Lice can become a personal health issue in one of three ways. The three varieties that have to be dealt with if you or a family member experience a lice infestation are head lice, pubic lice or body lice. Like head lice, a person gets infected by body lice by direct contact with someone else who is carrying the pests. You cannot pick up lice from furniture or carpets as they generally cannot survive in these environments for more than forty eight hours. However, you can get body lice from clothing that was in contact with an infected person as the lice can attach themselves to the fabrics of the cloth of the item of clothing.
Because lice are so tiny, it is possible to have a small infestation of body lice before you even know it happened. The common sensation most people experience when they think they have lice is that itchiness of being bitten by many small bugs. If you have body lice, the sensation is accurate because lice must draw blood from you to live. This is a pretty unpleasant thought but they are parasites just like mosquitoes.
And in the same way, the itchy feeling you get is not the result of the bite but the toxins that the lice put into your skin when they begin to take their meals from you. The disturbing thing is that it usually takes anywhere from two to six weeks after you are infested with lice for you to begin to feel that itch so by that time, you are hosting a lot of bugs.
You can get body lice a number of ways including contact with the clothing of a person who is already hosting lice or direct physical contact with such an individual. There is no moral judgment you can put on someone just because they have lice and pass it to you. The problem can happen to anyone at any social or economic level. But it can be said with assurance that lice can be eliminated easily if you just maintain a scrupulous regimen of daily hygiene and bathing. And if you wash your clothing in hot water and with regularity, the chances you will experience this particular problem drop off significantly.
But it does pay to be knowledgeable about how lice behave when they take up residence on the human skin and on the ways to deal with the problem. If you have a child or loved one who is at higher risk of getting body lice, your well informed knowledge on the subject will benefit them tremendously.