Crabs - Causes of pubic lice

Pubic lice are not related to poor personal hygiene. They are usually caught through close bodily contact with someone who is infected.

The lice can be found in hair almost anywhere on the body, such as beards, underarm hair and leg hair.

However, unlike head lice, they do not usually live in hair on the head.

Pubic lice crawl from the hair of one person to the hair of another person. They cannot jump, fly or swim.

Sexual contact

Pubic lice are most commonly passed on through sexual contact. This includes vaginal, anal and oral sex.

Using condoms and other methods of barrier contraception does not protect you against pubic lice.

Other types of close bodily contact, such as hugging and kissing, can also spread the lice.

Other ways of spreading pubic lice 

It is also thought that you can get pubic lice from infected items, such as:

• clothing
• bed linen
• towels
• toilet seats

However, it's much rarer for lice to be spread in this way.  

The life cycle of pubic lice

Pubic lice live for one to three months. During this time, the female louse can lay up to 300 eggs. The eggs hatch after 6 to 10 days, and the lice reach maturity and can start reproducing two to three weeks later.

When not on a human body, pubic lice can live for around 24 to 48 hours. However, the lice depend on human blood to survive, so they rarely leave the body other than to move to another person. Pubic lice do not live on other animals.