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Lice

  • Ticks
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise Ticks
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • Fleas
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise Fleas
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • Lice
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise Lice
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • Sarcoptic mites
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise Sarcoptic mites
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • Ear Mites
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise Ear Mites
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • Demodex mites
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise Demodex mites
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • cheyletiella mites
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise cheyletiella mites
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • trombicula
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise trombicula
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • dermanyssus & ornithonyssus
    • Main Facts
  • sandflies
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise sandflies
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention
  • mosquitoes
    • Main Facts
    • How to recognise mosquitoes
    • Life Cycle
    • Risk & Diseases
    • Treatment & Prevention

What do lice look like & where do you find them ?

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What ? Where ? What does it look like ?
Egg
  • Unlike fleas and ticks, lice do not persist or travel in the environment.
  • All stages live on the body of the host.
  • Oval shaped, stuck to the hair, attached with cement
Larva
(x3 stages)
  • Exactly like a small adult
Adults (male and female)
  • Biting lice in cats: Felicola subrostratus
    This is a small insect, measuring 1 to 1.5 mm, with 3 pairs of legs, light yellow in colour, wingless and flattened back and front. The head is triangular, with the base larger than the thorax. The antennae are visible on three joints. The legs end in 1 claw. The eggs or nits are: oval in shape, with a protective sheath, white, measuring 1 mm. They attach to the fur with a cement.
  • Biting lice in dogs: Trichodectes canis
    These are similar to cat lice. The insect measures 1 to 2 mm, is yellow with 2 small marks on each abdominal segment, but the head is rectangular, with the base wider than the length.
  • Sucking lice in dogs: Linognathus setosus
    The louse is small, wingless, flattened on the back and front, measuring 1 to 2 mm, yellowish in colour. The head is narrower than the thorax, it has no neck or temporal horns. The legs increase in size from P1 to P3.

Special features

  • Download a document: "Under the microscope"

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Learn more about parasites

The threat of arthropod parasites for human and animal health is increasingly recognized world wide. The hazard of these insects or acarids is linked to both the direct lesions

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