What Does Lice Look Like? Pictures of Nits, Eggs & Lice - Verywell Health

What Lice Eggs (Nits) Look Like

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The easiest way to identify a lice infestation is to know what the eggs look like. Lice are good at hiding, but the eggs remain adhered to the hair shaft until they are manually removed.

Lice eggs are called nits. They are very tiny—about the size of a knot in a strand of thread. They are oval-shaped, usually a yellowish-white color, and are firmly attached to the sides of hair shafts. They can easily be confused with dandruff, scabs, or even droplets of hair spray.

Some people only use "nits" to refer to empty egg casings while "lice eggs" is used for eggs that can hatch (viable eggs). However, other people use "nits" to refer to both viable lice eggs and empty egg casings.

Lice eggs take around six to nine days to hatch. After that, it only takes about seven days for baby lice (nymphs) to grow into adult lice and start the cycle over again. Lice have a lifespan of three to four weeks.

Having nits does not necessarily mean that your child has live lice because some nits are actually empty egg casings. Others are dead and only have non-infective lice embryos inside.

Nits that are close to your child's scalp are the most likely to be infective. They're also the ones that are thought to hatch into live lice.

Continuing to get new nits even after you have removed them from your child's hair is also a sign that your child has live lice and needs lice treatment.

A live louse will typically lay up to eight eggs a day. If your child only has a few nits, they likely do not have an active lice infestation.

Can My Child Go to School if They Have Lice?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is against "no-nit" policies that exclude children from school when they have lice.

In fact, the AAP now states that "no healthy child should be excluded from or allowed to miss school time because of head lice."

This might come as a surprise to caregivers who have had their kids sent home from school because of head lice.

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