Almost all signs about lice have a negative meaning. And this is not surprising, because these insects are one of the most disgusting parasites. Of course, every person tries to protect himself and his family from them, but even today you can become infected with head lice in any public place: a school or hospital, a public bathhouse or kindergarten, a beauty salon or a hat store. To prevent the negative events that the appearance of lice predicts, you need to know what folk signs say about them.
Known signs about lice
In past centuries, lice were a very common phenomenon, and it was very easy to pick them up. Therefore, it is not surprising that many beliefs are associated with them. Some of them foreshadowed good events, but most still promised misfortunes and troubles.
With this in mind, people tended to avoid activities that were thought to contribute to the appearance of parasites. For example, it was prohibited:
- Wash on Thursday. The sign sounds funny, but our ancestors sincerely believed that by doing laundry on this day, you could attract lice and other unpleasant insects.
- Leave hats on the dining table. According to popular belief, lice always appear on someone who has put on a hat that has been lying on the table for at least a few minutes.
- Worrying about the death of a loved one for too long. The sign says that prolonged mental suffering and longing for the deceased contribute to the appearance of lice.
Positive signs
Since ancient times, in Rus' it was believed that the appearance of lice did not bode well. However, some peoples also have good omens:
- there are crickets in the home, and the owner has lice in his head - a good omen, promising the household the beginning of a bright streak in life;
- there are no and never have been lice - there will be neither wealth nor happiness (that is, a person is so unhappy and poor that even parasites bypass him);
- if a louse is noticed on the body of the deceased, it means that this person was honest, good and kind;
- According to legend, lice appear with money.
Read also: The meaning of omens associated with ravens
Negative beliefs
There are many more bad omens about lice than good ones. The most famous of them:
- The whole family suddenly got lice - you need to prepare for a big disaster that will affect everyone in the household. This could be, for example, a fire, a serious contagious disease, robbery or ruin.
- If a girl has insects, it will be difficult to establish communication with guys. And vice versa, if a young man notices lice on himself, he will have problems meeting girls.
- For men, the appearance of parasites promises quarrels with colleagues or illness, for women - loss of reputation.
- If the parietal zone is maximally infected, it means that there is a lot of unpleasant gossip about the person; the frontal zone means you can expect big trouble. According to an old belief, lice accumulate on the temples of people who are very envied, and on the neck of those who often experience financial difficulties.
- According to legend, if you accidentally see a louse on the face of a person, it means that he will soon become seriously ill.
If lice appear in children
Most often, parasites appear in children. According to popular belief, childhood lice is a harbinger of the following events:
- there are a lot of nits and adult insects on the baby’s head - in the near future strong quarrels will begin in the family, even the parents’ divorce is possible;
- according to legend, lice appear in a child due to illness;
- parasites suddenly appeared and quickly disappeared without treatment - the parents face bankruptcy and poverty.
What conditions do they live in?
Having settled on a person, lice suck his blood, and a single “portion” of blood is about 0.5 mg. This is the only thing the insect eats.
Unlike nits, “glued” by the female to the hair, adult individuals themselves do not really like to reveal themselves and therefore live mainly at the very roots of the hair, on the scalp.
There they are also provided with an optimal temperature for life - 31-33 degrees, at which the blood-sucking creature can live up to 3 days without food. Only during the ovipositor period can females leave their homes in order to lay eggs. On average, one female can lay up to 120 eggs in her life, which is approximately 4 eggs per day.
Having adapted to exist only on a person’s head, head lice never leave this place, compared, for example, with body lice, which live in the seams of linen and raid the body of their host for food.
Esoteric and scientific theories of the appearance of lice
Esotericists are sure that lice get in people who are surrounded by negative energy. It is created by frequent quarrels among household members, the envy of others, evil gossip, and bad wishes. For such people, their personal life and well-being are destroyed, many obstacles arise in the implementation of plans, and various misfortunes occur.
Black magicians can take advantage of this state of affairs. Negative energy damages a person’s aura, and curses or damage act with tremendous force. It should be noted that lice are just the first link in the chain of future misfortunes. After the conspiracy begins, a person will begin to have serious problems with health, work, and finances.
Read also: Is it possible or not to keep begonia at home according to signs
But science doesn’t believe in omens. Scientists have proven that there is only one way for lice to appear – through household contact. Therefore, if there are parasites, it means that one way or another there was contact with an infected person, and you may not even know him personally. For example, a patient, shaking his head in transport, can throw several individuals onto the head of another passenger.
On a note! No one can be immune from lice. If earlier it was believed that this was a disease of asocial elements and the poor, today this fact has been completely refuted. It turned out that insects can appear in the most clean and prosperous person, and they multiply much more actively in well-groomed, clean hair.
Characteristics of ectoparasites
Lice belong to the category of blood-sucking insects. In nature, there are up to 100 species of these parasites, differing in degree of danger and appearance. On humans, there are only three types of ectoparasites:
- body lice;
- head lice;
- pubic lice.
Their main habitat is thick hair on the human body.
Type of lice
Insects feed on the host's blood and can suck up to 5 mg of blood from their prey during the day. The louse crawls along the surface of the hair quite quickly, thanks to the structure of its limbs. The cleaner the skin, the easier it is for parasites to feed, which confirms and justifies why lice appear in clean people. Lice reproduce rapidly by laying eggs called nits by the female. They firmly attach their future offspring to the hair with an adhesive mass at a distance of about 4 cm from the roots. The photo shows what lice and nits look like in human hair.
Head lice choose the temporal, parietal and occipital parts of the human head as their main habitat and existence. The development of the insect lasts approximately 9 days, and the incubation period is the same. A female can lay about 140 eggs in a month of her life. Pests are very sensitive to changes in external temperature, which affects life expectancy. A thermometer mark of 31°C is considered comfortable for life, but for some reason they do not leave patients with a high temperature. But nevertheless, there is a detrimental temperature range for lice.
Another type of lice can be caused by body lice. Quite large individuals are distinguished by high fertility and gluttony. They live in the seams of bedding and folds of clothing. Females attach eggs to fabric villi, but sometimes body parasite nits appear on the vellus hairs of the human body. Linen lice do not tolerate increased temperatures and move to more favorable places. They move at a speed of 30 mm per minute.
The third type of culprit of lice is human pubic lice or lice. They are practically motionless and are always in a state of saturation. Females attach their eggs to the hair growing on the pubis, as well as eyebrows and eyelashes. Infection occurs during sexual intercourse or through the use of shared washcloths, towels or bed linen.
The connection between lice and material well-being
It has long been believed that unpleasant insects foreshadow financial problems. One explanation is that parasites are acquired only when a person or his ancestors commit grave mortal sins.
Poverty is retribution for crimes committed. In this case, seven generations will have to suffer until the family fully atones for its guilt.
What to do after the procedure?
You have eliminated head lice, what to do next? Killing lice and nits on hair is not enough to prevent re-infestation.
Parasites can remain on the clothes and bedding of a previously infected person.
All this needs to be carefully processed. The simplest way is to wash at a temperature of 70 or higher (it is recommended to set it to the maximum allowed), and then iron.
If some of the items cannot be washed (due to the specifics of the material), then they are placed in a separate sealed bag and packed for 3-5 days.
Lice cannot exist normally in the absence of oxygen and die from this within 12-24 hours.
The ideal option would be to use vacuum packaging for food. To enhance the effect, the sealed bag can be placed in the freezer.
Combs must be processed. For disinfection, use a solution of vinegar or a mixture of water and kerosene.
Pillows, furniture and carpets will need to be placed outside in the sun for several days. An alternative to this is treatment with a steam generator in maximum ventilation mode, but such devices are not available in every home.
There is no need to treat or disinfect pets. Lice do not affect cats, dogs, hamsters, rats, mice, etc. They can only exist on the scalp of a person.
Our website has many useful articles about pediculosis:
- Do lice grow on colored hair and what are the specifics of treatment and selection of anti-pediculosis agents?
- how to remove nits and lice from long hair without resorting to a “zero” haircut?
- what do lice and nits look like on a person’s head: white specks on the head - dandruff or lice?
- a cloudy pool of your eyes, or lice on your eyelashes;
- what to use to combat parasites on the head: what are lice and nits afraid of?
- treatment of pediculosis in pregnant women, as well as in nursing mothers: how to safely remove harmful parasites?
- pediculosis in adults: causes of infection and how to treat lice and nits?
- the best of the best: products for the prevention of head lice;
- consequences of lice or what are the dangers of lice?
How to avoid negativity predicted by signs
Despite the fact that most signs have a scientific explanation, many people do not believe scientists at all, but ancient superstitions. If the appearance of lice causes severe anxiety, protecting yourself is quite simple:
- The appearance of various parasites has always been associated with the effects of black witchcraft. To remove possible negativity, you need to wash the floors throughout the room with salt water, walk around it three times with a lit candle and read a prayer. It is very advisable to visit the temple, order a prayer for the health of yourself and your loved ones, defend the service, ask the Lord for protection and deliverance from witchcraft.
- Try to quarrel less in the house, avoid communicating with envious people and gossips, in order to improve the energy background of the home. Also, the atmosphere is improved by indoor plants, pets, joint family gatherings, and reading prayers.
Read also: What does the presence or absence of wisdom teeth mean according to signs?
How to deal with lice yourself at home?
What to do if lice appear on your head? The easiest option is to purchase a spray at the pharmacy: Paranit, Pedikulen ultra, Para plus, Nyuda; anti-lice ointment (eg: sulfur, benzyl benzoate) or anti-lice shampoo (sometimes sold in soap form). All of them are available without a prescription and are relatively safe (minimal toxicity).
Following the attached instructions, getting rid of lice will take from 2 to 5 days, depending on the number of parasites in the hair and the presence of nits. You can also get rid of lice in 1 day - find out how.
The best drugs are dust soap and shampoo, as they also affect eggs.
There are quite a few folk methods of what to do when there are lice on your head - all of them are also quite effective. The best among them is combing with vinegar.
For this procedure, you will need a 4.5 percent vinegar solution (mix table vinegar with water in equal proportions).
It is applied along the entire length of the hair, left for 20-30 minutes, after which it is washed off and the remaining lice and nits are actively combed out with a special comb with thin, tightly spaced teeth (also sold in pharmacies).
Find out more about how to dilute a vinegar solution against lice and nits in a separate article.
Read on our website about other folk remedies for lice: kerosene, hairspray, dichlorvos, hair dye, hydrogen peroxide, hellebore water, essential oils, including tea tree oil, tar and laundry soap.
Regardless of what product is used to eliminate lice, it is advisable to carry out the procedure in the bathroom, spreading a film on the floor - this will prevent insects from getting on furniture, carpets, and clothes.
Nits (eggs) can remain on the hair for up to 2 weeks, maintaining the possibility of recurrence. Therefore, treatment with pesticides or vinegar must be performed several times at intervals of several days.
After each of them, the parasites need to be combed out and the scalp examined for the presence of nits. Most often they are found in the neck area and behind the ears.
The most drastic method of fighting is shaving. The hair collected after this must be packed in a sealed bag and sealed. You can throw it away after 3-5 days.
Meanings of dreams about lice
Many people attach great importance to dreams. Esotericists also agree with them, claiming that in a dream, higher powers give a person special signs, warning about possible troubles or pleasant events. Dreams about lice have the following interpretations:
- seeing lice on your head means profit;
- combing bloodsuckers out of your hair means failure in love;
- dreamed of lice swarming on a child’s head - to illness;
- If you can’t get rid of insects in a dream, you will be disappointed in a loved one in reality;
- to see white lice - to losses, dark ones - to fulfillment of desire;
- notice insects on another person - a lucrative offer will come;
- dreamed of parasites crawling over the body - to unexpected joy.
Ancient signs about blood-sucking insects only warn of possible misfortunes and at the same time give time to prepare for them. To protect yourself from parasites, you need to take care of your health, strengthen not only your body, but also your spirit, because no negativity sticks to a positively minded person. Of course, if lice do appear, you should not limit yourself to rituals and prayers; only special medications will help to completely remove the bloodsuckers.
At-risk groups
Lice are omnipresent. Anyone can start one. No one is safe from collisions with insects. People living in unfavorable conditions and successful people can become infected. Not everyone experiences head lice.
It happens that despite effective treatment, lice appear again and again. Often the spontaneous spread of head lice occurs in schools, kindergartens, and summer camps.
- fever;
- tularemia.
These diseases are not common. To protect yourself from infection, increased vigilance is required when in areas of outbreaks. It must be remembered that lice are carriers. Carriage of a single individual ceases only with its death.
For the general public, lice pose a danger of causing various skin lesions.
This is the usual redness, swelling of the skin, scratching caused by unbearable itching. In some cases, vesicles and papules may appear.
Is reinfection possible?
Yes, it is possible if the person continues to be in contact with an infected person. Children are usually susceptible to re-infection, especially in cases where parents remove lice without informing the educational institution that the child attends about the parasites. If a person discovers uninvited guests in himself or his child, efforts must be made to establish the source of lice, otherwise the infection will recur.
Infection should not be treated as a sign of non-compliance with hygiene rules. Pediculosis is a disease that can affect anyone, and it must be stopped without allowing new foci of infection.
Prevention
To minimize the risk of parasite infection, the following preventive measures should be followed:
- • avoid contacts with people whose cleanliness cannot be trusted;
- • regularly examine the head of a child attending school or kindergarten;
- • change bed linen regularly;
- • do not use other people's things or clothes;
- • braid girls’ hair (lices spread faster to loose hair)
It is believed that parasites are afraid of the smells of tea tree, mint, and geranium. You can wash your hair with decoctions of these plants, but such products do not guarantee absolute protection.
Contrary to misconceptions, low air temperatures do not contribute to the death of lice, since even in severe frost the temperature of the scalp remains at least 36 degrees. But prolonged exposure to the cold without a hat is fraught with the appearance of other infectious diseases.
