What are Head Lice (or Louse)

eco kid - organics for kids Head Lice

Pediculus Capitis of the order Anoplura; commonly known as a head louse. It is a wingless bloodsucking insect that infests humans and has done for thousands of years. They spread by crawling from head to head and cannot fly or jump.

Every year in the UK around three million people catch head lice and not surprisingly they’re most commonly found among school children, particularly between the ages of 4 to 11. That's not to say only children get them, far from it, older people, such as grandparents may have head lice without knowing it and could pass them on to children.
Head Lice are just as happy living with mum, dad, gran and grandad.

Head lice don't mind if your hair is long, short, curly or straight, clean or dirty as long as they have a nice warm head of hair and some blood to feed on, they are happy to live there!

How They Breathe

Head lice breathe through 7 paired spiracles, 1 on the thorax and 6 on the abdomen. The spiracles open into a system of tubes called tracheae. Tracheae occur mainly inside the thorax and abdomen.
The location of these spiracles contributes to the ability of head lice to survive under water for up to two hours. Air trapped against the louse's body serves as an air reserve when the insect is submerged and this trapped air is breathed through the spiracles.

eco.kid Daily Leave in Tonic contains a unique combination of marine polysaccharide coupled with eco.kid botanical complex. The botanical complex and the marine polysaccharide serve together to target spiracles.

Daily Leave-in Tonic polysaccharides have a powerful film forming ability which is targeted at blocking the spiracles openings, thereby asphyxiating the head louse.

How do Head lice see?

The head louse eyes are simple in structure, not compound eyes like mosquitoes and flies. They appear very similar to that of a cat flea. No scientific work has been done on the sight of head lice, but it is assumed they can see light and dark.
Given the nature of a human head of hair, complex eyes are not very useful in the daily lives of head lice. The ability to see through a complex maze of hair would be limited to the same ability we would have to see through a thick forest.
The head louse rely primarily on their other senses of smell and touch to find suitable hosts. This has led to the development of the enlarged and highly sensitive antennae.

The Antenna

The tuft organs occur on the terminal segment and second last segment of each antenna in adult lice. Juvenile lice have one tuft organ on the terminal segment.

Head lice used tuft organs to detect relative humidity. When the tuft organs are blocked the lice are unable to detect and move to their preferred relative humidity of 75%.

eco.kid Daily Leave-in Tonic contains a unique combination of marine polysaccharides coupled with eco.kid botanical complex. The polysaccharide has powerful film forming ability which is targeted at coating the antennae sensory organs of the lice, rendering them ineffective.
Further, the film forming abilities of Daily Tonic protect the hair from tangles and damage caused by combing.
The botanical complex bleeds through the film upon dry down and leaves a droplet array of potent and lethal essential oils on the surface of each hair strand and the scalp. These oils serve as a constant protection against head lice.

Body Structure

Head lice are built to hold on, not jump. Head lice swing from head to head like an expert trapeze artist. They can hold on through repeated hair washings and combings.

Each leg has a claw at the end, the claws are highly specialised for grasping hair shafts. The hair shaft fits into the bottom of a U shaped space on their claws. Other spines higher up the leg help trap the hair in place to stop the hair moving out of the notch when the claw is closed.

As the head louse claws along the hair shaft the eco.kid botanical complex droplets collect along its body delivering an ever increasing lethal dose of essential oils.

 

More General Head Lice Information

They like the warmth that is emitted through your head and cannot survive long if they get cold. They also dehydrate through lack of a human blood supply. Some sources report that they can live for up to 36 hours away from a human head.

Head lice only live on human heads, you cannot catch them from, or pass them too your domestic animals.

Although they bite (in order to feed on your blood), and can leave itchy little spots a bit like other annoying little pests such as fleas and midges, Head lice are fairly harmless and pretty easy to get rid of.