The Life Cycle of Lice

Lice have a predictable, short life cycle that is geared toward producing the most offspring possible in as short a time possible. One female louse can lay as many as 300 eggs in its 30-to-50-day lifespan. That makes it important to understand how prolific each louse can be and how important it is to treat lice in two or more different ways to make sure that each louse is dead and that the lice that are present don't stay long enough to lay eggs. Each female louse will attach each egg to a hair with a strong, waterproof glue. The eggs can be translucent, white, or light yellow. Each egg will incubate for about 10 days before hatching. An egg, also called a nit, can be removed from the hair by careful combing with a lice comb.  After hatching from their eggs, lice are tiny little specks called nymphs. Those nymphs are tiny and hard to see, but after 12 days those nits will be adult lice. Each female louse can lay four to 10 nits every day. After about a month of life, the louse will die. Dead lice sometimes turn black and can be seen as tiny black flecks close to the scalp.  To prevent the life cycle of lice to start over again, it's important to kill lice aggressively with a multi-pronged approach. While killing lice, don't forget to kill or remove the eggs to prevent more and more generations from hatching.