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Why do blood lice sometimes jump on people?

At Finecto+ customer service, we regularly get messages from people who are jumped by blood lice and, with bad luck, even have them in their homes. Often the main question is “Is this dangerous for me?”. Simple answer: no, but extremely annoying. In this blog, we want to explain to you why blood lice sometimes jump on people.

 

Extreme blood lice infestation

When blood lice jump on people, there is often a huge infestation of blood lice. There are then so many blood lice that the lice cannot get enough food from the chickens and start looking for other victims. In such cases, it is very important to deal with the infestation thoroughly by cleaning the coop with a high-pressure sprayer, adding a supplement to the feed and spraying the coop with a coop spray. Read more about dealing with blood lice here.

Some are more sensitive than others
Just as some people are more likely to be stung by mosquitoes than others, some are more attractive to blood lice than others. Some people can walk into a chicken coop and be immediately jumped by the blood lice present, while others are never bothered by anything.

Don’t worry: blood lice are not dangerous to humans
Blood lice can bite people and thus cause irritation and itching. But a blood louse cannot reproduce from people’s blood. They can only convert the blood of chickens and birds into new eggs. Therefore, if there are no other animals around for the blood louse to feed on, the adult louse will die and will not be able to multiply. Also, blood lice do not transmit diseases. So they are irritating and annoying when they bite you, but they are not dangerous.

What to do with blood lice in your home?

It can happen that you get blood lice in your home. Often because there is a nest of wild birds against the house and the blood lice can then enter through small cracks. Fighting these blood lice is extremely difficult since it is difficult to treat wild birds with supplements. The most important step is to remove the source of infestation, but preferably only after the young birds have fledged. And then clean everything as well as possible with water since blood lice cannot swim. Wash clothing, bedding etc at a minimum of 60 degrees and all other fabric materials as well if possible. A steam cleaner can also help, the heating will kill the blood lice and eggs. But realize that blood lice can live in very small cracks and even after 2 years the eggs can still hatch. Therefore, blood lice in the home are very difficult to treat. We do not recommend using a silica-based loft spray in the home because of the white haze the product can leave behind and it is virtually impossible to remove. In the home, you sometimes can’t get away from using chemicals.

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