how to get leeches off

Anyone who watched the classic 1986 Rob Reiner filmStand up by Me,inspired by a Stephen Rex story called "The Body" probably already has a lifelong fear of leeches. And if you're not in that category, don't worry: you'll fear and loathe these onerous bloodsuckers within a paragraph or 2. Just don't become! Stay and read, because if you always detect yourself in the incomparably unenviable position of having a leech attached to your body, or to the body of a loved 1, friend, or pet, you're going to want to know how to remove leeches in the nearly expedient mode possible.

If you currently have a leech adhering to your trunk, skip downward a few hundred words and get that sumbitch off yous. If y'all have the luxury of a few minutes, let's first learn a fleck almost these creatures.

What Is a Leech, Anyhow?

Leeches, to use the scientific term, are just awful. Broadly speaking, they are a member of the annelid phylum of animals of segmented worm-similar creatures. They are close cousins of the benign earthworm, differing in that instead of the institute affair, fungus, and carrion worms consume, leeches feed on blood. Really, to be off-white, only about 75% of the known 700-odd species of leech suck the blood of a hapless host; the remaining quarter of leech species are predatory, really eating other animals.

leeches on hand — Pacific Press/Getty Images

Fewer than a hundred species of leeches live on land, with about a hundred living in salt water. The other 500 or so species live in fresh water, and it's during a dip in river, lake, or stream that y'all're most likely to come in contact with one of these ~~monsters~~ creatures.

Bloodsucking leeches have iii bract-like teeth prepare into their jaws that they use to chew open up a wound on host's body. They then attach themselves to the flesh using a mucilaginous mucous and suction and begin to suck blood out while releasing the anticoagulant hirudin into the bloodstream of their victim. Most species also have an posterior sucker (aka a rear sucker.) that besides helps keep them in identify while they suck. Your blood, that is.

(And in my 2022 novel Outrider, leech was the name given to ability thieves illegally draining electricity from the Sunfield of New Las Vegas. Shameless plug much.)

Are Leech Bites Unsafe?

Non really, really, except for the lack of slumber caused by nightmares. Leech bites rarely leave more a minor flesh wound behind and are unlikely to cause any lasting harm. There's a good run a risk yous would not even notice a bite or 2 from a smaller leech, though larger species and specimens can crusade pain.

man finds leech in sock — Daniella Cortis/Getty Images

The real danger from a leech seize with teeth comes from improper removal, which can cause the vile little critters to regurgitate while detaching, potentially introducing unsafe bacteria from their gut into your blood.

How to Remove a Leech (The Right Way)

So, you have a leech sucking your blood, ey? Well, that sucks. Just we'll get that thing off you right quick! Here's how to do it:

End screaming and swearing and weeping and maybe even peeing a petty, you'll be fine.
Identify the anterior sucker/rima oris of the leech, which is usually at the narrower end of the animal.
Use a apartment, blunt object, ideally a credit carte du jour or other similar tool, though a fingernail tin suffice, and slowly but firmly slide the edge between the sucker and the skin.
Once the suction breaks and the leech's head detaches, catch the body with your fingers to dislodge the posterior sucker (or dig under it with your apartment, broad implement) and and so throw that thing as hard and far equally you can! Or actually simply drop it dorsum into the water gently — horrifying every bit they may be, leeches are just another one of earth's creatures and they mean you no personal damage.

And for the record, once full, a leech will drib off itself, and usually in virtually a half hr. So if you lot tin stomach it, just wait it out for the cleanest removal.

In one case the leech is off, clean the bite with h2o and an clarified, dry out the expanse, and so clean again, ideally with hydrogen peroxide, which can reduce the effects of the anticoagulant.

How to Remove a Leech (The Wrong Style)

People remove leeches in all sorts of ways, the most common being with a terrified swatting and/or grabbing earlier reason has ready in. If y'all roughly yank a leech off your pare, you run the gamble of causing it to vomit out potentially bacteria-filled claret, as mentioned earlier.

Other common but inadvisable leech removal techniques include called-for it with a flame or with the embers of a cigar or cigarette, or dumping salt or vinegar over the animal. These approaches will get the leech off, only they increment the chance of infection for yous, and they're needlessly fell to the beast.

Why Were Leeches Used In Medicine?

For thousands of years, "doctors" used leeches (and knives and needles and such) to bleed patients suffering with everything from the Bubonic Plague to indisposition to pneumonia to halitosis (probably). People believed that bloodletting could assist re-balance the body's "humours," the vital fluids that worked in concert to maintain proper health.

In fact, of grade, bloodletting is the diametric contrary of what sick people need, but the do remained common into the 19th century.

There are, however, a few instances in which bloodletting, and often with the use of leeches, is skilful today, and with the countenance of the scientific/medical community, no less. The condition oft known as hemochromatosis – or "iron overload" in laymen's terms – is a disorder that can affect the liver, heart, and various hormone functions, with the treatment often involving a class of bloodletting. Though doctors commonly prefer to call it venesection these days.

For other creepy-awesome and insect avoidance techniques, read upwards on the all-time insect repellents to keep you bite-costless while in the wilderness,