What Are Crabs and Scabies?
Crabs (Pthirus pubis) live on pubic and other coarse body hair. Similar to head and body live, crabs are also called pubic lice (pediculosis pubis). Although they live on blood, crabs can survive 24 hours off a human body. They can be seen by the naked eye or with a magnifying glass and look like their seaside namesake. Crabs have three stages: egg or nit, nymph, and adult. Scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei) cannot be seen except with a microscope and can live nearly anywhere on the human body. The female scabies mite burrows under human skin and lays eggs. Ten days later the eggs become adults. The type of mites that infest dogs and other animals, known as mange, cannot reproduce on humans. How Are Crabs and Scabies Transmitted? Crabs are usually transmitted by sexual contact since the crabs can move from coarse hair (pubic area, eyelashes, eyebrows, facial hair, chest, or armpits – not usually head hair) of the infected person to coarse hair of another person. Nonsexual transmission is poss
