What do nits look like?
Head lice are a common problem, especially with young children, because they like to stick their heads together, which makes it easy for the lice to switch to another head. To combat these itchy pests early on, you need to know what the lice and their eggs, called nits, look like.
What you need:
- Magnifying glass
Strictly speaking, the term nit only refers to the empty egg shell that remains after the louse has hatched. In common parlance this word is also used for the egg of the head louse.
What do lice eggs look like?
- Nits are so small that they can barely be seen with the naked eye. They are roughly the size of a grain of sand, so it is best to use a magnifying glass to examine someone else's head.
- Their color is transparent or gray-white to brownish and their shape is oval.
- Nits are firmly stuck to the hair by the female lice and are therefore difficult to remove again.
- After hatching, a head louse is initially transparent, it then has to suck blood very soon in order to survive and then has a reddish color. Otherwise it can also have a whitish, grayish or brownish appearance.
- Adult head lice are around two to four millimeters in size and are almost only transmitted to other people when there is direct contact between two heads.
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How to fight lice and nits
Of course, the most effective way to get rid of lice and nits quickly and thoroughly is to shave your head. Since hardly anyone wants to endure this, there are a few other means.
- The prongs of the lice combs that you can buy in stores are very narrow, so you can use these combs to comb the lice and the nits out of the hair. This is a little easier if you moisten your hair with a little vinegar beforehand.
- If you only see a few nits in your hair, you can also cut out individual strands, which is usually hardly noticeable.
- You can get shampoos and head lice remedies in pharmacies. These remedies usually contain essential oils or fatty acids to help fight the lice.
- Excessive hygiene and a lot of house cleaning are neither necessary, nor do they help in the fight against head lice. As a precaution, however, each family member could have their own comb or brush, so that not all of them end up suffering from the lice.
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