Februari 03, 2017
- i don't think that there'sanything that can truly prepare you for sticking your arm into acontainer full of leeches. my arm is shaking a little bit. it's the real deal. i'm not gonna lie. i am definitely nervous. oh my gosh.
they are just squirmingall over the place. this is gonna be intense. i'm coyote peterson and i'm about to be eaten alive by leeches. ready? one, (exhales) two,
here we go. three. (dramatic music) you know, normallyon a day like this i'd be out therein the lily pads catching snapping turtles. but today, we're gonna dosomething a little different. now we post thesedragon tail's episodes a lot of you write in and say,
coyote, how many times have you been covered in leeches? and the answer to that question is absolutely never. in fact, in 20 years of catching turtles being in swamps,ponds, and lakes, ankle deep to neck deep i have had virtuallyzero leeches
end up on my body. the only time i think i'veactually had a leech on me is when i'd been holdinga snapping turtle and one has actuallycrawled off the turtle and onto my hand. and even when they did they would suction on but they would never suck blood. i'm sure a lot of you have seen
the movie "stand by me." you know that scenewhen the kids wander down into the swamp andget covered in leeches and they're like, "uhhh,we're being eaten alive." that does not happen. so what we're gonnado today is prove that not all leechessuck human blood. now i'm sure you'rethinking to yourselves coyote, i thought we were
going to see some leech bites. and you just said not all leechessuck human blood. and they don't. but i wouldn'tlet you guys down. so today we are goingto test what happens when my arm goesinto a container with two different species. what i have here
are two separate containers. this one has yourcommon freshwater leech. ones like we would find inthe pond right behind me here. these live in north america. and in this hand are european medicinal leeches. these ones are from overseas and trust me when i say that they absolutelylove human blood.
all right, what i'm gonna do now is dump the freshwaterleeches into the container and then i'm gonnaput my arm in there. you guys ready? - [man] do it. - [coyote peterson]here you go guys. look at that. they are creepy looking but i'm not nervous right now
because i know that these leecheswill not suck blood. even if they attach to my arm it's more of them being curious and testing out the environment than it is themwanting to get a meal. the moment of truth. my arm is about togo into the container with the freshwater leeches.
ready?- [man] yep. - [coyote peterson] one, three. (playful music) i said i wasn'tnervous, but even still, putting your arm into acontainer with any leeches it will definitely getyour heart rate going. oh boy, that one lookslike it's actually going towards my arm rightthere, do you see that?
most species offreshwater leeches, especially the ones that canbe found in the united states feed on smaller invertebrates or co-blooded species likereptiles and amphibians. they are rather intelligent. and this is somethingnew in their environment. they're goingright up to my arm. and they're actuallyturning away. i kept my arm submergedin the container
for 15 minutes and wasn't bittenby a single leech. okay, so i think atthis point we have proven that freshwaterleeches have no interest in sucking my blood. let's bring out europeanmedicinal leeches and see what happens with those. the next type of leechis native to eurasia. and is likely themost famous species
as they have often beenused in various medical procedures, likereconstructive surgery. they live in muddyfreshwater ecosystems and are notorious forfeasting on blood. i just went and pickedup the container of european medicinal leeches and you probably even change you probably didn't even notice the change in theinflection in my voice.
i'm actually nervous,at this point. these leeches aregonna adhere to my arm and they are goingto consume my blood. they haven't eatenin a few days, and trust me when i say, that they are hungry. all right, are we readyfor me to put them into the container mark? - [mark] all right.
release the beast. - [coyote peterson]here they go. all right. this is it. no turning back now. this is for science. oh boy. - [mark] a lot ofleeches in there coyote. - [coyote peterson]this is gonna be crazy.
i think it's about time to sink my arm into a container full of leeches. they are just squirming all over the place. are we ready for me to be eaten alive by leeches? - [mark] i think so. - you're ready?
mark, you're ready,i know you're ready. ahhh. - [mark] the camera's ready. - [coyote peterson]the camera's ready. coyote pack. i feel like you'reprobably ready. - [mark] there's a lotof leeches in there. - [coyote peterson]there's a lot of leeches. all right, sowithout further adieu
that gets your nerves going that's for sure. look at that this one already, boom. just like that, instantaneous secured to my arm. holy mackerel. they're just likeswarming towards my arm. look at that!
one on my armthere, that's three. (exhales) in amatter of seconds. my arm has been in here hold on, this one'strying to go up my shirt go this way, boom. another one there on my hand. my heart is racing right now. they are all over me. ahh.
uhh, i can definitely feel something happening. (inhales) oooh it feels like sandpaper grindingagainst my skin. my hand and arm havebeen in the water for about 60 seconds. and all but one leech is now on my arm. now, the way that theleeches sucker works
is they adhere on and they releasefrom their saliva an anti-coagulant enzyme. that enzyme, notonly numbs the skin, it also doesn't allowthe blood to clot. now, they have teeth that are kind of in the shape of a y. here, mark, look at my fingers.
it looks like this. the three teeth of a leech that go like that and they slice into you. and i can feel them actually cutting into my arm. and look at that, look at how that leech is bent over, it is holding on withthe posterior sucker
which is the tail, and it is consuming blood from the anterior sucker which is the mouth. and holy cow, isthis uncomfortable. uhhh. (heartbeat sound) it has been about 20 minutes so far
since my arm hasbeen in the water. pan the camera down, look at how big the leeches have gotten. they are completely swollenwith blood at this point. at this juncture, i think these leeches havehad enough of a feast. and it's time to get themoff of my hand and arm. now there is a right way and a wrong way too removea leech from your body.
you may think, letme yank it off. yanking it off isbad because you can actually pull theirteeth out into the wound. those teeth getleft in the wound you can end upwith an infection. and you may thinkto yourself, well maybe i should put salt on it, or put a lighter behindit and heat it up and it will be like, i'mscared, let me get out of here.
that's also reallybad because it will actually cause theleech to regurgitate some of its food into the wound. that also willcause an infection. now the best wayto remove a leech is to just use theedge of your finger. and what i want todo is softly slide the anterior sucker off of the wound.
okay, you ready for that? - [mark] how do youknow which is which? - [coyote peterson]well, it's obvious that this is the anterior side as you can see the back end is not attached to anything. and look at that leech oh that one has popped off. oooh, and that onepopped off too,
look at that. well. there's also the since the leech has eaten enough and it's going to just release itself on its own those two leechesare so full of blood. there, done eating. look at how big that leech is.
it is full of blood. and look at the bloodjust pouring out of my hand at this point. - [mark] wow.- [coyote peterson] that leech basically said, okay, i'm done eating. back into the water with me. what you want to do is just gently slide your finger
over the anterior sucker. here you go, look at that. i got the leech to pop off and then i can just popthe posterior sucker off. and plop, back into thewater with the leech. oh, there we go. oooh, that onehurts, look at that. you can see the bloodjust seeping out. ahhh, there's fourof them right there.
this is going to bethe bloodiest spot. two. now there you have it. the final leech. get in your zone buddy. the blood it's like there's a lot ofwater in my blood and that's the anti-coagulantjust breaking down all the platelets.
and you can just see my blood almost it's really, really thin. and it's all about the amounts of anti-coagulantthat actually went into my hand. i may be bleeding forhours, at this point. my hand is actually numb and that's how theseleeches, look at how big and fat andhappy they all are
at the bottom of the tank there. the water is all red. as you can see,the drips of blood falling down into the water. it's like a sharkattack happened right here in this container. that's crazy. well, i thinkultimately at this point we have proven thatwhile there are
some species ofleeches that will not give you a bloody bite, on the other hand, there are definitelysome that will. the only thing left to do now is clean up this mess. stick around and i'll show youexactly how to dress a leech bite
if you're ever unfortunateenough to get one. i'm coyote peterson. be brave. stay wild. we'll see you onthe next adventure. man, that's a lot of blood. there are nearly 700species of leeches found on our planet. and the good news is
that only a verysmall percentage would even consider consuming human blood. this is not an animal you ever need to be afraid of. they do not transmit diseases and have never been responsible for a human death. as for me,
i took on a massiveamount of anti-coagulant and bled for nearly 24 hours. in the end was it worth it? well, if you no longer feargoing into a lake or pond, because we have proven that most north americanfreshwater leeches have no interest indrinking human blood
then i would definitelysay that the answer is yes. if you thought removingthe leeches was like watching a scenefrom a horror movie make sure to check outthe behind the adventure where i show you how to clean up and treat the aftermath. and don't forget, subscribe to joinme and the crew
on this season of dragon tails.
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