How long can pubic lice live?

Pubic lice are a type of insect that usually appears on pubic hair or perianal hair. They will bite the skin, causing it to feel extremely itchy, and are contagious. Patients with pubic lice cannot have sexual intercourse and must maintain personal hygiene, changing and washing clothes and sheets frequently. Pubic lice can be treated with medication, but many patients are concerned about how long pubic lice can survive. How long can pubic lice survive? Let’s take a look at it next.

1. How long can pubic lice survive?

Pubic lice disease is an incomplete metamorphosis, and its life cycle is divided into three stages: egg, nymph and adult.

Eggs: The eggs of pubic lice are usually tightly attached to the roots of the pubic hair shafts. They are light red or rust-colored ovals, similar to dot-like blood scabs. The incubation period is about one week.

Nymph: Nymph is the form of pubic lice after they hatch from eggs and before they grow into adults. Nymphs look similar to adults but are much smaller. The growth period of nymphs is also about one week.

Adult: Adult pubic lice are grayish white or brown, and females are generally larger than males.

The average lifespan of pubic lice is 30 days, but all pubic lice that leave the human body will die within 2 days. The difficulty in eliminating lice is to kill the eggs and prevent them from hatching into adults.

2. The harm of pubic lice

Pubic lice disease is an infectious parasitic disease in which pubic lice, which mainly live on human pubic hair and body hair around the anus, bite the nearby skin, causing itching.

Pubic lice have a strong reproductive capacity and can reproduce 40-50 per day. If left unaware or untreated for a long time it can lead to lice and secondary infection with other systemic diseases.

Since pubic lice can move freely and cannot be killed for a long time, they can spread to other hairy parts of the body, such as the hair and armpits, increasing the difficulty of treatment. At the same time, since pubic lice are highly contagious, they can cause collective infection among couples, friends and family members, causing group illness.

At the same time, since pubic lice survive by sucking human blood and biting other human bodies and then infecting each other, they are bound to spread other infectious diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS. Therefore, after pubic lice are discovered, they must be treated correctly and actively treated.

3. Characteristics of Pubic Lice

Pubic lice are afraid of light and prefer shade. They can move around day and night. When the temperature is too high or too low, they will remain motionless. Both male and female adults will begin laying eggs within 24 hours after mating. Pubic lice lay few small eggs, about 3 eggs a day until 24-48 hours before death. A total of about 50 eggs are laid in their lifetime. The adult life span is about 30 days and they die within 24 hours of leaving the host. Lice undergo incomplete metamorphosis, with three life stages: egg, nymph and adult, and the entire life cycle is completed on the host. When laying eggs, the female insect secretes glue that makes the eggs firmly adhere to hair or fabric fibers.