WEBVTT - Leeches: Oh Hell No! 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.360 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:16.840 and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. And this is the 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.000 leeches episode that we've all been waiting for for about 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.880 a million years. Yeah, this is I love this kind 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.960 of stuff though, because there's the general you know, stuff 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.479 you should know, classic bug slash animal kind of show. Okay, 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.960 got it, but then you got your whole second half 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:39.080 of the episode, which is super interesting. Yep. I mean 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:40.640 the other stuff is interesting too, but you know what 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.680 I mean, it's a it's a I know, it's a 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.200 basically a perfect stuff you should Know episode. Dave Ruce 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.800 called it a S Y s K softball as if too, 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.240 as if to say that he couldn't have gotten it wrong. 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:55.960 It was just too great of a stuff you should 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:58.440 know topic. Yeah, he did a great job, though, always does. 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.760 He did great Yep. So we're talking leeches, and I 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:05.080 think Chuck this actually this episode was inspired by our 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.280 dentistry episode where we talked about using medical leeches for 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.400 dentistry all the way up until like the nineteen teens. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.720 I think leeches on the gums not a pleasant thought, no, 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:21.679 And it sounds bonkers and wacky um and repulsive, but 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:25.600 they have come back into fashion in some medical circles, 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.360 and not just like new ag circles, like actual medical circles. 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.440 So it's like you said, we're gonna make this kind 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.440 of a two parter in a one one episode, let's 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.759 do it. So we're talking leeches, and we should probably 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.560 start with leech biology. And if you want to know 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.520 what a leech is, uh is cousin to, you need 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:49.720 look no further than a few inches underground and some 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.040 fertile soil at our friend the earthworm, which was another 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:55.360 great stuff you should know episode. Yeah, that was a 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.120 really good one. But yeah, if you want to get 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:58.840 up close and look at a leech, which you probably 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.680 are not prone to do, uh, they are ringed, just 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:04.760 like our little friends the earthworm. They have thirty two 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:10.520 segments in their little gross looking bodies and they inch 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:13.400 along like worms stew as well. They have you know, 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.800 a head sucker up at the front and a sucker 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:22.040 in the rear. No jokes necessary there, Yeah, oral an 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.080 anal is it really called the anal sucker. It's also 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:31.440 called the anterior imposterior sucker too, and or the party 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:34.799 in the this is in the front, party in the rear. Sure, 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:36.960 I couldn't tell the day was joking. I figured it 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.680 was called an anal sucker, but uh yeah, they just 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.280 inch along just like an inch worm or a worm 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:48.960 might by expanding and contracting and using those suckers. That's right. Um. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:54.400 I saw that the the oral sucker, the the anterior sucker, 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.560 was the one that's typically used for feeding, and that 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:59.880 the sucker on the rear is the one that you 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.360 us to help propel the leech forward. Um. I didn't 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:08.720 see definitively that it can't feed on the rear anal sucker, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:12.680 but um, it's possible it can't. I did see that 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.040 it's primarily used for locomotion, So whatever science writer wrote 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.440 that was hedging their bets. Yeah. The other thing I 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.440 thought was interesting was land leeches, which we're not going 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.840 to talk too much about because you know, most of 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:25.920 the leeches that we're acquainted with you will find in 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:30.239 the water. But land leeches do a a tick like thing, 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.320 and they're both bloodsuckers. Like remember how ticks will attach 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.640 to a plant and then just like start snapping their 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.560 little lobster claws everywhere hoping something walks by. Yeah, they're like, hey, 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.160 come get me somebody. The land leach does a similar 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:47.880 thing and attaches the rear sucker to a branch or 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.160 a leaf or something and then just sort of does 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.280 a little shimmy shake with her head, hoping that something 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.839 will walk by so it can just stick its little 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.680 face into it. It's just there in chimmys and it's like, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:00.720 you'd like this, huh, you'd like that, Come get it. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.280 And they're both bloodsuckers, and they both do very desperate 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.360 things to attach to a body. I know they also 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:13.600 un I know tis Yeah, I know. Ticks and leeches 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.640 both also share the trait of um being able to 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.640 um detect c O two as a way to detect prey, 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.360 at least the land leeches too. So yeah, that definitely 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.400 stuck out to me as well. UM. And I feel 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.680 like there's some really great myths out there on the 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.720 Internet that we're gonna get to just um crush, crumble 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:38.080 myth crushers. Yeah, that's perfect myth. We're gonna crush those myths, um. 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.640 And one of them is that leeches have thirty two brains, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:45.880 which is definitively false. No, they have thirty two body segments. 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.480 And you will see people on the internet that say 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:50.720 they have a brain in each segment, but they don't. 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:54.400 They have to brains, one up front and one in 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.520 the back, and like a lot of little critters that 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.719 can be cut off and still function. You can cut 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.719 their brain off and they can survive and do quite well. Yeah. 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.120 The reason that people say thirty two brains, by the way, 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.440 that's what Google says. If you just type in leech brain, 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:15.039 it serves you up leech has thirty two brains. There's ganglia, 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:19.400 which are basically relay stations between these two brains in 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:24.680 each of the segment, and those segments can those ganglia 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.719 can make each segment function autonomously and be responsible for 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.039 some other stuff. So that's why people are like, yeah, 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.320 each one's a brain, but it's it's really not. It's 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.080 not each a brain. It's just kind of like an extended, 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.800 stretched out segmented brain. Yeah, but they're notren't thirty two 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.080 ganglia either, right, The ones on each end are kind 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.479 of fused together, so there's twenty one total. Yeah, that's 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:51.080 that's what I saw. See that the computers are all wrong. Yeah, 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:56.640 Google's got it wrong again. It's the computer, right. Sure, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.599 it sounds like, Wow, I'm really getting old. The computer 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.120 is wrong. Yeah, it's you sound like somebody who like 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:11.280 types under the keyboard like this, right, computers wrong? Remember 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.359 what I said to you, like fourteen years ago before 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.480 we were even podcast hos, I remember what I say. 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.320 You pay me the high compliment of saying that when 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.960 I type, I type very loudly, especially when I'm into it, 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:28.240 that it sounds like the loneous monk away. I can't 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.520 believe you remember that. Oh yeah, it was a very 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.120 high compliment as far as I took it, like I 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.520 had a tattooed on my arm bit, my inner arm bit, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.200 and I made you me get the same type. She's like, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.520 it doesn't make sense, but I love you. Uh so. 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.039 Leech species are about six to seven hundred of them, 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:52.599 and they generally fall into three categories depending on what 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.440 they eat. Um because you know, we know they're blood suckers, 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:00.760 but not all of them are exclusively blood suckers. No, 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.840 And if they're blood suckers, they are called two of 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:08.360 the greatest words. Take your pick, uh sanguivorous or hamado 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.840 fadgis either way, it means that they subsist on blood. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.720 They're not. They don't want any of your skin or 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.600 your flesh, or your muscles or great steak. They just 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.360 want the blood. But yeah, like you said, not all 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.920 of them are are blood suckers. There's some called worm 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:27.040 leeches that eat an entire invertebrates, very very small invertebrates. 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.400 But they they don't they don't really care about the 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.400 blood or else they're they're not just interested in the blood. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.720 But most leeches, as far as we as as we 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.760 think of leeches, are sanguivorous. Yeah, but the other two 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.480 categories are pretty horrifying. And how they get their blood 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.480 out It's like one sounds really bad and then the 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.360 next one doesn't sound much better. Kind of thing. Uh. 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.960 The jawed leeches the one that we're most uh commonly, 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.800 you know, when you're when you're watching stand by me 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.360 and poor little Will wheat and gets a leech on 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.600 his pp Which, now that we've seen that, and now 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.040 that I should say, now that we've researched this, they 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.520 got it so wrong. Those kids really did it wrong 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:10.800 when they remove the leeches, Oh for sure, and it's 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.840 probably unlikely that that leech would have made his way 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.280 to its pp that quickly. Yeah, you never know. I 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.360 heard they do like kind of a warm, secluded area 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.040 to do their work. Will Eaton used to listen to 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:25.720 the show. I wonder I doubt if he still does. 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:31.480 Oh shout out to two thousand ten. Will He's like, 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:35.640 quit talking about my BP. But that's the jawed leech, 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:37.200 the one that you know, the one that's kind of 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.360 the most common and most familiar with. And it's we're 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.000 gonna talk about medicinal leeches later. That's what they use there. 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.880 But these things will feed on almost anything that they 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:52.560 can latch onto that has blood. Um, mammals, frogs, birds, fish, 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:55.360 basically anything that can get a hold of that has 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.839 blood it will latch onto. They strongly prefer mammals, though 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.720 the rest of this stuff is just kind of junk 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.720 food basically formed from where I can tell. Can we 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.240 talk just for a second about how the jawed leeches, um, 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.120 how they do their thing. Yeah, with those little razor 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.600 sharp teeth, let's do it. It's scary. So they have 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.280 like if you look at a picture of a jawed 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.240 leech mouth, everybody says it looks like a Mercedes emblem, 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:22.160 and and it does. There's really no better way to 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.960 put it. But if you zoom in closer, there's a 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.160 bunch of little teeth on there right called denticles, and 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.120 they act as like circular saws. So like the leech 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.480 itself starts making this kind of sucking motion or inhale 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.240 exhale really quickly and creates us like suction within its 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.720 body cavity. So when it's when it puts its lips 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.840 on you, it actually creates suction. And then when it 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.960 uses those little denticles that act as like little circular saws, 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.319 it just keeps sawing deeper and deeper into your skin, 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:54.680 finally reaching a blood vessel. When it strikes gold, red gold, 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.959 which you and I would call blood, it just sucks 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.840 out into the leach because it's created a vacuum pump. Yeah, 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:03.800 and I love this. Where did you get this, uh 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:09.240 that that you sent? Do you remember? I think pure 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.080 side of the Day. I don't remember I wrote down 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.360 everything else, but this might be the paraside of the 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.920 day site because it sounds like like this one part 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.480 sounds like it was written by a Midwestern exterminator. When 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:26.400 they're talking about anything basically can attach to anything like sandpaper, glass, paper, velcrow, 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:31.400 fine wire, plastic, wicker work, fabric. Yeah, just like lists 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.360 all these weird things out that I guess that they've 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.400 put a leech on and it's stuck to. That was 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.440 a great Midwestern impression. By the way, it says even 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:45.720 vertically positioned surfaces coated with vasoline are no major problem 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.880 for a leech to climb. Uh. The deal with these 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.559 teetho is that they're so sharp that it's more scalpel 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:55.720 like in the I mean, a leech bike can hurt 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.400 mainly in land leeches, but it's not. When you hear 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.360 like razor teeth, you think it would be super painful. 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:05.480 But they're so sharp that they really don't hurt that bad. Right. Yeah, 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:08.720 and let's crumble another myth here. You want to sure 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:15.760 leech saliva contains anesthetic myth or not? Uh? By the way, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.040 I like that, we're myth crumblers now instead of crushers. Yeah, 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:25.040 that's right, I like crumbler better. Okay, cool, Um, that 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:31.440 is a myth. Awesome, Yes, another myth crumbled boom. There's 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.520 a TV show in there, I think, I think so. 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.120 It's very graphics heavy, like whenever we do the myth, 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.000 it'll just crumble away. Look a cookie. Oh that's a great, 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.280 that's great, but it will use it as a wipe 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.120 from one scene to the other. You and your wipes, 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.480 I can't wait. Go ahead and say it, Star White 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:52.240 Star wipe, the king of all wipes. Yeah, but this 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.680 crumble wipe, we really might be onto something. Uh yeah, 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.760 there is no I mean you can find textbooks that 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.760 that say that too, right, Yeah, it's it's all over 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.080 the place. There's a lot of misinformation about leeches, it 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.480 turns out, but that is one that and they do 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.520 have all sorts of cool stuff in their saliva um 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.200 that are amazing. They do amazing things, and we'll talk 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.480 more about those, but those are not Uh. Anesthetic is 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:19.880 not one of them. It's just that for the jawed leeches, 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:25.280 there there little semi circular denticals that they use as 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.240 circular saws are so sharp and there's they go so 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:33.680 um such a what's the word was the opposite of deep? 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.160 Oh so shallow into your skin that you you might 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.640 not feel them being there. That's what it is, right, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:45.920 opposite a deep. They just can't pick one, uh, there's 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.000 also the jaw less leech. Was the other kind, which 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.720 includes the giant amazon leach, which can grow to what 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:57.320 like eighteen Yeah, look up a picture of these things. 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:01.600 It's it's it's horrifying. How how long think about it? 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:05.320 They say that your wrist to your elbow is the 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.880 same length as your foot. Have you ever heard that? 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.280 I haven't, but I'm looking and there's no way my 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.720 foot smaller than that. That's I think that's an optical illusion, 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:18.000 is it really? Let's just say it is. So I've got, like, 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.320 I wear size eleven, and I could see that being 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:25.040 that that would mean that a leech is actually almost 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:27.880 one and a half times the length. One of those 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.120 leeches is one and a half times the length of 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.959 the distance from my wrist to my elbow. Can you 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.880 imagine having one of those on you? Not on me? 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:40.680 But when you look up photos of the giant amazon leach, 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:43.760 all you see your pictures of people with them, like, hey, 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.240 I put it on my arm to show you how 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.679 big it is. It's yeah, it's frightening. Those are the 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.840 same people who seek out insects on the Schmidt stinging 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.679 pain index cycle. Uh, but this one, you know, I 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.000 said there were two different, equally horrifying ways in which 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.560 they can draw blood. This one doesn't have the circular 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:05.000 salt teeth. It has a hypodermic needle, basically a proboscis 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.400 that it sticks into your body and draws it out, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.320 just like you would drawing blood. Yep, which I don't 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:17.480 know which is worse, the denticles, the three dentical saws, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:22.040 or proboscis coming out of a leech. Can we take 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.400 a break and think about it. Yeah, let's all right, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:52.400 we'll be right back. M h. What's your result? Which 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.080 is worse? I've decided I don't have to choose. I 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.760 think they're both terrible and awful, and I don't want 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.240 either one of them happening to me or anyone love 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.480 or care about. Oh thank you? Am I in that 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:09.880 group that includes you, Buddy, okay, Jerry, Jerry of course? Sure, Dave, yes, 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:14.200 Dave too? Who else you got? What about the other? Dave? Sure? 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:20.680 Dave Kustin, M I'm sorry, Dave Kuston, sure for sure. 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:27.520 Olivia Julia Layton grab grab sir Frank chair. Oh yeah, sure, 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.840 of course. Remember when he used to have our regular 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:35.200 guest producers just float in and out. There's Matt Noel 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:38.080 care about them too, don't want leeches on them either. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.480 Who else guests produced us? I don't know. I'm sure 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.360 there are people out there that actually know this though. 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.280 My friend I forgot to say something at the top 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:50.080 of this episode, and I wonder if you can indulge 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:56.960 me on a tangent of epic proportions. Yes, my sweet 0:15:57.120 --> 0:16:00.760 niece Mila, I think I've told you before. She's gotten 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:05.680 some parts of movies. The big one, her first big 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.080 one where she's like one of the main characters, is 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:12.760 coming out February on Hulu. It's huge. It's a big 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.760 twentieth Century Fox production called No Exit. It will be 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.640 out on Hulu on February. She does. I saw the trailer. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.480 She gave me chills. She plays a kidnapped young girl 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.000 who is just terrified and has to be rescued by 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:34.880 a slightly older girl, Havannah Rose Lou. Wow, that's super exciting. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.320 It is very exciting. We're all very proud, and I 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:39.360 wanted to make sure everybody knew about it in case 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.440 you wanted to see it in a cash calumar right, 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:47.560 yeah's rolling in it. She couldn't even drive. She's got 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.080 like a whole garage full of cars already. Wow, that 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.480 is super cool. That is awesome. Uh, my daughter is 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.720 funny and fun but like she can't act up. Tried 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.480 to see if she could. She can't. It takes a 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.240 lot more than personnel city. Like, you've got to really 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.240 have talent. It's absolutely true. It's like really tough for 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.360 an adult to watch a child actor most of the time. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.520 If she does superbly well, I mean she's well, that's 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:11.359 what I was saying. We're all really really proud of her. 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:13.600 She does like actual great work in this movie. So 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.720 way to go, Mila, Way to go Milan. Uh, to 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.920 me a text when that's out so we can watch it. Okay, 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.119 I will. I'll send you the trailer too, all right, 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.760 So back to leeches. Oh yeah, definitely sending the trailer. 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.679 Um they are. I mean, we have fossils of leeches 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:32.840 from four million years ago, and they do it seems 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:34.600 like they can see better when they're younger. They do 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.080 have what's called simple eyes where they can kind of 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:41.000 see blurry, shadowy, fuzzy things. Uh, and the young uns 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.399 kind of rely on that. But I think when they 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.239 get older, I guess their eyesight either fails or they 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.000 just get so good at sensing vibration that they don't 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.320 really need those eyes. Yeah, I read that it's the latter. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.199 That they they're so good at sensing vibrations. They have 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.720 little hairs on their bodies that act as century organs 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.240 so that they can they can detect like movement in 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:04.560 the water. And I'll tell you what, I can really 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.280 relate to leeches because after I saw my niece Mila 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.800 and the trailer for No Exit coming out February, the 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.720 hairs on my arm we're standing on and I could 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.200 have detected vibrations in water with those things. That is 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:23.760 a Hodgemen level plug. Thank you. It's good. Leeches. No, no no, no, 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.920 we don't need Leeches are amazing swimmers. Uh. They can 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.719 kind of inch along in the water very definitely. And 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.359 then when they hit your skin, they're gonna probably not 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.159 go towards your bits, but they will probably hit you 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.960 around the ankles or the shins or someplace and try 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.480 and do their thing down there. Because it's thin skin, 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.439 they have less to deal with. Um. So one of 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:50.200 the things we said that there um there, they're saliva 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.080 really does have some pretty neat compounds in it, and 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.720 like things that science is just now you know that 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.520 whole arrogance of science that science went through after it 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.760 was like, oh, all this is just witchcraft and folk magic. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.040 We can't be associated with this, and they turn their 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.120 backs on some like legitimately good stuff. Leeches was one 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:10.600 of them, and they're just now as we'll talk about 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.280 coming back around to like really looking into leeches, because 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.879 they're kind of a medical marvel gift from nature itself. 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.000 And the reason why is because in its saliva it 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:22.480 contains a bunch of chemicals, not the least of which 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.159 is called I believe here you didn't you think I'm 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:31.320 pronouncing that correctly. That sounds right, I'm thinking here, you didn't. 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:35.000 Uh yeah, it's a and we'll talk about it more 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:37.680 in depth in a minute. But it is pretty amazing 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.080 that this thing that allows them just to feed better 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.800 because it thins the blood and it doesn't coagulate and 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.399 it just gives them dinner. It's pretty amazing that it 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:53.440 actually has like legitimate medical properties. Yeah, because it's so 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.640 powerful when that leech and injects some of its saliva 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.840 containing here you didn't in it um, like your blood 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:01.919 starts flowing. And one of the things you'll find is 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.760 that if you get a leech bite, once that leech 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.199 is gone, whether you get it off of yourself or 0:20:07.240 --> 0:20:10.800 it fills up and wanders off, you're gonna still keep 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.840 bleeding for up to ten hours afterward because that here 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.840 it in is so so powerful as as far as 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:21.600 anticoagulants go. Also, so there's another compound in there. I 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.120 can't remember which one it is, but it's a vasodilator, 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.280 which means it opens up your blood vessel so that 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.520 more blood pumps out more freely. Yeah, I mean this 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.760 is a little evolutionary miracle of a of a well 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:40.400 it's not a bug, but slug. Yeah. Uh. They will 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.240 drink blood like crazy. They will drink as much as 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:48.800 ten times their body weight sometimes because they're a bit 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.479 like the camel of the of the lake in that 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:55.840 they go a year or so, sometimes many months at 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.800 least between meals and they can store this stuff up 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.840 and a little power where they have these enzymes because 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:04.960 you know, blood will eventually go bad, but they have 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.119 enzymes that protect it and keep it fresh. Yeah. And 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.960 there's another thing that they're studying with leeches these days 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:15.080 is it's um, it's a microbiota and its stomach and 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.800 it's gut, just like they're studying our microbiota, which I 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.200 think is the most fascinating thing of all time. They're 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.760 also setting leeches to figure out what's going on in 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.760 there to keep the blood from spoiling, because you know, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:28.200 they might go six months or a year between meals. 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:30.399 It doesn't take them that long to digest it, but 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:32.960 it still takes weeks and weeks for a leech to 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.400 digest its its meal. And it takes long enough that, 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.160 I mean a leach probably only feeds a few times 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:41.800 in its life, I believe, yeah, because they don't live 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.600 that long. I mean, but I think no more than 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:47.160 a few years probably max. That would be my guess. 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.200 As well, we should talk about the tyrant king leech, 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.600 the Taranta della rex and this is a one jawed 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.439 sucker that uh is also in the Amazon River. And 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.160 these are the stuff of nightmares because this is one 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.720 of those leeches that's like, forget the ankle, forget the shin. 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:09.240 What I really like is to get inside of you 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.480 and up in that mucus membrane so it will get 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.199 into your nasal cavity. You can be a kid, and 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:19.320 there are many reports of kids and teenagers who were 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.560 bathing in the Amazon or playing in the Amazon and 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.920 ended up with a leech up their nose or somewhere 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:29.240 like deep within their nasal cavity, which is the stuff 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:31.920 of nightmares to me. It gets even worse than that 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:36.800 because they found these kinds of leeches in eyeballs, like 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:41.760 attached to the mucus membrane around your eyeball, your urethra 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.040 so so much they will block the your ability to pee, 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:50.320 your anus or your vagina, have one there than the 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.560 other two places, or your vagina. They found leeches in vaginas, 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.600 these kind of leeches. And the other worst part about them, Chuck, 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.959 is that you know a leech that's feeding on you externally, 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.800 like a typical jawed leech. It'll feed for maybe twenty 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.439 to thirty minutes something like that. These guys stick around 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:11.720 for weeks, maybe months, And sometimes people detect that they 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.840 have one of these internal leeches because they they they 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:20.080 feel what's called foreign body movement, like there's something moving 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.399 around inside of them and their bodies like m I 0:23:23.480 --> 0:23:25.720 might want to get this checked out, because I'm about 0:23:25.800 --> 0:23:29.520