Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com where smart happens. There's a new show on Discovery Channel called Monsters Inside Me, and it fits perfectly with today's question, what is the right way to remove a leech? In many parts of the world, leeches are surprisingly common. You can find them in Amazon jungle, sure, but you can also find them in the local lake. They can be found swimming in water or crawling on land. Leeches are
also voracious feeders. They quickly attach and start sucking. They fall off on their own eventually once they get and gorged. But since some leeches can be as big as your finger, you may not want to wait that long. So what is the right way to remove them? There are all sorts of home remedies for leech removal. You'll hear things like burning them off with cigarettes and matches, poisoning them with bug spraying insecticides, irritating them with salt or so.
These efforts often backfire and make a mess. In the worst case scenario, the leach forces its stomach contents back into your wound and it causes a bad infection. The right way to do it is to grab the leech properly and detach it. A leech holds onto you with rows of tiny teeth. Your job is to rip the teeth away from your skin. It won't hurt that much
because the leach has injected a numbing agent already. Basically, you need to get your fingernail underneath the leach and up as close to the mouth as you can, and then lifted off. You don't want to grab the leech in the middle and pull because that part of the body is soft and flexible, like an earthworm or a slug. You won't be able to get a grip or to pull it without stretching or splitting the leach. You want to get right up next to the mouth where you
have some leverage and yank. You'll be left with a small, bloody hole that may continue leaking because of the anticoagulant that leeches use. Apply a disinfectant in a sterile dressing and proceed with your day. If you enjoy parasites like leeches, be sure to check out Monsters Inside Me on the Discovery Channel Wednesdays at nine pm. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send me an email at podcast at how Stuff Works dot com.
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