Frequently Asked Questions About Lice

Head lice are annoying and itchy, but they are not dangerous. They do not spread diseases.

Nits are lice eggs. They attach to your hair near the scalp. The lice use a special substance to glue the egg to your hair, which is what makes them difficult to remove. They are oval and can be white, brown or black.

Putting your hair up reduces the chance of lice being able to crawl onto your head from someone else. Lice do not like the smell of mint, so spraying your hair with the Lice Lifters mint spray can also help.

The nits, or eggs, take between 7 and 10 days to hatch. They have to be near the scalp to hatch.

Most of the time, lice are spread from head-to-head contact with another person who has lice. Sometimes, however, they can be picked up if you use a brush, comb or towel from an infected person. Using an infected person’s hat or helmet can also spread lice.

An itchy scalp is usually the first symptom. This is caused by an allergic reaction to the lice biting your scalp. Lice are more active at night, so infected persons may feel things crawling in their hair and have difficulty sleeping.

Head lice can only crawl from one host to the next. They can neither jump nor fly.

Lice cannot live more than 48 hours off the head. Once you remove lice from the scalp, there is no reason to spray toxic chemicals in your home.

Remember, lice can only live for a couple of days away from your scalp. To treat items like pillows or stuffed animals, simply bag them up for a couple of days. Alternatively, you can put them in the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes.

Human head lice have been around for hundreds of years. Ancient Egyptians were buried with lice combs.

We have a special lice comb at Lice Lifters that uses microgroove technology. The teeth are placed closer than a regular comb, in order to pull the lice and nits from your hair.

When products such as Nix and Rid were first introduced, they were actually effective at getting rid of lice. However, because they have been used so often, lice have formed a resistance to these chemicals. Lice Lifters uses a non-toxic treatment that contains no pesticides and is 100 percent safe while still being very effective.

When a female louse reaches adulthood, she can lay 10 eggs every single day. This totals over 200 in her lifetime. If these eggs are not removed, the nits hatch into nymphs (juvenile louse) and then mature into an adult. Once they reach adulthood, they can also lay eggs.

When an egg hatches into a nymph, it takes between 7 and 10 days to mature into an adult.