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“These are amazing and curious creatures that grow up like crazy and make amazing pets,” leech breeder Ariane Khomjani told ScienceAlert.
He explained how individual leeches have their own unique personalities, some being more passionate and some more shy.
“Some people like to eat more frequently than others. But when they are full, they are satisfied and can run out of water for a while if treated delicately,” he laughed.
Khomjani has four leeches, including Lear, shown below. The species considered one of the largest is the buffalo leech (Hirudinaria manillensis) from Asia.
Leeches as pets
© Ariane Khomjani
There are more than 600 species of leeches in the world and most, but not all, are blood pumps. Others, like sharks (Pharyngobdellida), are predators that swallow all their invertebrate prey in one go, and some species are exterminators that feed on organic waste.
These leeches can have up to eight pairs of ocelli, which they use to detect shadows of potential prey.
Their brains are located in 32 segments of the body. Leeches are hermaphroditic, so each individual leech has both male and female genitalia, although their reproduction still requires a partner.
If a hungry parasitic leech senses your body heat or the smell of exhaled CO2, it can turn towards you using mouth and butt pumps. Yes, you read that right, leech butt stinks too
After discovering the correct part of the host, the leech will spit saliva containing anesthetics and anticoagulant compounds before dying.
“When they feed them, you won’t even feel it, even with large buffalo trays,” Khomjani explained, though she said the initial bite can be a bit felt. Without food, they can survive for up to a year, but leech sellers recommend feeding the larger species every 3-6 months.
Of course, as in all cases where this involves direct contact with your bloodstream, you should not attempt to feed the leeches your own blood without first consulting your doctor. Some people are allergic to leeches’ saliva and are always at risk of infection.
Khomjani says that while most sting sites heal without scarring due to blood thinners in leeches’ saliva, it can sometimes take several days for the bite to stop bleeding. But it is precisely because of the properties of this saliva that leeches have long been of interest to humans.
“Leeches have been associated with human culture for centuries, especially in Europe,” parasitologist Mackenzie Kwak of the National University of Singapore told ScienceAlert.
In fact, we have been growing leeches, primarily for medical purposes, for about 3,000 years. In Victorian times (1800), leeches were recommended to treat everything from headaches to nymphomania.
This led to a rather absurd battle between competing pharmacies producing increasingly sophisticated jugs of leeches to entice customers to choose their product. This historical use of leeches has greatly reduced the populations of medical leeches (Hirudo medicinalis) throughout Eurasia, so the species is now protected.
Today leeches are still considered a drug for human and animal medicine around the world and have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as “medical devices.”
“Leeches are used on patients after surgery,” said Julie Smolders of Southwest Sydney, ScienceAlert said.
“Leeches pump excess blood to maintain good blood flow in the peripheries and better heal the operated site.”
Hospitals have 100 to 200 leeches, which are used to clean blood vessels. These leeches originate from captive-bred populations raised in a controlled environment to help reduce the potential risk of infection.
If you are intrigued by the idea of keeping one of these little “Drácules” but not interested in offering yourself as food, there are several accounts online for feeding green liver or warm blooded leeches.
“If the blood is fresh and not treated with preservatives or the like, that diet could work,” Kwak told ScienceAlert, noting that medical parasitologists and entomologists have been using similar methods to keep leeches for decades.
According to her, “raising leeches at home is a great way to learn about parasites and to assess on a broader level how sophisticated and strange the natural world can be.”
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