How Long Do Lice Live on The Mattress?

How Long Do Lice Live on The Mattress

You might be worried about your kid’s lice infestation and by digging into it the question that rise is that can lice live on the mattress or not. The answer is yes and it can be very harmful to people sleeping on it. You might want to know what kills lice on bedding. So if you want to kill the lice and lice eggs then you should use hot water.

You have to use some lice treatment for the mattress to remove the lice from it. If you want to remove lice then the best way to get rid of lice in your home is with the help of heat. In our view, heat is the best way to remove lice. In this article, we will tell you the ways to remove lice and also answer the question of how long lice live on the mattress.

How Long Do Lice Live on Mattress?

They can’t, is the short answer. As compared to fleas and bedbugs, lice are unable to live apart from their food source for more than 24 to 48 hours, and they prefer to stay with their hosts, returning only to feed. They do not tolerate being separated from their hosts for more than 48 hours.

Read This: How long do lice live on bedding?

How Long Do Lice Live on Mattress

You might want to know what is the host. Or what is the food source of the lice so, the host is the human being, and its food source is the blood, once the lice are fallen from you they can only live for one to two days. If you want to be safe from the infestation then you would need to change the sheets that your child used and then machine wash them.

How you can Stay Lice-Free?

There are chances that your child got lice infestation and now you want to be more cautious about staying lice-free. There are two types of people one are those who clean the whole house once they got to know and the other is the careless ones who didn’t look back once they went through the lice treatment.

There are some people who spend a lot of money to be safe from lice but we don’t recommend you to spend that much money when the work can be done in some by taking some simple steps. The best and the first thing you can do to stay free of the lice is to wash the sheets with 130F hot water it would dehydrate the lice and remove them from your mattress and you will stay lice-free.

How you can Stay Lice-Free

The second step is to collect all the combs, hairbrushes, and hair ties ad then put them in the hot water for at least 10 to 20 minutes. This will remove the chances of any kind of chances of getting in contact with the lice.

The third and the most important thing that you need to do in order to get rid of the lice is to check the heads of your family members because the lice can live in your hair or scalp so, if you remove them from the heads you will get them in the above mentioned two methods. So, checking heads should be your priority.

Check More: How to wash bed sheets with lice?

How Long Do Lice Live on the Mattress – FAQs

How do you clean a mattress after lice?
During the dry cycle, set the heat to high for at least twenty minutes and wash the items on a hot water cycle. Those who may have left lice behind will be removed by the heated wash and drying process. Vacuuming and cleaning everyday cleaning products can be used on carpets, mattresses, and flooring. As we said earlier hot water is the best way to kill the lice.
Can Lice Live on Pillows and Sheets?
The good thing is that once the lice are fallen from the human head they can’t live more than 48 hours because they need the host and food source which is the blood of the human. So, in the case of pillows and Sheets, the lice can live only for two days so, if you wash the sheets and pillows of an infected person with hot water you can stay free from lice.
Do you have to Wash Bedding Every Day with Lice?
There is a very common perception among people that they need to wash the bedding every day if they want to get rid of lice but that’s not true at all. You just need to wash the sheets and pillows and that too after two to three days with the hot water and that’s enough to stay free from lice. But in case your child is infested then we would recommend you to wash the pillows and sheets which he/she used in two days with 130F hot water.

 

Our Verdict

There are many people that were asking how long the lice live on the mattress and after searching on different platforms we didn’t get the right answers, we thought that why not compile an article on that topic so, we could help those who need this information like us.

We started our research and find out that the lice can only live on the mattress for 1 to 2 days because she needs a host and food source (Blood) for their survival. So, next time someone asks us we have the answer to this question.

We request you to share the article with your friends and family members so, they can also get benefit from it and stay lice-free.

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