In this blog, we will be answering a commonly asked question in our practice – can head lice live on bedding? Read on to find out the details.
Head lice can crawl off and be found in bedding
Head lice generally like to bed down in your hair because it is a safe and protective environment for them. It means they are close to their food source – your blood – and in the hair where they can get on with laying their eggs.
Head lice are all about survival, so all of the above makes sense.
However, because they are driven by this survival instinct, once they are fully formed adults, they are also driven to find another head to move onto. So they can and often do crawl off after causing as much havoc as possible.
Hence, you can find head lice on your pillow or the sheets after a full night’s sleep when you are often itching your head to cope with your reaction to them feeding. So in a short answer to ‘can head lice live on bedding’, they can temporarily.
How long can they live on the bedding?
Head lice can survive for up to 48 hours off a head before they need a blood meal. To feed they will crawl back onto a person where they will then suck your blood.
If you are clearing an infestation you need to give yourself or whoever you are clearing fresh bedlinen, so you or they do not get back into the bed with the potential to reinfest if head lice are on the bedding.
If changing the bedlinen is not possible, hoover the bed on the lowest setting to remove anything that might be on the sheets.
This also applies to towels and hairbrushes – use fresh towels after you have removed lice and eggs. Hoover the hairbrush of all the hairs and debris and then wash the hairbrush in the dishwasher if you can or soak it in hot soapy water.
Finding lice on the bedding
If you find lice on the bedding, then you must check the hair for more – you need to look for head lice and eggs (the nits) and remove them with conditioner and a long-toothed metal nit comb. Bear in mind that the eggs take 7 to 11 days to all come through, so you want to comb thoroughly over that period of time.
If you find lice on your bedding and want help in shutting down the infestation go to The Hairforce for our lice removal service or call 020 7485 7351.