Pediculosis caused by body lice. Linen lice and methods of getting rid of them How to get rid of clothes

Clothes or linen lice resemble a boat in body shape, they have a proboscis and several pairs of limbs. It is with the proboscis that the louse drills the skin until it bleeds, after which it feeds. The proboscis of body lice is very small, therefore, in order to sink into the skin, they are forced to stick part of their head there. Because of this, a rather large hole remains at the site of the bite. Lice also have pincers with which they cling to human hair or villi on clothing and thus move around. The size of the female can reach 5 mm in length, and the male - no more than 4 mm.

Emergence factors

Lice are transmitted mainly from an infected person to a healthy person as follows:

There are known cases of lice infestation in water bodies where a large number of people bathe. Especially where there is stagnant water and people without a fixed place of residence bathe, for example. For swimming, it is better to choose places that are not crowded and carefully monitor neighbors who are in the water or on the beach nearby.

The most commonly affected bites are the lower back, sides, buttocks, neck, armpits, and thighs. The hairy part of the skin, as a rule, remains clean. With clothes pediculosis, places from lice bites heal for a very long time. The bite site itches, itches, becomes covered with allergic spots. After bites, body temperature may rise, nausea, indigestion, and headaches may occur. Severe itching can lead to nervous disorders.

If these signs appear, you need to seek help from a specialist, otherwise complications may arise in the future. The most common of them are purulent rashes, blue spots at the site of bites, and large abscesses. In addition to these troubles, body louse is dangerous because it is a carrier of diseases such as typhus and relapsing fever.

Treatment

Body lice will never settle, and having settled, they will die from those who monitor their hygiene and change linen regularly. If for some reason there are lice in things at home, you can get rid of them with the right approach in just 1 day, or even less. To do this, things in the house must be disinfected. This can best be done by the sanitary service, which you can contact and protect yourself in the future from unwanted neighborhood.

You can remove lice on your own by collecting and washing all the things that are in the house. You need to wash in a washing machine, adding acetic acid, tar soap or a special remedy for linen lice. The washing mode can be any, the main thing is that the maximum possible temperature is set in it. Carpets and large blankets, along with pillows, are best taken outside and left there, in the cold or the sun.

For the patient himself, treatment consists of showering with a pediculicidal shampoo, which must be applied to the skin and left for at least 30 minutes.

After hygiene procedures, it is necessary to put on those things that have been processed or have not had contact with contaminated clothing or a person. Sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers need to be changed.

Bites to relieve itching and inflammation can be treated with a Rescuer, Psilo-balm, Asterisk. If an allergic reaction occurs, you can take an antihistamine and drugs to eliminate unpleasant symptoms - antipyretics, sedatives, painkillers.

Insect bites cause severe itching and scratching.

Let us consider in more detail the features of clothes pediculosis, and how to get rid of it.

The body louse is white-gray, rather large: male - 2-3.5 mm, female - 2.2-5 mm. Life expectancy - 33-45 days. It is believed that it appeared during the evolution of the head louse due to the fact that people began to use clothes more often.

For nutrition, the louse temporarily passes to the skin of the host (6-8 times per day).

Prolonged high temperature has a detrimental effect on insects - more than 50 ° C for 10-15 minutes.

Body lice can carry dangerous bacteria that cause:

• typhus;
• relapsing fever;
• Volyn fever.

Ways of infection

Clothes pediculosis is a disease of the poor and homeless people, it also occurs in elderly bedridden old people who are not properly cared for.

The disease is transmitted through contaminated clothing and underwear, on which there are viable individuals.

Public areas are ideal for this, where there is a constant plentiful flow of settlers:

• hotels, hostels;
• long distance trains;
• sanatoriums;
• kindergartens, camps.

Therefore, before choosing a place of rest or lodging for the night, pay attention to the cleanliness of bed linen and towels.

Cases of infection with clothes pediculosis through things and clothes that were in use (second-hand) are not uncommon.

Symptoms of the disease

Because the body louse feeds on human blood, then it is the bites that betray its existence (heal in 3-4 days).

Especially often they appear in places of close contact between the body and clothing (or bed linen):

• small of the back;
• shoulder blades and interscapular space;
• buttocks.

Each bite is accompanied by unbearable itching, then the person combs the skin. In places, an erythematous-papular rash appears on the skin. With prolonged existence of lice, the skin in these areas becomes highly pigmented, compacted, and flaky. Yellow-brown crusts appear.

A photo

It looks like a body lice traces of body lice
on clothes

It is not excluded the layering of additional skin infections: pyoderma, boils, eczema. With suppuration of several areas of the skin, fever and other symptoms of intoxication (headache, weakness, irritability) may join.

The correct diagnosis can be established after the detection of lice or nits.

Treatment of clothes pediculosis

To get rid of the manifestations of the disease, you need to completely eliminate its pathogen. To do this, it is enough to carry out the correct sanitization of all clothes and bed linen.

It is also good to carry out a wet cleaning of the house using a 5% vinegar solution.

If the skin itches after being bitten, treat the affected areas with 5% boric or 4% carbolic alcohol several times a day. You can also drink antipruritic drugs (fencarol, suprastin, tavegil) or apply a hormonal ointment with prednisolone or hydrocortisone.

Anti-pediculosis drugs

The products listed below can be used not only to treat clothes, but also to kill insects on the body. Before use, read the instructions.

Prevention of clothes pediculosis

In order not to face such a problem as clothes pediculosis, you need to follow all preventive measures:

And most importantly, observe personal hygiene and keep your clothes clean.

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All information is presented for educational purposes. Do not self-medicate, it is dangerous! An accurate diagnosis can only be made by a doctor.

Body lice, in comparison with head lice, do not settle on the human body, but on his clothes. This is due to the fact that their paws are not adapted to be securely held in the hair. If the body louse somehow gets on the head, then it will not be able to stay there for a long time.

Body lice are similar in appearance to head lice. According to many experts, body lice are the result of the evolution of head lice. In both types of lice, the body has a slightly elongated abdomen. Body length does not exceed 3 mm. Body color is light gray or light yellow.

At temperatures up to +30 degrees, body lice feel great. In such conditions, they multiply rapidly and lead an active lifestyle. If the ambient temperature drops to +15 degrees, the development of eggs stops, and when the temperature drops below +13 degrees and above +60 degrees, body lice eggs die.

Females can live up to 45 days, but during this term they manage to lay 100 to 140 eggs. Males live less, about one month.

Clothes pediculosis is distinguished by one, but very important feature: lice live, multiply and develop not on the human body, but on his clothes. Despite this feature, they cannot exist without a human body and after a while they die, since human blood is included in their diet. The body louse spends most of its life in the folds of clothes, and when hunger sets in, it moves to the human body, where it receives its dose of nutrients. After that, the insects move to their original places, into seams, pockets, folds, etc.

The fact that body lice have appeared may be evidenced by some factors. For example:

• Bites, if there are not a large number of them, heal within 4 days.
• The bites are accompanied by unbearable itching, and not so much the bites as the area around them.
• There may be manifestations of allergic reactions, which are accompanied by headaches, nausea, malfunctions of the digestive tract, fever or skin rashes.
• If there are many bites, then spots of a bluish tint appear on the body.
• Unbearable and constant itching leads to sleep disturbance or nervous disorders.

Interesting to know! Children and women react most painfully to body lice bites. Children begin to cry for no apparent reason, sleep poorly and react nervously to various events.

As a rule, in most cases it is possible to learn about the existence of body lice due to the symptoms described above. Due to their small size, they are almost impossible to see with the naked eye. In addition, they find places on clothing where they can safely hide.

• Waist.
• Shoulders.
• Upper back.
• Small of the back.
• Armpits.

On a note! Body lice served as the main source of development of relapsing and typhus, which claimed hundreds of thousands of human lives during the war. Nowadays, residents of African and Asian countries suffer from these ailments, where their living conditions do not meet the elementary requirements of sanitation rules.

How to remove body lice

• All contaminated items will have to be treated with high temperature. They need to be washed in the machine at maximum temperature with the addition of insecticides.

Advice! Alternatively, things can be dry-cleaned, informing the staff.

• Treat the body with special preparations (it is better to use shampoo), then rinse everything off.
• After that, it is better to wear clean, uncontaminated clothes and underwear. Previously infected things are best hung outside in the cold or under direct sunlight (in summer).

Advice! Clean and unprocessed items should not be stacked side by side. This can lead to contamination of clean things.

Body Treatments

For body treatment, you can use shampoos, lotions and sprays. Reliable resources include:

• Pair Plus.
• Neti For.
• Nit free.

How to use these tools is written in the instructions, which must be carefully read. As a rule, the affected areas of the body are treated, after which, for a while, you should wrap yourself in a plastic (food) film. After that, the agent is washed off. How much you need not to wash off the drug is indicated in the instructions, since for different products, different times are provided.

On a note! It is possible to use folk remedies, such as vinegar or kerosene, but they must be used quite carefully, since you can burn the skin, and the aroma from these substances is not very pleasant and lasts a long time.

Clothing treatment products

Previously, when there were no effective drugs yet, lice clothes were treated with kerosene. Kerosene was diluted in washing water, after which it was all boiled and the lice were guaranteed to die. Unfortunately, this method has several disadvantages. For example:

• You should not add kerosene to the washing machine, because all other things will be saturated with this unpleasant smell, which will then be washed in the machine.
• If you wash things with your hands, it is better to wear rubber gloves, otherwise allergic manifestations are possible.
• If boiled, toxic fumes are released, which can lead to poisoning.
• The smell of kerosene is felt for a long time, and it is almost impossible to get rid of it.

Nowadays, to get rid of body lice, it is enough to use highly effective anti-pediculosis agents. For example:

On a note! The body should be processed in parallel with the processing of things, which minimizes the risk of re-infection.

Products based on natural ingredients

Means from natural ingredients help in the fight against head lice in the case when the disease is not of an advanced nature. Under such conditions, very tangible results can be obtained from the use of such funds. For example.

Usually these creatures like to settle in the seams of clothes, especially woolen, knitted, terry, but never in silk or satin fabric. They can also live in pockets, under the collar, in belts, hats and all sorts of fabric upholstery. It is in the clothes for these bloodsuckers that a favorable microclimate is created so that they can develop in it and feed on the blood of people, continuing to bite them, as they do in the hairline. They do not jump, but only crawl from place to place. Eggs (nits) are laid in clothes in hard-to-reach places (at the seams, inside pockets, under the lining).

This phenomenon is also called pediculosis, but not the head, but already underwear, clothes. The bitten places usually not only itch badly, the legs also become inflamed and burn. With multiple lesions of skin areas in a person, even the temperature can periodically rise, which will indicate the presence of an infection that has got into the blood from lice bites.

1. In kindergartens, schools, sports clubs, camps;
2. Through close contact with the homeless
3. In a temporary refugee camp.
4. In those places where the homeless spend the night, for example, in the subway or train.
5. In the trenches, shelters during the fighting.
6. In the rooms of cheap unkempt hotels
7. In public places - for example, transport, baths, saunas, hotels.
8. On the beaches, etc.

Even in open waters where infected people swam, these insects can appear. After all, they may well live in the aquatic environment for about 2 days. Therefore, even on the sea or river in places of large crowds, there is a risk of becoming infected with body lice. Be careful with clothes made of wool, linen or cotton. Silk or any other creaking fabrics can not be checked before processing - all the same, lice do not start there.

Methods of getting rid and means

Compared to head lice, bed lice are more easily eliminated than head lice. Moreover, you can finally destroy them even at one time (a day). Among the simple ways, the easiest is to call the sanitary and epidemiological station and call a specialist who knows how to properly, effectively and quickly remove lice on things. However, if it is not possible to pay for such a service, then you can carry out the entire procedure yourself. To do this, you need to go through several important steps:

1. Carefully remove all clothing or collect all dirty linen (both bedding and underwear).
2. Then load everything into the washing machine.
3. After that, add directly to things any insecticidal agent, which is intended for the destruction of linen lice.
4. If there are no funds, then you can add vinegar or tar soap to the washing machine, which is very cheap in price (on average - 15 rubles).
5. Washing should be carried out at the highest temperature of water possible in a washing machine, or according to the instructions for use of the pediculant.
6. In addition, clothes can also be boiled, boiled in a basin.
7. The body should be thoroughly washed with a special shampoo or cream that has a pediculating effect.
8. The substance on the body must be kept for 30-40 minutes, and then washed off.
9. All wounds are treated with special therapeutic agents - creams, lotions, oils.
10. Next, clean clothes are put on the person. Moreover, it should be not only washed, but also ventilated before for several days.

Lice (both clothes and head lice) die immediately at hot temperatures. That is why it is best to process things either by boiling or using chemicals in a washing machine with hot water. At least at a temperature of +60 degrees Celsius, but the most optimal temperature is +80 degrees. The best option to carry out the final processing of things is to send them to a disinfection chamber, where all things will be processed with hot steam. Such cameras are in any sanitary and epidemiological station.

When it comes to the destruction of lice on outerwear, which you usually do not wash in the machine, then you should think about professional products. You can spray on a thick coat of "Medifox", "Pyrethrin" or "Fenotrin". And then put everything in a plastic bag and try to negotiate with a laundry or dry cleaner, where there is a large washing machine and disinfection chamber. The administration of such establishments usually undertakes the processing of things for a certain fee. But this is usually done when it is impossible to wash a heavy and thick coat in a home washing machine.

Bed lice remedies

Medifox

Among shampoos, the most effective in the fight against lice is Nok, Lauri, Bubil, Medifox, Veda-2. They can be added to the washing machine when processing things. Vinegar helps soften the tenacity of the nits, so they will fall off when washed and rinsed. You can boil clothes for 20 minutes.

Sometimes "Karboforos" is added directly to boiling water, where contaminated linen is boiled. This makes the lice killing effect even stronger. In addition to Karboforos, any other means can also be added, where there is a sufficiently large percentage of permethrin (1-5%).

Treatment of clothes pediculosis video:

5 Comments

Dec 06, 2016, 6:16 pm

They got rid of body lice by the NOD after they moved into the old house they bought. Some unfortunate former owner lived there, apparently, he launched himself and his home. Old things, of course, were not washed, but simply burned, but we decided to process the velvet lining on the walls. We are still far from the repair, but we already have to live in the house. Therefore, we simply sprayed the panels on the walls abundantly with a 0.5% solution. The instructions say that this is a tool for treating the skin and hairy parts of the body, and that you need to rub the dissolved product. But we just sprayed the textured surface of the panels 3 times in 2 days. Then they just vacuumed everything because the upholstery of the walls sits very tightly. This is how we had to use the remedy - and we didn’t see more lice crawling there, we even checked through a magnifying glass.

Dec 14, 2016, 6:17 pm

We used Lauri when removing lice, which we brought home from our summer vacation. We lived in a cheap hotel, and picked it up there - we think that there is simply nowhere else. Well, we don’t have children, so that they don’t get infected. We are a young couple, recently married - and here it is! Shame! On the way we stopped at a pharmacy and bought some. The price seems to be normal, the instructions are clear. They washed all the towels, swimwear, things, hats, baseball caps and more. True, I thought that the creamy paste would not dissolve well in the machine, but no, it was even visible during washing that some kind of milk formed in which things were washed. Probably hand washing would be harmful to the skin. In general, all things were washed well, and the heads were also processed - everything went well, albeit unpleasantly.

Body lice have no wings, which does not allow them to move quickly through the human body. In order not to confuse insects with fleas, you need to remember that the latter can jump. Lice living in clothes only crawl, and rather slowly. The larvae are smaller (up to 2 mm).

As you can see in the photo, body lice are very similar to head lice.

Eating habits and development

Body lice must be looked for on clothes - in folds, pockets and between seams

Acceptable for insects is considered a temperature not higher than +33 degrees. When environmental conditions change, the lice die. This happens if the temperature drops to -13 degrees or rises to +60 degrees. The offspring stops developing in a temperature regime of +15 degrees.

What do bites look like?

Advanced form of clothes pediculosis

In the photo below you can see what body lice bites look like.

With clothes pediculosis, in addition to large wounds in the center of small red spots, other symptoms can be detected:

• Itching on the body in different areas;
• With a strong infection of underwear, there is an increase in temperature, nausea, sometimes headaches appear, the work of the digestive system is disrupted;
• With clothes pediculosis, extensive redness, spots of a bluish tint occur;
• If the wounds are very itchy, this leads to the appearance of pustular formations;
• Body lice bites heal quite quickly - in 3 days.

Where do they come from and how are they transmitted?

Watch video: Treatment of pediculosis with folk remedies

Stages of treatment for pediculosis

You can treat bites with alcohol lotions, Rescuer balms, and Asterisk remedy.

If the problem is solved, how to permanently get rid of body lice, you need to take care of bed linen. All accessories (pillowcases, sheets, duvet cover, mattress cover) are subjected to high-temperature processing. At the end of the wash, you need to walk with a well-heated iron over things and bedding.

As a preventive measure in the future, it is recommended to take a shower every day, putting on clean clothes afterwards. To eliminate the risk of parasites, tar soap is used during water procedures. You need to regularly inspect the body for the appearance of bites. The sooner parasites are detected, the less harm they will cause.