Blood suckers will turn your stomach and disgust you beyond belief. Here are some well and lesser known blood suckers to make you squirm and squeal.

Leeches

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Leeches are actually related to earthworms. The body of a leech has a strong sucker at each end. Most leeches have three jaws and bite in a Y-shaped fashion.

Jawed leeches have teeth in their jaws and use them to bite. Jawless leeches stick a needle protrusion into the victim and leave a discharge behind.

Worm leeches do not have teeth and do not bite victims. They swallow their small prey whole. Most leeches feed as parasites that suck the victim’s blood. Leeches can feed on the blood of birds, frogs, turtles or warm-blooded mammals like humans. Leeches can live on the land and in the water.

Thousands of years ago, leeches were used for a treatment that allowed the patient to bleed. Bleeding a patient was considered to be healthy.

 

Doctors of primitive medicine were called “leeches” as they bled their patients routinely.

Doctors do not believe that leeches actually transmit any diseases. If you are bitten by a leech, consult your doctors, who will most likely give you an antibiotic.

Candiru “Vampire Fish”

The Candiru is actually a member of the catfish family and it lives in the waters of the Oronoco and Amazon rivers. The native people of these regions fear this fish.

It is a small fish about two inches long and five millimeters wide.

In the water it is difficult to see as it is clear in color. The Candiru is a quick swimmer and is attracted to urine in the water. When humans use the rivers as a restroom, the Candiru follows the smell of urine up the human urethra and makes itself home in the urinary tract of the human. It then eats the human from the inside out using its teeth and strong jaws. It gorges itself on body tissue and blood. The victim will bleed to death. This parasite can attack both male and female humans.

This parasite is a forager that mostly lodges itself in the gills of fish and devours them by sucking the blood. Hence, this is the reason for the name “vampire fish.”

Ticks

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Ticks are actually related to spiders and not insects.

 

Ticks are great carriers of diseases such as Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Fever.

They attach to their prey and suck the blood of their host. They feed for more than one

day.

Ticks attach themselves to blades of grass and wait for a warm-blooded host. They cannot jump or fly. They can only crawl.

There are two types of ticks. One is the hard shell variety and the other is a soft shell. The Lone Star Tick can carry Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease.

The Brown Dog Tick sucks the blood of dogs and not usually humans. The Winter Tick prefers cattle, deer and horses.

Wearing long-sleeved clothing and pants when hiking in wooded areas is a good idea. Always stay on the hiking trials and don’t go stomping off into uncharted territory. Wear insect repellant and always check yourself often while in the woods for ticks.

Remove a tick with tweezers and pull it straight out of the wound. Wash the wound area and your hands thoroughly. Consult your doctor if you suddenly have a fever or an unexplained rash.

Bedbugs

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Bedbugs in the last few years have enjoyed a tremendous resurgence in our homes. They are wingless and small. They suck the blood of mammals and they cannot fly. They attack their victims at night and suck a few drops of blood which the victim does not feel.

They are not known to carry any infectious diseases.

Bedbugs tend to hide in beds and like a lot of clutter. It is not a good idea to take any old cushioned furniture into your house, unless you know its source.

Bedbugs can travel between cracks in walls from room to room and apartment to apartment.

They also hide in boxes and in holes in the walls.

The bedbug only will bite its victim, while the victim is sleeping. They are about a 1/4 of an inch in length. They are flat oval-shaped. Their color can run the gambit from white to dark brown.

Lice

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There are a couple kinds of human lice. One is public lice and you would have to be very close to an infected person to catch it. Need I say more?

The other type is called head lice. Head lice are very contagious. However they do not spread diseases. Girls more often than boys statistically get head lice. Sharing of combs, brushes and hair clips is a common way to transmit head lice. Loose (singular form of “lice”) attach themselves to the hair shaft closet to the scalp, where it is warmest. They can be seen, but they are very small. Light colored hair tends to camouflage the critters.

But a direct overhead light is the best way to see them. The nits are very small little dots ranging in color from yellow to tan to brown. The nits look like dry scalp skin and often are not noticed until the victim begins to itch and scratch persistently.

Sometimes you will see a full blown invasion of head lice. I have heard of cases where the lice appeared to be dancing on top of the victim’s head. But lice do not fly or jump. Head lice crawl and they have strong claws that allow them to have a steel grip on the hair shaft. Adult lice are a pale brown and still very small in size. The eggs of the adults hatch within two weeks of being laid. Lice feed on blood. Some people develop small bumps or sores from the constant scratching. Head lice like to hang out around the ears and the nape of the neck too.

School and day care centers are often a breeding ground for lice due to the close personal contact in these places. Human lice are not transmitted to pets.

The only way to get rid of lice is to treat the infected head with an over-the-counter rinse and follow the directions. All bedding, clothing, towels should be washed in hot water. Anything like toys or items that cannot be washed must be quarantined in a sealed bag for three weeks. The lice will die without a human host to provide their blood feasts. Everything must be cleaned, vacuumed or dry cleaned. All hair instruments must be disinfected as well.

Believe it or not head lice are not a sign of poor hygiene. It occurs in all socioeconomic levels.

It is critical that after the first treatment to comb through every hair strand with a small comb to remove every nit. This is very time consuming but necessary. Any nits not killed by the treatment can grow to adulthood and reproduce all over again.

Also, it is a good idea to have a follow-up head treatment 10 days to two weeks later to catch anything left behind. But read the treatment product’s label.

 

Head lice are very frustrating. But diligence, treatment and being proactive is the best

defense.

Humans

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What? Yes, humans are blood eaters in that we are carnivores. The blood of red meat is a source of iron and protein. Surprised? Maybe we humans have more in common with leeches, ticks, lice, bedbugs and Candiru Fish than we ever imagined!