Tools Needed to Check for Lice

Learning how to check for lice is fairly easy.   Whenever one member of a household is infected with lice, you should inspect each member thoroughly to make sure others have not been infested as well.  For this process, you will need bright light, a magnifying glass and a comb (the finer the teeth the better).

When searching for head lice, begin looking behind the ears and the back part of the neck.  The nits and lice will be close to the scalp.  To find them, you will need to keep parting the hair into small sections and then use the magnifying glass to examine the scalp and shafts of hair that are close to the scalp.

Is it Dandruff or Nits


It’s very easy to mistake dandruff as lice or nits.  The flaking skin can also cause itching which is one of the major symptoms of lice also.  The key differentiating factor will be that dandruff will be found on any parts of the hair whereas nits and lice will be very close to the scalp.  Also, dandruff has a tendency to fall on shoulders and can be on any part of the hair as it is falling off the scalp.

As you look for nits and lice, the nits will not be moving and will be clinging to the hair shaft near the scalp.  When spotting lice, you will most likely see them crawling, but they will also be close to the scalp.  It will take a magnifying glass to spot nits and lice. It’s best to conduct your inspection in a brightly lit area even if that means going outdoors.


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