A Brazilian wax will not protect you from crabs. This is a blatant untruth. The fact is that pubic lice can affect any area of the body that has hair, including body hair, armpit hair, and eyebrows.

You may or may not have heard of pubic lice, but you’ve almost certainly heard of ‘crabs’. Human pubic lice, Pthirus pubis, are most commonly called crab lice or simply ‘crabs’. Most people don’t know much about pubic lice (most likely the result of the infestation’s scandalous nature) or what they do know is skewed by rumor.

Pubic lice, or ‘crabs’ as they’re more commonly known, are insects which parasitize humans. For whatever reason, they seem to receive less attention than most sexually transmitted diseases.

The human pubic louse, Pthirus pubis, is a parasitic insect that feeds only on the blood of humans. More commonly known as ‘crabs’, pubic lice infest approximately 1 in 90 Americans every year.

It is important to remember that a pubic lice infestation will not go away on its own. Lice are very adept at surviving in their chosen niche and will continue to flourish as long as they are left alone.

Pubic lice feed on blood by biting skin at the base of a hair follicle. They prevent clotting of the blood, a normal bodily repair mechanism, by an anticoagulant in their saliva.

Lice have been a problem in Europe at least since biblical times. Many remedies, including viper broth, oil from hyssop, and tobacco juice were said to kill lice. Women were said to create ointments from ashes and bacon grease which were then applied to infected areas.

Pubic lice, or ‘crabs’ as they are commonly referred to, are parasitic insects which live on the pubic hairs of humans – including those of the groin, anus, face (beard, mustache, eye-lashes) abdomen, and underarms.

Lice are insects that infest and feed off your body. Leaving a lice infestation untreated will only result in many other people becoming infested with lice. You also run the risk of infection if the itching is moderate to severe as you are scratching frequently.

Pubic lice are called crabs due to their six-legged and crab-like appearance. If you look at a picture of a pubic louse, or Pthirus pubis, it looks remarkable similar to a crab. The louse has a rounded body, six legs, some of which have claws which help it hang onto coarse pubic hair.