died on the battlefields.

Perhaps, in comparison with these dangers, the fear of being ridiculed by peers, which torments most lice-infested children, seems like just childish stupidity. But it is this fear that leads to the fact that the disease has time to develop. Therefore, the child's skin on the body and head should be regularly examined and, if lice bites are detected, effective measures should be taken immediately.

And further: A very useful thing that allows you to get rid of lice and nits without any chemicals - a special medical comb ...

In the photo - nits in the child's hair:

Important!

Most often, children become infected with lice in friendly groups - kindergartens, summer camps, hikes. It is upon returning from such places that it is worth carefully examining the head of the child and his body under various pretexts.

 

What does bitten skin look like?

Lice bites look like small red, slightly swollen spots. On a fresh bite, you can sometimes see the puncture point of the skin - a drop of dried blood remains here for some time. A few hours after the bite, it is no longer visible.

With a small number of lice, their bites are hardly noticeable. When there are a lot of parasites, mass bites in the places they love most merge into extensive spots and become similar to allergic rashes.

In the photo - lice bites on the child's neck:

And in the next photo - inflamed lice bites:

Lice bites are characterized by the appearance of small bluish spots around the places of greatest damage. There is nothing dangerous in these spots, but they are the easiest way to distinguish pediculosis from the bites of other insects.

With the development of an allergic reaction, the rashes and the bites themselves merge into spots, the surface of which can be covered with a thin crust. Usually it doesn’t come to this, since they start fighting with lice much earlier, but in cases with homeless people this is a typical situation. The photo shows what lice bites look like, complicated by allergies and pustular infection:

There are situations when bites on the skin are completely unnoticed by an infected person: some people with insensitive skin hardly feel lice bites and do not pay attention to their consequences. These cases are among the most severe, since the symptoms of pediculosis in such people are felt only in the later stages of infection, and before that, lice have time to multiply in huge numbers and infect many of those with whom the patient communicates.

 

Differences between lice bites and other insect bites

Bites of head and pubic lice are almost impossible to confuse with the bites of other insects - no other parasite bites the hairy parts of the body regularly. Therefore, if bites in large quantities regularly appear in intimate places or on the head, this is a serious reason to suspect the presence of lice.

But body lice bites can easily be confused with bedbug or flea bites - they are about the same size and appearance. The most characteristic difference between lice bites is the absence of pronounced chains of several bites. Both bedbugs and fleas leave such chains, but this is not typical for lice.

It should be remembered about the blue spots in the places of bites: they are also a characteristic sign of lice.

 

The whole process in detail

The way lice bite is very similar to a similar process in fleas.Over the course of evolution, the jaws of lice have turned into sharp stylets surrounding the salivary canal and the oral cavity proper. With these stylets, the insect pierces the skin and gets to the nearest blood vessel, from which it begins to suck blood.

And further: You need to know the enemy by sight - detailed photographs of lice and nits (including macro photography). Terrible thing...

The pose of a blood-sucking louse is characteristic: at the same time, it slightly raises the back of the body and tries to immerse its head as deep as possible into the skin.

Photo of a louse during a bite:

During a bite, a louse injects saliva into the wound through the salivary canal, which contains an enzyme that prevents blood clotting. It is this enzyme, acting on the nerve endings in the skin around the bite, that causes further itching and redness. In lice larvae, this enzyme is produced in insufficient quantities in the body, and their bites are therefore less noticeable.

On a note

Nits do not bite, as they are just lice eggs in a special protective sheath, which also ensures that they are attached to the hair. The question of whether nits bite usually arises in untrained people due to the fact that nits themselves are more noticeable than lice, and their number on the head is sometimes visually greater than the number of lice due to the large number of empty shells (dry nits) . Therefore, with constant itching, it may seem that it is the nits that bite, which is completely wrong.

 

First aid for lice bites

Immediately after detecting bites, you should look for the lice themselves. Head and pubic lice are also found here: on the hair of that part of the body where the bites were also found.

Body lice should be looked for on the seams and undersides of clothing that an infected person wears most often.

After the detection of parasites, you need to start removing them as soon as possible.

If the immediate destruction of lice is not possible, or the bites cause severe pain and body responses, they must be treated:

• Clean water with soap.
• Any alcohol-based product up to pure alcohol or vodka. Alcohol tincture of propolis will be optimal.
• If inflammation or a wound appears at the site of the bite, it is best to spread it with Fenistil gel or Rescuer ointment. Alfoderm or Asterisk ointment also helps to relieve severe itching.
• If the bites are complicated by an allergic reaction, they should be treated with Menovazin.

If after the bites the temperature rises or nausea and headaches appear, you should see a doctor. With a severe allergic reaction, the hospital may prescribe Diphenhydramine or Diazolin, as well as some specific antihistamines. You cannot assign them to yourself.

And you should always remember that lice is a serious parasitic disease. There can be no talk of any modesty or suppression of the facts of bites, and at the first bites found, everything possible should be done to correctly identify the parasites and begin treatment. The sooner the fight against lice begins, the easier and faster it will be to get rid of them.

 

20 facts about lice that will help get rid of these parasites

 

Interesting video: where do lice come from and how to protect yourself from infection

 

An example of a huge number of lice in a child's hair