- Adult lice are reddish-brown and 1/16 of an inch long. They move very fast and are most commonly seen at the back of the neck and behind the ears. Lice can only survive for two to three days when off of the human body.
- Nits are eggs from the adult lice and are whitish and are firmly attached to hairs. The eggs hatch in 6-10 days and it then takes another two to three weeks for the lice to mature and be able to reproduce.
Although many schools and day care centers have no nit policies, just because you have nits doesn’t mean that you will have a lice infestation. Even after nits hatch, the casing can stay on the hair for a long time and it is hard to tell the difference between a nit with a live louse embryo in it, which can be infectious, and an empty one.