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Sucking and Chewing Lice

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Arthropod Borne Diseases

Abstract

Lice are obligatory, permanent parasitic insects belonging to order Phthiraptera, which have a developed proboscis to suck blood from capillaries (suborder Anoplura) of mammals, or chewing mouth pieces, adapted to eat hairs and feathers, and sometimes also the skin and blood of birds and mammals (suborders Amblycera, Ischnocera, and Rhynchophthirina, formerly known as Mallophaga). Three of ca. 500 known species of Anoplura (Pediculus humanus, Pediculus capitis, and Pthirus pubis) parasitize humans, causing primary and secondary skin lesions, and P. humanus can transmit exanthematic typhus, relapsing fever, and trench fever. Several of the ca. 4000 species of chewing lice can cause cutaneous lesions in domestic animals. Infestation by sucking body lice has currently been associated with bad conditions of hygiene, usually in wars and prisons, but head lice (P. capitis) has had a resurgence, associated with people crowding and precarious head cleaning. Control of body sucking lice is obtained by cleaning of clothes and bathing, but that of head lice needs careful collective surveying, associated with the use of louse combs, and eventually insecticides may be very carefully utilized. “Mallophaga” can be controlled by the application of insecticides to the bodies of infested animals. Due to the strong association of sucking lice with humans, mostly of eggs, adhered to hair or clothes, they can be utilized for forensic indications.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In 2008, a 3-year-old girl, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, whose mother had applied Diazitop® (Diazinon) on her head, died, and more than ten cases of intoxicated children were registered in that year.

  2. 2.

    See Chap. 3 and Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” for references to lice control in the WW1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Center of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Santa Catarina, 88040-900, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil

    Carlos Brisola Marcondes

  2. Department of Parasitology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Minas Gerais, 486, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Pedro Marcos Linardi

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Correspondence to Carlos Brisola Marcondes .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology Immunology and Parasitology Center of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Carlos Brisola Marcondes

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Marcondes, C.B., Linardi, P.M. (2017). Sucking and Chewing Lice. In: Marcondes, C. (eds) Arthropod Borne Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13884-8_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13884-8_32

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