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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: where smart happens. There's a new show on Discovery Channel

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Speaker 1: called Monsters Inside Me, and it fits perfectly with today's question,

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Speaker 1: what is the right way to remove a leech? In

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Speaker 1: many parts of the world, leeches are surprisingly common. You

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Speaker 1: can find them in Amazon jungle, sure, but you can

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Speaker 1: also find them in the local lake. They can be

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Speaker 1: found swimming in water or crawling on land. Leeches are

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Speaker 1: also voracious feeders. They quickly attach and start sucking. They

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Speaker 1: fall off on their own eventually once they get and gorged.

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Speaker 1: But since some leeches can be as big as your finger,

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Speaker 1: you may not want to wait that long. So what

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Speaker 1: is the right way to remove them? There are all

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Speaker 1: sorts of home remedies for leech removal. You'll hear things

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Speaker 1: like burning them off with cigarettes and matches, poisoning them

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Speaker 1: with bug spraying insecticides, irritating them with salt or so.

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Speaker 1: These efforts often backfire and make a mess. In the

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Speaker 1: worst case scenario, the leach forces its stomach contents back

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Speaker 1: into your wound and it causes a bad infection. The

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Speaker 1: right way to do it is to grab the leech

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Speaker 1: properly and detach it. A leech holds onto you with

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Speaker 1: rows of tiny teeth. Your job is to rip the

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Speaker 1: teeth away from your skin. It won't hurt that much

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Speaker 1: because the leach has injected a numbing agent already. Basically,

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Speaker 1: you need to get your fingernail underneath the leach and

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Speaker 1: up as close to the mouth as you can, and

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Speaker 1: then lifted off. You don't want to grab the leech

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Speaker 1: in the middle and pull because that part of the

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Speaker 1: body is soft and flexible, like an earthworm or a slug.

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Speaker 1: You won't be able to get a grip or to

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Speaker 1: pull it without stretching or splitting the leach. You want

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Speaker 1: to get right up next to the mouth where you

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Speaker 1: have some leverage and yank. You'll be left with a small,

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Speaker 1: bloody hole that may continue leaking because of the anticoagulant

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Speaker 1: that leeches use. Apply a disinfectant in a sterile dressing

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Speaker 1: and proceed with your day. If you enjoy parasites like leeches,

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Speaker 1: be sure to check out Monsters Inside Me on the

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Speaker 1: Discovery Channel Wednesdays at nine pm. Do you have any

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Speaker 1: ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send

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Speaker 1: me an email at podcast at how Stuff Works dot com.

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Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

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Speaker 1: to how stuff works dot com and be sure to

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Speaker 1: check out the brain stuff blog on the how stuff

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Speaker 1: works dot com home page