Can humans get lice from chickens?

[acidgaming]

Wow! I learned a great deal from this post. Thanks to everyone that replied. Hopefully your answers will help alleviate other's fears as much as it did mine

 

[Chelly]

My son had a class mate with lice last year, I purchased and used some tea tree oil shampoo for him, till the bottle was done, thats all I washed his hair with.
He didn't get lice, I dont' know if it had to do with the shampoo or not.
Good Luck

 

[Bandera Grassland]

Wow, good to know about robi comb. I just had a bad experience. Something has figured out how to get into my fortress of a chicken coop. For three years, nothing has ever gotten in. Yesterday I found a mostly eaten hen on the floor of the coop--my only Langshan. The power had gone out for a few hours the evening before, so I thought perhaps the timer on my automatic door might have done something weird and opened during the night, so I reset it. This morning, I found another mostly eaten hen--this time a pretty Silver Wyandotte, and an injured Cubalaya rooster. He was head injured with his spine partially severed and a gaping hole in his skull. I figured the best thing was to put him out of his misery. Next comes my trauma. I sharpened up my heaviest kitchen clever and took the poor fellow to the outdoor table and laid him on a cutting board. The tough old bird's skin was so thick the clever bounced off! He cried and bled and kicked, and I fell apart. About that time my husband shows up with an ax thinking surely he could quickly put the poor bird out of his misery. It took him four blows with the ax before he completely severed the spine. The bird did not stop kicking until I cut the skin completely so there were no nerves connecting the head with the body. If ever I have to do this again, I think I'll try a really sharp pair of loppers or a shotgun. It took me over 30 minutes to skin the bird after he was dead. I had no idea rooster skin was that tough. He is now stewing in a pot--waste not.

When I finished skinning the bird I noticed 4-5 poultry lice crawling away from his feathers. Presuming they are host specific, I didn't worry much about any bugs getting on me. About the time I finished chopping some aromatic vegetables to toss into the pot with the chicken, I felt a tickling on my neck. I pulled of, you guessed it, a poultry louse. I'm hoping it was just taking a stroll and not planning on taking up residence.

 

[strus]

What can you don to get rid of the lice . I've tried everything my daughter has had it all summer. with one or two of the family members getting it also. We left for two weeks and came back to infestation again.

 

[Peacelovejoy]

Actually Yes you can i have experienced it with my kids smart people you don't know everything about lice

 

[clarissanders]

Does anyone have a picture of chicken lice?

 

[laura877]

I got chicken lice on me too. I felt something on my arm and looked to see a loyse walking on me. Then later that night I could feel them walking on my scalp so I went to my husband to puck them off. I thought he started finding eggs. We r empty nesters so I didn't get the from kids.

I went to Walmart to find something to get rid of them. The salesperson told me that she always put Crusco in her kids hair and let it sit 20-30 mins and repeat every day until nomore nits. That worked.

 

[Tacampbell1973]

Absolutely not. Lice are extremely specialized. Forgive the graphicness, but human pubic lice and human head lice are actually so different that even those cannot "swap" spots on the same person.

Human head lice is spread by hat, jacket, shirt, etc trading or close proximity (like wrestling, for instance) with a lice infested person. Lice cannot truly jump or fly. Your son got lice almost certainly from a classmate, little league team member, friend, etc.

I hope that is a relief for you. Although now you need to get rid of his lice- good luck. It is difficult.

-MTchick

Thank you for this information. Ironically, as soon as I had read that humans cannot get poultry lice, my whole body stopped itching. I had been battling lice with a crossbeak hen for about two weeks.Its amazing, the power of suggestion.

 

[micheleomal]

I know this is an old post but if anyone comes upon it, I have a natural cure for human head lice. My kids, years ago, came home from school with a very NIX resistant type of head lice. The doctor told me to buy a huge container of Mayonaise and slather their (and mine as it turned out) heads with it, wrap head in plastic wrap and wear it to bed. The next morning wash hair, using vinegar to cut the mayonnaise first. You have to do this twice, one week apart. One benefit is that your hair is soft and shiny! One drawback is I couldn't eat potato salad for the smell for the whole summer. Of course, all bedding and toys have to be washed etc. It really works, and my sister, who is a nurse practitioner tells her patients this now. Good Luck.

 

[dawg53]

I know this is an old post but if anyone comes upon it, I have a natural cure for human head lice. My kids, years ago, came home from school with a very NIX resistant type of head lice. The doctor told me to buy a huge container of Mayonaise and slather their (and mine as it turned out) heads with it, wrap head in plastic wrap and wear it to bed. The next morning wash hair, using vinegar to cut the mayonnaise first. You have to do this twice, one week apart. One benefit is that your hair is soft and shiny! One drawback is I couldn't eat potato salad for the smell for the whole summer. Of course, all bedding and toys have to be washed etc. It really works, and my sister, who is a nurse practitioner tells her patients this now. Good Luck.

I'm glad this isn't a suggestion to treat chickens with lice!