What is a body louse? Causes and treatment of body louse Body louse symptoms

). The peculiarity of such a parasite is that it changes its “habits”; it lives on clothes, and not on the body. Body louse legs are unable to hold on to hairs human body.

• papules;
• blisters that have a blood crust in the very center;
• pigmented spots.

What body lice bites look like (photo)

Body lice prefer:

• unsanitary conditions;
• pleasant perfume aromas;
• natural fabrics (linen, cotton).

• at the hotel;
• at the market (after trying on clothes).

The eggs have an elongated shape and their size is only 0.5 mm. Eggs (they are called nits) are attached to clothing thanks to the adhesive substance that covers their shell. They ripen thanks to the warmth of the human body. Full maturation of the larva occurs after three molts. The size of the larvae is 1.5-2 mm; in appearance they are similar to adults.

Is the body louse the causative agent of typhoid fever? The answer is no. Cootie is a carrier of the causative agent of epidemic relapsing fever. Typhoid fever is spread through nutrition. Its carrier is Salmonella.

This video will tell you what body lice is:

Causes

Ways of spreading body lice are:

The appearance of body lice is indicated by the same symptoms that are characteristic of the well-known head lice. These signs include:

• waist;
• armpits;
• shoulders;
• small of the back;
• back (its upper part).

These are the symptoms that indicate a body lice infestation. It is very difficult to find them, because they are hidden in the folds of clothes. Therefore, if scratches or wounds on the dermis are detected, you should visit a dermatologist.

We'll tell you how to detect body lice below.

This video will tell you about the inspection for body lice:

Treatment of body lice

Treatment of body lice takes a little time, but it is advisable to contact sanitary services. Specialists will appoint special means to treat the room, and will also recommend a suitable remedy for the patient.

Medicinal and therapeutic methods

To get rid of body lice you need to treat:

• All items;
• body.

Processing things

Processing things is:

1. Collecting all contaminated items.
2. Wash in washing machine at maximum temperature with the addition of vinegar or insecticide. If this is not possible, it is advisable to use dry cleaning services.
3. Treat clothes in steam-formalin chambers.
4. Hang clothes out in the cold (in winter). It is necessary to keep the laundry for at least a week at a temperature below -20 0 C.
5. After washing, the laundry should be aired for 2 weeks.
6. It is recommended to boil all the patient's belongings.
7. You can place the things of a person with pediculosis in a tight bag, and introduce an anti-pediculosis agent (Sulfidoz, Karbofos) inside the bag.

To kill body lice, you can use the following: effective means:

• Medifox.
• "Pedilin."
• "NOK."
• "Karbofos".
• "Buzzed."

Treating the body with a pediculicidal agent involves performing the following actions:

1. Thorough body wash.
2. Application of pediculicide.
3. Washing the body with soap.
4. Dressing new clothes, which is pre-ironed with a hot iron.

Treating Bites

Treatment of bites:

1. To treat damage to the epithelium, you can use the balms “Rescuer”, “”.
2. A histamine is used for allergies.
3. Antibacterial and disinfectant preparations are used in the development of complications of pediculosis, which manifest themselves in the form.

Sprays, lotions, and shampoos are used to treat the body. Very effective means against body lice on the body are:

• "Para Plus";
• "Nit Free";

These drugs are applied to the body, especially to the affected areas of the epithelium. After applying the lice remedy, wrap yourself in plastic. After the specified time, the product is washed off.

To definitely get rid of body lice, you should treat the body, things and linen at the same time.

Read the article below to learn how to get rid of body lice at home.

At home

You can get rid of body lice using folk remedies. The following methods will definitely be effective:

Complications

Long-term cases of body lice may cause the following types complications:

• purulent lesions of the epithelium;
• nervous disorders;
• development of allergic reactions;
• typhus.

Forecast

If measures aimed at eliminating body lice are carried out correctly, then the prognosis for body lice is good. If you do not begin to treat this problem, then lice can multiply for several years. A negligent attitude towards the disease is dangerous due to the development of complications.

To get food, the body louse bites the skin on the human body, easily moving onto it from items of clothing. At the sites of such bites such unpleasant manifestations often appear as:

• redness;
• rash;
• cyanosis combined with reddish spots;
• blisters with pus inside (pustules);
• boils.

If body lice is not treated, it can cause the development of more serious conditions, namely furunculosis, folliculitis and even open ulcers on the body. But most often, body lice bites provoke the development of severe skin itching.

Particularly affected are areas of the body adjacent to clothing (back, neck, abdomen, lower back, shoulder area).

How to deal with body lice?

Body lice bites do not pose a great danger to human health, but if they are not destroyed, skin inflammation and itching will be constant companions.

If you don’t have the money to pay for pest control services, you can try to remove body lice yourself. To do this, you need to perform a set of measures.

• Wash all the clothes you have in the house in a washing machine, adding some before starting the procedure modern remedy against body lice. If this is not available, there is another option - or vinegar. The body louse, photos of which can be seen on thematic websites on the Internet, is very afraid of high temperatures. And therefore it is recommended to wash clothes and linen in a very hot water. Perfect option- this is boiling things or dry cleaning them in a formaldehyde room.
• The body should be washed thoroughly using anti-pediculosis products (shampoo or gel). Moreover medicinal composition It is recommended to leave it on the skin for at least half an hour, and then rinse everything off well with running water.
• After swimming, you must put on clean clothes that are well washed and ventilated.

If body lice are found on the body, a photo of the bites of which will help to accurately determine whether a person really has body lice, then experts also recommend changing bed linen and clothes that have not been treated heat treatment, do not wear it at all.

It is recommended to treat body lice bites at home using balms with essential oils(Rescuer, Zvezdochka), as well as alcohol-based lotions.

If a person has allergic reactions to such drugs, then antihistamines and painkillers are used to treat body lice.

Instructions for getting rid of body lice at home

A good recipe for getting rid of body lice is to use a 20% solution prepared by mixing soap and kerosene, as well as ironing things with an iron with hot steam.

Despite their specificity, body lice are resistant to regular washing of clothes and linen with powder. The best remedy for disinfecting things and premises, a 20% soap-kerosene solution is considered, which for thorough treatment will require approximately 2.5 liters (and for disinfecting bed linen - 4 liters). It is recommended to soak things in this composition for half an hour.

To get rid of body lice, you can boil all your clothes and then hang them out in the open and sunny place for ventilation. After this time, it is recommended to iron all folds of clothing with a hot iron.

Body lice are very similar to head lice, but differ in larger sizes, because the body length is about 4 mm. Insects are characterized by a whitish or grayish-yellow color, which makes them almost invisible. The louse has a small head with antennae, an elongated abdomen, and no wings. The insect is capable of clinging to hair with its paws, which is why they live in tissues. Their mouth is piercing-sucking; insects pierce human skin with special piercing needles and suck out blood using a thin proboscis.

The insect's lifespan is about 35 days, but during this period the female manages to lay up to 400 eggs, laying up to 14 a day. The eggs are called nits; they are attached to clothing with a special adhesive substance, which makes them very difficult to tear off from the fibers of the fabrics. The eggs look like elongated grains, only 0.5 mm in size. Next stage development after the egg, larvae. They are also small and their size does not exceed 2 mm.

This insect is sometimes confused with fleas, especially after the individual has had its fill of blood, because its belly will darken. In this case, the main difference is that lice are not able to jump. Distinguish bed bug getting rid of body lice is also easy, because bedbugs are much larger and have a darker abdomen color. One can note the similarity with a tick, but it has eight legs, while a louse has only six.

What is a body louse?

They spend all their time between the seams of clothes, in folds, under the collar, in bedding. Several times a day, it crawls onto human skin to feed, because the insect will die if food is absent for 4 days.

However, clean people can also pick up lice if they visit typical places:

Symptoms of infection

In such situations, it is necessary to contact a specialist as soon as possible. If your trip to the doctor takes a long time, then first understand whether it really is bites or allergies. The allergy affects large areas as continuous redness. The bites have a puncture point in the center of the inflamed areas and are local in nature.

It is not difficult to distinguish a louse bite from a bedbug bite. Bed bugs bite people open areas skin: usually the legs, arms and neck. Lice, on the contrary, attack areas of the body that are covered with clothing.

How do bites appear?

When the skin is punctured, the insect injects an anesthetic substance into the wound, which helps stop clotting, so bites are characterized by severe itching and allergies, manifested in the form of hives. Discomfort and burning force you to scratch the affected skin, which leads to damage. Wounds become a path for the penetration of bacteria, which cause the formation of purulent formations.

If you ignore and start the process, a complication will appear in the form of boils and abscesses, which indicate that the infection has got deep inside. In such people, the skin gradually thickens and becomes rougher.

Body lice bites are accompanied by:

• redness and rashes;
• irritation and itching;
• bluish tint at the bite sites;
• the appearance of boils and pustules;
• increased body temperature, nausea, headache, digestive disorder;
• insomnia and nervous disorder.

But this is not the worst that can be expected as a result of infection. Body lice can carry serious diseases such as fever and typhoid. But insects are not able to infect people with AIDS or hepatitis B, because a special enzyme in lice breaks down virus particles.

If you do not scratch the bites, they will heal on their own within 3-4 days, but do not ignore them, but start treatment - this will speed up the healing and prevent the development of serious consequences. Treat damaged skin with alcohol lotions and balms. If you have allergies, use antihistamines, which relieve itching and swelling.

Start by processing personal items:

Do not store treated items with still infected items. Wipe cabinets for storing linen with vinegar, and treat furniture upholstery, for example, with Karbofos.

You can resort to traditional medicine:

Externally, body lice bites are very similar to flea bites, but unlike the latter, they are located chaotically, and not in chains.

Bites, and, consequently, itching, with body lice are localized mainly in the area of ​​the shoulders, lower back, buttocks, thighs, armpits, and neck. Body lice bite less often on hairy areas of the body, preferring areas of smooth skin.

Possible complications

Body lice itself is a very unpleasant, but harmless disease. However, pediculosis, especially if it lasts for a long time, can provoke the development of serious complications.

Secondary infection. The skin reliably protects the body from infections. But numerous skin lesions caused by lice bites and constant scratching reduce protective properties skin to a minimum. The infection easily penetrates into wounds and causes inflammation.

Skin changes are possible with long-term head lice. The skin of such patients thickens, and pigmentation disorders may be observed in some areas. The skin pattern is clearly visible on the skin, so its surface appears rough.

Lice, including body lice, can become carriers of dangerous infectious diseases. A louse, having drunk the blood of a patient, becomes dangerous to other people. When a louse lands on another host, it infects it infectious disease. Body lice spread diseases such as rickettsiosis, relapsing fever and typhus. It is lice infestation that causes the development of epidemics when people live in unsanitary conditions (for example, in poorly organized refugee camps).

Diagnostics

Characteristic symptoms of body lice:

• The presence of bites, which, in the absence of complications, heal within 3 days;
• Severe itching in and around the area where the bites are located.

In addition, with body lice, the following are possible:

• Various allergic reactions from the development (characteristic rash) to the development of generalized symptoms.
• Formation of small bluish spots on the skin. The appearance of these spots is due to the fact that when a louse bites, it injects a specific secretion inside that destroys hemoglobin in the blood. Hemoglobin breakdown products, accumulating under surface layer skin, giving it a bluish color. Pediculosis spots are unstable and disappear quite quickly.
• Development of pustular skin lesions due to a large number of superficial lesions.

Some patients develop nervous disorders due to constant and intense itching.

It is important to distinguish pediculosis from. The main difference is that with pediculosis, superficial damage is visible on the itchy skin - bite marks. When scabies occurs, it makes passages under the surface layer of the skin, so there is no external damage.

Treatment

Getting rid of body lice is quite simple, but the approach to solving the problem must be comprehensive.

If body lice are detected, it is advisable to contact sanitary services. Specialists have effective disinfectants that can help you get rid of lice in just one day.

If it is impossible to use special disinfectants (for example, if you have allergies), you can get rid of body lice without using them. Patients are recommended:

• All bed linen in the house should be washed at the most high temperature or boil. When using a washing machine, you can add vinegar to the powder, or even better, special products - pediculocides.
• You also need to wash your clothes. Ideally, clothes should be treated in steam-formalin chambers. As a last resort, in winter you can hang your clothes out in the cold (the temperature should not be higher than minus 20 degrees). Clothes should be kept in the cold for at least a week. It is also recommended to hang washed clothes and linen out for airing for at least two weeks.
• The patient needs to wash the body well, then apply pediculicidal shampoo, cream or aerosol to the body. After half an hour, wash your body thoroughly with soap again. Wear clothes that are new or have not been worn for at least two weeks and have been ironed with a hot iron.

Lubricate the bite areas with “Rescuer” or “Zvezdochka” balm. In the presence of allergic reaction select an antihistamine. If complications of pediculosis (pustular skin lesions) develop, symptomatic therapy is prescribed - antibacterial, disinfectants.

Treatment with traditional methods

To quickly get rid of body lice, you can use folk recipes.

• The body louse really does not like the smell of tansy. This plant is in dry or fresh It is worth hanging in places where the patient’s clothes are dried and ventilated after washing and processing.
• Tansy decoction can be used to rinse the body after bathing.
• To quickly heal the affected skin in the area of ​​lice bites, you can prepare an ointment by mixing four parts of baby cream or rendered pork fat and one part of a powdered mixture of dry roots of white cherry and angelica. Apply ointment to the affected skin for pediculosis.

Prognosis and prevention

The prognosis for properly carried out measures to get rid of body lice is good. If left untreated, body lice can last for years, and complications cannot be ruled out.

Prevention of body lice involves maintaining hygiene, changing and washing clothes in a timely manner, and if possible avoiding visiting places where the risk of lice infection is high. In addition, you should not try on other people's clothes and underwear.

Body lice are very similar to head lice. They have the same small body, the length of which reaches about 3 mm, and a slightly elongated abdomen, colored light gray or light yellow.

Body lice larvae are very similar in appearance to adult individuals and differ only in size - 1.5-2 mm. During their development, they experience three molts and only after that they reach full maturity.

The eggs of these insects, like other lice, are called nits. Their shell is covered with an adhesive substance, with the help of which they stick quite firmly to clothing and can be removed mechanical method very problematic. The eggs are elongated in shape, about 0.5 mm in size. Due to their small size, nits are very reliably hidden from the human eye, and it is impossible to accidentally detect them.

The process of reproduction, like normal life activity, in body lice can occur under certain conditions - a temperature of +30°C is considered optimal, and when the thermometer drops to +15°C and below, the development of nits stops. If the air temperature drops below -13°C or exceeds +60°C, then body lice are guaranteed to die.
Females can survive no more than 45 days, while males live even less, often less than a month. But this period is enough for female body lice to lay 100-140 eggs (about 4 nits per day). When the nit emerges from the egg, it drinks blood once, after which it molts and immediately becomes a first instar nymph. After 5 days, she experiences a second moult and turns into a nymph of the second instar. The third time it changes its chitinous cover after another 8 days and after that it becomes an adult insect. At optimal temperature air, in just 16 days, the former egg will give rise to new offspring, that is, the hatched nymph will have time to mature and produce new nits. And if no action is taken, then within two months the body lice colony will increase its number several hundred times.

What is body lice?

In fact, preventing the development of body lice is quite simple; the main thing in this matter is to know the ways of its spread, which include:

• bodily contact with the carrier, in which lice can move onto the clothes of a healthy person, and since these small insects are capable of moving at a speed of about 20 cm per minute, the contact should be quite long;
• You can become infected in crowded places, which include public transport, especially during rush hour, when contact occurs most closely;
• kindergartens and schools are also no exception, since children contact each other quite actively and do not pay much attention to appearance your interlocutor;
• spontaneous markets for the sale of used clothing, or simply second-hand stores, can become a real breeding ground for linen lice, since such things do not always undergo the necessary sanitary treatment.

And in order not to become infected with body lice, you should take into account all the above-described methods of its spread, be extremely careful in crowded places and try not to purchase clothes, and especially underwear, in potentially dangerous places.

The appearance of body lice will be “marked” by the following symptoms:

• marks after bites, which, with a small amount, heal on their own after 4 days;
• itching appears in the affected area, both at the site of the bite itself and in the area surrounding it;
• an allergic reaction may occur, which will be accompanied by a rash on the body or more serious manifestations - increased body temperature, digestive system upset, headaches, nausea;
• at large quantities After bites, bluish spots may appear on the skin;
• Constant itching can lead to nervous disorders and insomnia.

On a note! Children can react especially painfully to body lice bites. They will begin to cry often for no particular reason, sleep poorly and get nervous over minor reasons.

As practice shows, most often it is the symptoms that indicate the occurrence of body lice, rather than the insects found. They hide so well in the folds of clothing that if you don’t set a goal, it’s almost impossible to see them on any thing.

It becomes clear that it is the itching that appears at the bite sites that is the main symptom of body lice. The insect bites through the skin, saturates itself with blood and injects an anesthetic secretion that prevents blood clotting.

Most often, body lice bites will be localized in places where clothing adheres to the body:

• waist;
• shoulders;
• upper back;
• small of the back;
• armpits.

But bites can also occur on other parts of the body that are not covered with hair.

Important! Body lice became the main source of the development of relapsing and typhus, which claimed thousands of lives during the war. Today, such diseases mainly affect residents of African and Asian countries, where sanitary conditions leave much to be desired.

How to deal with these insects?

To get rid of body lice, serious measures should be taken, the list of which includes both treating things and using body products. The whole set of activities will look like this:

• collect all contaminated items and wash them automatically at maximum permissible temperature. In this case, it is necessary to add one of the modern insecticidal agents;
  

  Advice! If you are unable to do this, then it is recommended that you take your clothes to the dry cleaner.

• treat the body with a pediculicidal preparation and wash it off after the time specified in the instructions;
• After these procedures, you must put on clean clothes, and hang previously infected and washed items on the balcony and leave them in direct sunlight for two weeks.

Body Treatment Products

To combat body lice on the body, you need to choose reliable means. These include shampoos, lotions and sprays:

• Para Plus;
• Nittifor;
• Nit Free.

They must be applied to the body, Special attention After focusing on the affected areas, it is advisable to wrap yourself in polyethylene (you can use cling film) and wash off later certain time. Various preparations may indicate a time period ranging from 10 to 45 minutes.

On a note! These include kerosene, but they can cause burns on the skin, and the effectiveness of such drugs is much lower than special ones.

How to treat clothes?

Previously, the same method was used to treat clothes against lice. It was added to the water in which the laundry was soaked, then the whole thing was boiled, after which the lice were guaranteed to die. However, this method has a number of negative features:

• V washing machine It is not advisable to add kerosene;
• when washing by hand, you must wear rubber gloves, as the solution can cause a negative skin reaction;
• during boiling, kerosene vapors evaporate, which can lead to poisoning;
• It is quite problematic to remove the smell of this substance from clothes.

Therefore, today, in order to kill body lice, they choose easier-to-use and highly effective anti-pediculicidal drugs:

Important! Remember that the treatment of the body must be carried out simultaneously with the treatment of things. This will reduce the risk of re-infection.

Natural remedies

The following recipes may be useful for body lice that have not yet developed to a serious extent. These methods are simple and, as practice shows, give positive results quite quickly.