Please identify this creature for me

[ItchingScratching]

Discovered them in my son's hair!!! Baby ones too.

This isn't a nit, so what the hell is it?!

He sometimes plays with a kid from our neighbourhood, and sadly this kid is from a family who are not too fussy on personal hygiene and have 6 cats. Nice kid and all that, but from a dirty home unfortunately.

My son was playing outside with him this afternoon, then came in itching and scratching his head and I find these creatures in his hair

I've done a quick Google image search of cat fleas, but it doesn't look like one of those either.

I'm worried I need to burn my house down...What is it?

It's a tachyporus beetle. Harmless. Found in leaf litter and on the ground so looks like they e just hitched a ride.

I think if he had ‘caught’ them off the other kid it would probably only have one on him so either he’s had them a while (long enough for adult to have babies) or more likely as it doesn’t look like something that’lives’ on a person they were probably rolling around a bush or something and disturbed a nest of them

Oh thank god

Yep, rolling around in bushes and undergrowth is definitely the kind of kid my son is. The pair of them are, which is why they get on. Typical rough-&-tumble boys into everything!

It's just he's caught nits from this boy so many times I've instantly jumped to conclusions with this. My bad.

Thanks for putting my mind at rest.