The Life Cycle Of Human Head Lice, Incubation Period And Head Lice Stages

What are the life cycle and incubation periods of head lice?

The first stage of the life of a head louse is the egg, which the adult attaches to the hair with nit glue very close to the scalp for warmth. This glue is very strong and makes manual removal very difficult.

In 5-9 days the egg hatches into the nymphal stage which is the early stages of the adult louse. The term 'nit' refers to the empty shell left behind once the egg has hatched. The nymph immediately seeks out a suitable place to feed.

Over the next 7-10 days the nymphs will shed their exoskeleton in three separate metamorphoses before they mature into adult lice.

Once mated, the adult female louse can then lays around 3-4 eggs a day until the end of her adult life (around 30 days).

Both live for around 30 days. In this time the female will lay around 50 - 100 eggs. Once you have lice however, it is possible to get rid of them by breaking the head lice life cycle.

When a child comes home with a case of lice, a parent's knee jerk reaction is involuntary and instantaneous. They want them out, and they want them out now. They want to nuke them good, and I don't blame them.

The problem is, pesticide treatment products are potentially dangerous and can cause serious damage, even if used specifically as directed. Please avoid OTC (over the counter) chemical head lice treatment products at all costs.

Head lice are resistant to most of these chemicals anyway. Our children on the other hand, are not.

At this stage, you will need to find something natural that will kill the lice now, and worry about the eggs second.

In order to control them with a remedy that does not kill eggs (almost all of them), you need to time it so you kill all the live lice before they are capable of laying more eggs.

The first stage of a head louse's life, is the nit, or egg. This lasts for around 6-7 days before they hatch.

The immature louse is called a nymph, and they stay in that stage, shedding their skin three times over the course of 7-10 days. In this time, they don't lay eggs.

The life span of an adult louse is around 30 days. In this time, a female louse can lay up to 88 eggs.

So, if you kill all the live lice in the hair, and the first egg hatches immediately afterwards, you have 7-10 days before that louse is capable of laying eggs. So, one week later, use your remedy again, and all hatched nymphs are dead.

If the next louse hatches immediately after that treatment, again, you have seven more days before it starts to lay eggs. So, using your natural remedy, treat and kill all nymphs again in seven days time.

It's highly unlikely any lice have been able to lay more eggs, or there were any eggs left to hatch, but to completely break the life cycle, treat one more time with your natural remedy, and all should be well for the future.

For this method, treating this many times, I really feel chemicals or any other toxic remedies commonly in use are out of the question. I feel this is the only way to break the head lice life cycle however, if you are unable to kill all the eggs.

You can go back to using prevention methods to ensure they never return.

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