UKC

how many leeches would be needed to suck all the blood out of someone ,

or at least suck enough blood out to kill them

guess its a simple equation based upon how much each leech takes and how long it takes assuming that there’s about 4.2ltrs in the body there about

any creepy crawly experts out there can help me?

In reply to Dave Murphy:

don't forget that leeches secrete an anti-coagulant. Lots of anticoagulant and you might start bleeding in other places where the leeches aren't, so it's not necessarily quite so simple as how much blood each leech can suck!

In reply to Dave Murphy:

To help your sums
Approx 1 pint of blood per stone of bodyweight (up to about 14 pints)
Between 33% and 50% blood loss before death

Now we just need "average leech capacity" and "rate of blood intake per leech" for your calculations!

In reply to Caralynr:

You know too much!

In reply to Dave Murphy:

About 3 lawyers?

In reply to Dave Murphy: And you also need to factor in the rate at which the body replenishes its blood.

In reply to Petzl:

But only 1.7384596 estate agents.

In reply to Caralynr:

for someone say about 10stone so thats say 10 pints ~ 6ltrs

To make sure of death lets say 3.5ltrs blood loss

3500ml - so what the feedign rate of leeches

European or African or Asian or American will do

In reply to Dave Murphy:

This is a metaphor right Dave? In that case I suppose what the title of the thread is and who replies to it.

In reply to Dave Murphy: It also depends on if you dissolve one under your tongue, or pop it in your codpiece.

In reply to Chris F:

lets just assume tha the yfind their own cosy feeding palce ankles, wrists , groin, armpits whatever

say that the person was lying on the ground

In reply to Dave Murphy: what an ace thread... cant wait for the clever person out there to work out the answer... I'll be checking in just for fun!

In reply to Dave Murphy: several other factors, size of the leach, how hungry it is etc. The average medical leach can suck 6 times its body weight in blood at a single feed before it detaches, the smaller the leach the more it can ingest relative to its own body weight.

An average 2 gramm leach weights 9.7 g after feeding so can suck up 7.7ml of blood.


http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/137/1/513?ijkey=d9a2c5e872ac...

In reply to AGT: so 455 leaches on you to kill you in one feeding assuming an average size of 2grams for each leech - better make it 500 to be sure

In reply to AGT:


quality thank you.

lets say 8ml so to drain 3500ml you need

438 leeches

wow a lot, could you get438 leeches on a body, i mean is there enough space?

also im thinking that there wouldnt be tha tmany leeches in a given camp area.

so basicaly its very improbably that leeches would kill someone in normal circumstances

In reply to AGT: what so based on that you'd need 455 (rounding up here) leeches to suck the require amount of blood out.

but what about the contribution of the thinning agent, i know it says in small quatities it's not dangerous, but with that many leeches there'd have to be a cumulative effect..

also that's all going at the same time, surely to get 454 leeches sucking there'd be some delay - what about the bodies ability to 'replenish' blood (doens't it add 'water' from stores to dilute after giving blood normally?)

In reply to Dave Murphy: you'd probably need a leech 'bath' (shivers)

In reply to Dave Murphy: apparently the most common way to die from leeches was when ingested with water

Hungry leeches were a problem during 1799 for soldiers who were marching from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula to Syria. They would drink any water they could find; when they drank from leech-infested water, the tiny leeches attached to their mouths and throats. Some died of blood loss, while others died from having their throats swollen - full of blood-filled leeches, which cut off their air.


interesting we blighters though, the largest leech discovered measured 18 inches and best of all they have 32 brains - 31 more than a human apparently (goes off to google to see if this is true)

In reply to AGT:

32 brains,

quality!!

In reply to Dave Murphy: seems it's almost true, leech has a primitive brain in each of it's body sections so can have up to 32 depending on the species.

In reply to Dave Murphy:

Amazing. 32 more than your average PE teacher!

In reply to Dave Murphy:

Excellent. I've had about 12 leeches on me, but I think you'd notice 438!
Does also depend on the species of leech, I suppose. Tiger leeches are cute - heat seeking so will sway and follow your finger around if you find one waiting on a leaf

In reply to brothersoulshine:

don't forget that leeches secrete an anti-coagulant.

Great, stick a leech on if you think you are having a stroke, are out of reach of hospital and have run out of aspirins?

In reply to sutty: Maybe good for preventing edemas too?

In reply to Dave Murphy:

http://www.0800vanity.com/blutegel/blodigel/leech_questions.htm

In reply to sutty: A UK doctor requested leeches from the NHS 1 minute after the midnight that it came into being - apparantly he used them in some treatment of eyelids...

In reply to Chris F:

This saved my wifes leg a couple of times, then they cut funding so it cost them more to remove it;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1907065.stm

In reply to Dave Murphy:

OH that's easy.
Simply rent this educational film found in your local video shop's horror movie section
http://www.bmoviecentral.com/bmoviecentral/reviews/Attack%20Of%20The%20Gian...

And if you don't believe giant leeches exist have a look
http://www.endemicguides.com/Giant_Leech.htm

In reply to Mystery Toad:

Be sure to watch the clip of the film found at the bottom of the page. VERY disturbing in spite of the "giant leeches" being clearly nothing more than blokes in black rubbish bags with a giant donut stuck on the front. lol

In reply to Cobbler:

not that is saying 25ml per leach

3 times a smuch but hat included loss due to procedure.

that leaves a grey areas if los due t oprocedure is significant, assuming its juts dribble fro mwhere leaches are removed then were looking at 120 leaches now

and thast a bit more scary

In reply to sutty:

but there itchy are they not

i fish and often hold bags of maggots and they itch the palm of my hand throug hthe bag wit htheir wriggling,

what they mus yfeel like in an open wound

arrgh.

didnt someone look into someones skull long ago and see their brain beign eaten by maggots whiel they were stil lalive in bedlam assylum of summat?

In reply to Dave Murphy:

the ones they use on your wounds are a lot smaller than fishing ones, when they take them out they are still smaller than fishing ones as well, about half the size.

In reply to sutty: ew! I do know that this is good and works but still eeeew!