Pubic lice are parasites of humans, their way of life is very different from other blood-sucking insects. They are also called lice, and the complex of symptoms caused by infection with them is called pubic pediculosis. Also, the consequences of pubic lice bites and skin irritations from them in medicine are usually called phthiriasis - from the generic Latin name for the flats themselves Phtirusinguinalis.
Due to the fact that infestation with pubic lice does not appear immediately, and its characteristic symptoms appear only a few weeks after infection, the carrier of lice can infect other people for quite a long time without even knowing it. At the same time, it is not at all necessary that the pubic louse will parasitize only on a person living in unsanitary conditions and not adhering to the basic rules of hygiene. Lice are equally suitable for people who have not been washed for a long time, and well-groomed, and they can infect any person.
The pubic louse differs significantly from the head louse both in appearance and lifestyle. Systematically, these are two different types of insects that are not able to interbreed and even usually do not meet with each other if they infect one person. Therefore, approaches to the fight against pubic lice have their own characteristics.
Appearance of pubic louse
Externally, the pubic louse is a small insect, usually light brown in color.The length of her body is about 2 mm, and in larvae - from 0.7 mm. Interestingly, due to strong and massive paws, when placed apart, the pubic louse seems to have a greater width than length.
The color of the pubic louse is slightly brown. On pubic hair, it is hardly noticeable due to this, which is further facilitated by the general structure of the hair on this part of the body.
In the photo - pubic lice on the hair:
And in the next photo - a pubic louse under a microscope at high magnification:
At the same time, it is difficult to identify the square with the naked eye by its appearance. It looks like just a small seal on the hair. In addition, being usually near the base of the hair, they are less conspicuous.
Pubic lice are well adapted to hold onto hair. They have strong legs with a kind of claws at the ends, and a body shape that promotes tight pressing to the hair itself.
But with the same, it would seem, relatively massive paws, the louse moves quite quickly over the surface of the skin, looking for a place to bite. In the picture below, you can see the details of the structure of the body of the pubic louse:
Larvae of pubic lice are much smaller than adult parasites, and in the early stages of their development have a length of just over half a millimeter. The photo clearly shows how a pubic louse larva looks when magnified under a microscope:
Pubic lice are difficult to confuse with other human parasites. In addition to them, only ticks can bite in the pubic area, but at the same time, the tick is a rather large parasite. In addition, ticks cannot move through hair and have four pairs of legs, while lice have only three:
Bed bugs are much larger than pubic lice, and fleas are very good jumpers.Ploshchitsa, on the other hand, has neither wings nor powerful pushing legs, and therefore can only crawl.
Below are some pictures of pubic lice:
It is important that even knowing what pubic lice look like, it can be quite difficult to immediately identify them due to their small size. After looking at photographs under a microscope, some people think that they will meet characteristic “crabs” on the body and do not even pay attention to tiny dark dots on the hair. The photo below shows what pubic lice look like without magnification, under normal conditions:
Ploshchitsy lifestyle
Pubic lice can only live on the human body. Unlike other parasites that live in furniture, rubbish or natural surroundings, and climb on a person only for food, lice do not leave the hairy parts of the body at all. And all their evolutionary adaptations are aimed precisely at adapting to the constant stay on the human body.
The photo below shows lice on the pubis:
If a louse for some reason is removed from the pubic hair and gets on the bed or in a natural setting, it will most likely die of starvation in a few days. In exceptional cases, if a naked person is in the same place, the parasite can crawl onto him. Usually, lice are rather inactive and cannot find a new host by long-distance movements.
On a note
We emphasize once again that pubic lice can only parasitize on humans. No other mammal is suitable for them to live. Accordingly, it is possible to get pubic lice only from people.
Ploshchitsy can affect hair not only on the pubis. In more rare cases, they inhabit the armpits, and can also be found on the eyelashes and eyebrows. On the chest, beard and head, pubic lice do not parasitize.
Review
“Once my head itched terribly and I was afraid that it might be lice. I didn't know if pubic lice could live on my head and thought I got it from an ex-girlfriend. Well, the doctor reassured me. It turned out to be a simple allergy to some product (it was after the New Year). And in general, she told me that pubic lice do not occur on the head. That's why they are pubic."
Ivan, Ivanovo
Pubic lice feed only on human blood. To do this, they have small stylet-like outgrowths in their mouths, with which they pierce the skin and reach the blood vessels.
Having pierced the wall of the vessel, the louse begins to expand the esophagus, drawing blood into itself like a pump. In parallel, through a special channel, it injects an enzyme into the wound that prevents blood clotting and facilitates its flow into the stomach of the parasite.
From piercing the skin, a person can feel a very slight prick, while the enzyme itself causes itching, like what remains after a mosquito bite, and a slight swelling of the tissues in the area of the bite. Itching is the main disturbing symptom of pubic lice.
Next, you can look at the photo of pubic lice bites:
And the video below shows how the pubic louse feeds:
The pubic louse feeds several times a day, almost every 4-5 hours. For one feeding, the parasite sucks out about 0.5 mg of blood. The louse cannot remain hungry for a long time, and after 1-2 days of hunger strike it dies.
The optimum temperature for the development and reproduction of pubic lice is 30-31°C.At temperatures below 20°C and above 40°C, the development of lice eggs (nits) stops, and adults do not reproduce. At a temperature of about 1-3°C, lice and nits can survive for a week, and at minus 5°C and +55°C they die within half an hour.
Pubic lice have reduced eyes that see almost nothing. Ploshchitsy are oriented by smell.
On a note
Pubic lice love moist air. In dry air, they lose their mobility and easily fall off the hair. This is used in American clinics, treating the pubis of infected people with air from a hair dryer with a temperature of about 50 ° C, and then easily combing out the weakened parasites with special combs.
Reproduction of pubic lice
Pubic lice multiply very quickly. Under suitable conditions, the entire life cycle of parasites takes approximately 16 days. Of them:
- 5-7 days takes egg development
- about 13-17 days the larva develops, during this time it experiences three molts at approximately equal intervals
- around noon, an adult female needs to free herself from the larval shell after molting, drink blood, mate with the male and lay the first egg.
The eggs of pubic lice are called nits. They are a capsule firmly attached to the hair at a distance of 1-3 cm from the surface of the skin, with a lid and a small leg. To the naked eye, lice eggs look like small, light-colored dots on the hair. In length, the eggs reach 0.5-0.6 mm and have an almost round shape.
And further: Just don't burn your hair - vinegar is really effective against lice and nits (the article has over 100 comments)
Head lice larvae are outwardly similar to adult insects and are therefore called nymphs. They also feed on blood and lead the same way of life as sexually mature ploschitsy. They differ only in small size and the absence of external genitalia.
It is interesting
Under the microscope, pubic lice nits are clearly distinguished from head lice nits. In the latter, the eggs are elongated, spindle-shaped. The photographs show the difference between pubic louse eggs and head louse nits:
Each female lays 1 to 3 eggs per day. For all her short adult life (a sexually mature insect lives 20-30 days, in rare cases - up to 40), each female lays from 30 to 50 eggs.
What can be dangerous pubic lice
Unlike head and body lice, flatheads almost never carry infectious diseases. However, even their natural activity is already enough to cause many unpleasant symptoms and consequences:
- itching and bite marks
- bluish spots on bite sites, which are a skin reaction to an enzyme produced by lice
- papules and pustular inflammation at the site of combed bites, in especially advanced cases, developing into pyoderma.
All these symptoms in the complex are called phthiriasis.
Infection of the eyelids and eyebrows with pubic lice can lead to the development of conjunctivitis and blepharitis.
The photo below shows what an infection of the eyelids with pubic lice looks like:
Methods of transmission of pubic lice and the general epidemiological situation
Pubic lice are transmitted almost exclusively during sexual intercourse, crawling from the hair of an infected person to the hair of a healthy one. Phthiriasis is considered a sexually transmitted disease equally common in both sexes. Pubic lice in men are as common as in women. They can also affect children.
It is interesting
In recent decades, scientists have noted a decrease in the number of cases of infection with pubic lice due to the entry into fashion of shaving pubic hair. A century or two ago, the pubis was shaved mainly by workers of the most ancient profession precisely to protect against lice. Today, with the cult of the hairless body, flat people are literally deprived of their habitats.
Pubic lice can survive up to two days in water and therefore, in very rare cases, are transmitted in pools and open water between bathing people.
In general, pubic lice are most common in third world countries, especially in Africa, where unsanitary conditions and promiscuity reign. It is the frequent change of sexual partners that causes infection with pubic lice, and due to the fact that within a month after infection a person does not feel signs of phthiriasis, he can safely infect other people. For this reason, lice successfully spread even in a society with a high level of sanitation.
Here are some more pictures of pubic lice:
Ways to get rid of pubic lice
The simplest and most effective way to kill pubic lice is to shave the hair at the site of their deployment. This procedure takes half an hour and guarantees complete elimination of parasites.
It is a little more difficult to fight lice with the help of special shampoos and ointments. Such products should contain powerful insecticides such as Cypermethrin or Deltamethrin, which have a nerve-paralytic effect on parasites, but are harmless to humans.During the first treatment of the hair with such a preparation, active adult insects and larvae are destroyed, and during the second - after a week - those larvae that hatched from the surviving nits.
Casual sex should be avoided to avoid infestation with pubic lice. To be completely safe, you can regularly shave your pubic hair, thereby protecting yourself from potential transmission of parasites.
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