What Blood Types Affect Lice The Most?

Head lice are little insects that mainly feed on human blood. In your home, you might have seen someone being infected by the lice while others are not. The only question that comes to mind during those situations is, do lice prefer a certain blood type?

What Blood Type will Lice Prefer?

Many people who the lice have infected have once questioned why the lice are getting attached to them. You will probably think your blood is compatible with that of lice. This question has forced many researchers to get into the labs for scientific analysis.

If you’re wondering whether lice prefer specific blood types, research suggests that they do. According to studies, head lice favor positive blood groups over negative ones. Even though this may be possible, lice are capable of feeding and surviving on all blood types. However, when head lice start feeding after hatching from their eggs, they prefer to continue feeding on the same blood group over their lives

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For instance, in a home where we have someone with blood group B+ having lice, the eggs that will hatch from that person will prefer to continue feeding on blood group B+. However, if the hatched lice find themselves on someone else with blood group A+, they will still feed on that blood to avoid being starved though they don’t like it.

What About the Rhesus Factor Matters?

Rhesus factors are proteins you will find in the blood that dictate whether your blood group is positive or negative such as A+, B-, etc. If your blood has a rhesus protein on its surface, it becomes a positive blood group, but if your blood does not have a rhesus protein, then your blood group will be negative.

Although head lice can feed on different blood types, they cannot thrive on different Rh blood factors. Therefore, lice will only prefer to move to somebody else of the same rhesus factor irrespective of the blood type. For instance, if lice have been feeding on blood type A+ and then move to a person with blood type B+, they will still survive on that blood type.

However, if the louse has been used to feed on blood type A+, then transfers to an individual with blood type B-, they will not survive. Lice feeding on blood with different rhesus factors will show incompatibility with the blood it has already fed.

Therefore, if that happens, the intestinal tract of the louse will burst. Without any doubt, the louse will lose its life. The same will happen if the louse feeding on blood with negative rhesus moves to a person with rhesus positive.

Preventing Lice

Why is my child attracting lice more than any other person in the family? Your child might have a positive blood type hence prone to lice infestations. However, the rest of the family members are likely to be blood type negative, and because lice don’t like switching rhesus factors, they will not be affected as much. Whether your child has a preferred blood type, Lice Centers of Wisconsin is here to help! Contact us today for our effective treatment in eliminating lice.