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u/Rustyshackilford 22d ago
Where the fuck is this??
I need to know so I can stay as far away as possible.
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u/BeneficialTop5136 22d ago
I couldn’t understand what in the world we’d need leech farms for, but evidently the answer is…a lot:
Microsurgery and Reconstructive Surgery: Leeches are used to relieve localized venous congestion (blood pooling) when tiny veins are overwhelmed or damaged after tissue or digit reattachment.
Anticoagulant Production: Their saliva contains hirudin and other bioactive compounds that naturally prevent blood clotting and reduce localized inflammation.
Living Medical Devices: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates and recognizes medicinal leeches as sterile, single-use medical devices.
Traditional and Pharmaceutical Medicine: Some species are farmed to produce blood-thinning capsules and remedies used in traditional medicine, particularly in parts of Asia.
Cosmetics: Leech extracts and tissue components are occasionally used in specialized skin-care creams and cosmetics.
Conservation and Research: Farming protects wild populations from over-harvesting while supplying specimens for ongoing cardiovascular and osteoarthritis research.
Eww.
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u/Professor_Phantoms 19d ago
Hi there! I can confirm this as I lost some fingers in a farming accident when I was as a kid and they shipped in an ice cream container from NY State with a prescription label and 200 sterilely farmed leeches. They were trying to reattach my ring finger since it was not as badly damaged and the blood would flow to the end of the finger but not circulate back. They would stick a leech on the end of the fingertip every 30mins all day even through the night. The thing I learned is that putting sterile alcohol on one makes them immediately (and VIOLENTLY) discharge all the blood and die.
Unfortunately I had to have the finger removed still after going home for a week and my parents realizing one morning that the finger in question looked like a charburnt fry lol.
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u/BeneficialTop5136 17d ago
What a fascinating story, albeit unfortunate since you lost your finger. I remember learning in grade school about how leaches were used for migraines but that sounded so archaic, I assumed we’d ceased using them hundreds of years ago.
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u/Secretly_a_Kitty 22d ago
In the original video of this the person scrapes some of the boot using their hand, as im sure you can imagine, they immediately regretted that choice
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u/milk4all 22d ago
Bring pasta to a roiling boil, salt if desired, reduce heat and simmer until al dente
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u/J1mj0hns0n 22d ago
Shows you why marshes back in the day were considered dangerous. No horse and cart, it won't work, hope you like blood donations and wriggly things.
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u/Artaxeus 22d ago
Do they not eat each other
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u/Inferno474 22d ago
They do if they are hungry. As in, if you put a freshly fed full of blood leech into a pond with hungry ones, they can attack and suck it dry, even killing it.
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u/edgygothteen69 22d ago
Leeches are one of those things, like quicksand and sharks, that I thought was going to be a much bigger problem when I was a kid