Report: Most at risk (page 4 of 28)
Children – particularly six to nine-year-olds – are most at risk. This is probably because their games often involve close contact.
And it seems girls are more susceptible – possibly because of their longer hair. But adults can catch head lice just as easily as children.
The female head louse can store male sperm in her abdomen, which means she only needs to mate once to lay more than 100 fertile eggs throughout her 30-day life.
She can lay up to eight tear-shaped eggs a day, gluing each to the base of a separate hair, where the body’s warmth helps them hatch in about a week. The common name for these eggs is ‘nits’.
A newly-hatched louse (nymph) takes around 10 days to become an adult, shedding its skin three times. The female is then ready to mate and lay her own eggs within just 18 hours of maturing.
