How to get rid of linen lice at home

Linen or body lice, as is known, settle in clothes, and appear on a person’s skin only for a while, in order to feast on his blood. If you have established for sure that the cause of your concern is linen lice, it’s time to find out how to get rid of them at home using all available methods and means. After all, the more information you have, the easier it will be to fight parasites. Linen lice practically do not react to temperature changes; they are not afraid of fresh air and water, but are attracted even by clean linen. But still, lice do not like hot steam and drafts. Let's consider methods of control and means for removing them.

How to get rid of linen lice - we treat the body

Although body lice spend most of their time in human belongings, parasite eggs and adult insects can be found on the body. In order for the fight against linen lice to be highly effective, an integrated approach is required - treating both the human body and his clothing. Moreover, in fact, how to get rid of linen lice on the body and how to do the same with clothes and with an apartment are not such different technologies. The good old insecticides always come into play, only with varying degrees of toxicity. Of course, it doesn’t end there, but you should remember that you shouldn’t cherish the hope that you can get rid of large numbers of linen lice only by resorting to steam or a vacuum cleaner, or by simply cleaning up and washing your clothes. In 90% of cases, chemical disinfestation is required, and as thorough as possible.

The first thing to do is take a shower. The water should be as hot as possible. For treating leather, ordinary household, tar or dust soap is suitable (it contains alkali, which effectively fights body lice). The products are suitable for small children and pregnant women, as they are not very aggressive for the skin.
You can bathe in a decoction of wormwood, parsley juice, mint herb or boiled beets.
A guarantee of complete destruction of parasites on the body is the use of special shampoos that can be purchased at the pharmacy (Veda-2, Nok, Medifox and others).

Danger and possible consequences of infection

Body lice are dangerous due to the following consequences:

Night sleep disorder.
Decreased concentration.
Anxiety.
Violation of the integrity of the skin and the appearance of purulent wounds on them.
Skin roughening - the insect injects a substance under the skin that reduces blood clotting. If the bite occurs several times in the same place, excessive accumulation of melanin occurs. The area of skin becomes rougher, changes color, and begins to peel off.
Allergy to saliva and other insect waste products.
Folliculitis, eczema - the result of scratching bites.

Lice are carriers of Volyn fever, tularemia, and typhus . Of course, nowadays these diseases are very rare, but they still should not be excluded.

Important! Diseases such as AIDS and viral hepatitis cannot be tolerated by lice.

How to get rid of linen lice by treating your clothes

If you find at least one linen louse, disinfection and treatment should be started as quickly as possible, because insects are capable of reproducing at record speed. How and with what can you treat items of clothing and linen?

Recommendations on how to get rid of linen lice

If there are minor concerns or if there is a suspicion of a lice infestation, the clothes can simply be washed and left to dry in the sun, then not worn for at least seven days, and then washed again.
A common method for processing clothing is using kerosene. Linen should be soaked in a 20% solution of laundry soap and kerosene for thirty minutes; 0.15% karbofos emulsion is also suitable. In order not to confuse anything with the dosage, take 5g of 30% karbofos concentrate or 3g of 50% per liter of water. After that, the laundry should be washed in hot water, dried (preferably in the sun or in a strong wind) and ironed thoroughly.
If items cannot be treated with steam or washed in boiling water, you can put them in a bag and place them in the freezer for three days or outside during the cold season.
If any objects are infected with lice, which is rare, but still happens, if possible, they should be boiled and left in the sun for a couple of days.

You need to know the enemy by sight

To take the right steps to eliminate insects, it is important to know what linen lice look like. This is a parasite with a body length of no more than 3 mm. He doesn't have wings. And the insect’s abdomen is slightly elongated in length. These are practically white parasites that, after consuming microdroplets of human blood, acquire a reddish or brownish color in the abdominal area. These insects are often mistaken for bedbugs. But unlike the latter, linen lice have a lightish color. In addition, they are not able to jump. If you find it difficult to determine what linen lice look like, there are plenty of photos of these parasites on the Internet. You just need to enter the appropriate query into the search bar, and in a matter of seconds you will probably know the enemy well by sight.

Insects reproduce quite quickly - one female produces more than 300 eggs during her life cycle (about 30 days). Small lice (nits) are characterized by extremely miniature parameters (half a millimeter in length and white color). It is almost impossible to detect them without an optical device (portable microscope or magnifying glass).

If parasites live in cotton fabrics, then they feed only on human blood. In the insect's mouth there are special stylet-like outgrowths, with the help of which it pierces the skin and injects enzymes into the wound. The purpose of the latter is to reduce the clotting of human blood. At the site of the parasite bite, an allergic reaction occurs in the form of redness or even bluish spots. During the day, the insect takes “food” approximately 5–6 times.

The causes of parasites are unsanitary living conditions. Linen lice are the most dangerous species among all their “relatives”. Body lice is characterized by numerous lesions on the human skin (especially in the abdomen, chest and back), which cause unbearable itching. By scratching the bite site, a person can infect the wound. Clothes lice usually causes:

severe allergic reactions;
pyoderma;
ulcers;
typhus.

In addition, frequent insect bites provoke increased irritability and mood swings in humans, especially young children.

How to get rid of linen lice: specific remedies and specific methods

Since it can be very difficult to remove the smell of kerosene from clothes, an alternative and modern method would be to treat clothes with anti-pediculosis drugs, which are used before washing.

Boil linen and other things for 20 minutes before adding a chemical insecticide based on permethrin - “NOK”, “Medifox”, “Pedilin” - to the water.
Treat clothes and bedding with pyrethrum powder or DDT dust, then leave them in the bag for two hours. This method will get rid of adult linen lice, and the nits will die after ironing with an iron with a steam function. To prevent lice from bothering you in the future, soak clean laundry in 1% DDT emulsion and then dry.
Any pests on clothes will be destroyed by treatment in steam-formalin chambers, but it is easier for an ordinary person to turn to dry cleaning services.

Life cycle

This parasite goes through several stages in its development:

nit – an egg in which a larva develops; development occurs within 5–8 days;
nymph of the first, second and third order - the larva emerges from the egg and goes through three molts, increasing in size; this stage usually takes from 16 to 21 days;
imago - an adult individual.

Body lice begin to bite and drink blood already at the nymph stage, but only adult insects can mate and reproduce. The female lays an average of 4 eggs per day. Over the course of its life, it lays more than a hundred nits, so lice must be dealt with immediately after detection in order to prevent a sharp increase in the population. There are also particularly fertile individuals that can lay up to 300 eggs in their lifetime.

How to get rid of linen lice using folk remedies

If you ask the older generation (grandmothers and great-grandmothers) how to remove linen lice, they will definitely share about the properties of some herbs and substances that are harmful to insects. The editors of the site are also ready to share with you these “ancient” natural secrets:

Turpentine - it is most often added to water to treat floors.
Vinegar removes lice, but does not destroy their eggs.
Cranberry juice is effective in the fight against nits due to the acid it contains.
Tansy – as a decoction, it is suitable for rinsing clothes in it.
Euphorbia - after rinsing in its decoction, stains may remain on clothes, so it is better to place bags of herbs in a closet.
Fern. Pots with plants in the apartment will make life difficult for lice.
Tea tree oil is a preventive remedy.
Lavender oil is another means of prevention that can be applied to the body.

Living conditions

A louse lives 30–40 days. To live and reproduce, it needs to have access to a food source. The parasite feeds up to 6 times a day.

The decisive factor determining life expectancy is air temperature. The most comfortable temperature is 31 degrees. It is under these conditions that all types of lice live and reproduce. When it drops to 20 degrees, the louse stops reproducing; when it gets colder, it goes into suspended animation and dies after a couple of days. High temperatures of more than 40 degrees are also detrimental to the parasite.

Lice can survive in high humidity. They are not even afraid of water and can stay in it without risking their lives for some time. Drought is more destructive for them.

How to get rid of linen lice: cleaning an apartment

In advanced cases, when the number of linen lice is high, their complete destruction will require treatment of the entire apartment and disinfection of the home. For this, a two percent DDT emulsion is suitable; you need to treat the entire apartment, and after two hours, wash the surfaces with a soap solution. Less dangerous, but also not very effective, are strong decoctions of herbs, tansy or milkweed, which are added to water. Then the bunches of herbs need to be placed in cabinets.

The most effective way is steam treatment using a household steam generator. Moreover, in fact, steam alone is a rather meager tool in the matter of how to get rid of linen lice. Carry out the procedure on all surfaces - upholstered furniture, cabinet furniture, walls and floors, without missing a centimeter. And give large items - carpets, blankets, rugs - to the dry cleaner. At the same time, it still does not hurt to carry out parallel treatment with any low-toxic insecticidal preparation.

The easiest way is not to think about how to get rid of linen lice, but to prevent their appearance.

Prevention measures

Avoid contact with antisocial individuals and premises with unsanitary conditions.
When purchasing clothing secondhand, wash it at a high temperature before wearing it.
After traveling by train or staying in a hotel, you need to wash thoroughly, and wash and iron your clothes thoroughly.
On trains, if you are offered damp underwear, ask to be replaced with dry ones.
A thorough inspection of clothing if suspected and its isolation for a period of 14 days will protect your home from the invasion of linen lice.

Take our tips for killing linen lice at home. One of these methods will definitely help you get rid of linen lice, and good luck to you in this difficult task.

Vadim Verevkin

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