number one, by the time a child has symptoms of headlice, they ve probably been infested for about a month. that s how the lice cycle is. the female that lays the egg. it s the nits, which are the eggs, that people see. that was the whole no nits policy. the nits are laid down next to the scalp. they live by sucking your blood on your scalp. and they incubate. and it probably takes three to four weeks for them to really become live and to start to give you the kinds of symptoms that kids get. even if that s true. even if that s so. do you understand the discomfort that a lot of parents have that their kid is sitting next to another kid with lice crawling