What you can do about crab lice

There is a choice of treatment for crab lice (pubic lice). In the UK, you can buy insecticide lotions to kill crab lice from pharmacies, without a prescription. Some contain alcohol, which can irritate the skin of the scrotum and any scratched areas, so a lotion that does not contain alcohol is preferable - check the label for information.

A single application of the lotion is probably enough, but some specialists advise another application after 7 days to eliminate any newly hatched lice. Apply the lotion to the whole body from the neck down, even if you think only the pubic area is affected. A paintbrush is the best method. To be on the safe side, change underclothes and bedlinen after treatment.

Do not treat yourself, but go to a doctor, if:

you are pregnant
you think you have crabs on your eyelashes or eyebrows; do not try and treat these yourself with lotion.

A survey revealed that 80% of students think that antibiotic creams or tablets will get rid of pubic crab lice (see Useful Contacts). This is completely wrong; antibiotics do not affect lice at all.

What your doctor can do

You can see your family doctor or go to a genitourinary medicine clinic. The advantage of the clinic is that the staff are expert crab spotters who will be able to confirm that your diagnosis is correct. Also, you can have tests to check you have not picked up any other infection at the same time, and the treatment will probably be free.

Written by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Edited by: Dr Margaret Stearn
Last updated: Tuesday, October 4th 2011

Useful contacts for What you can do about crab lice

Click to see all the contacts that you may find useful in relation to crab lice | What you can do about crab lice

Useful contacts

71 people have
tackled this problem!

Tell us your thoughts

Did you find what you were looking for?

Submit

Add a comment

A problem shared is a problem halved: help others by sharing your frustrations or successes at tackling your health problem.

We have noticed that many of your queries are actually answered on the website, so please read carefully before submitting a comment. As all comments are moderated, there will be a delay before your comment appears. Please note that we cannot respond to individual requests for feedback.

Display Name Age: Sex: Country: Comment:

Submit

Discussion content reflects the view of individual participants only. Health Press Limited bear no responsibility for accuracy of participant comments and will bear no legal liability for discussion results. Comments will be moderated before posting and Health Press Limited reserves the right to delete any material. See About our site for our moderation policy

Comments on this article

Posted by Optional on 12/12/2010 at 01:48, United Kingdom

I am a very clean person so having lice has totally freaked me out to say the least, and made me very depressed. I treated it the first time about 6 weeks ago and treated for 2 more treatments to make sure. But i keep finding eggs in my hair as I check thoroughly every night. i have not found any live lice in 6 weeks but keep finding eggs, so not sure what to do. I never feel clean now and wonder if it'll ever go away!!!!