Pubic lice are not related to poor personal hygiene. They are usually caught through close bodily contact with someone who is infected.
The 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 public 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 two to three weeks later the lice reach maturity and can start reproducing.
When not on a human body, pubic lice can live for up to 24 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.
