As far as i know, leeches count as clinical waste after use and have to be killed and discarded, presumably to avoid infection. To me, this seems unfair because they've just been used as a treatment and helped someone, though unknown to themselves, and their reward is to be killed. Same presumably applies to maggots. So this is quite a modest idea really: provide some kind of sealed leech- friendly environment after they've been used for treatment and occasionally feed them using blood products, not necessarily human. They needn't be fed very often. I've kept them for six months without feeding and they come to no harm.
-- nineteenthly, Dec 13 2011

For [Calum] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1530509/
The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) (2011) [Klaatu, Dec 14 2011]

(??) I've got this terrible feeling of déjà vu Ouroboros_20leech
Ouroboros (ouroboros leech idea) idea [spidermother, Dec 14 2011]

Curiosity begs: why have you kept leeches for periods of several months?
-- Alterother, Dec 13 2011


Utterly bizarre, and yet not entirely lacking in merit. Bun.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 13 2011


A thought: I have heard it reported that if you cut the "tail" of a still sucking leech, it will continue to suck endlessly, as it will not become engorged. If this is the case, then it might be possible to take a number of so-cut leeches and stitch them together, human centipede-wise, but going beyond that and creating a sort of perpetually sucking Ouroboros, full to firmness of bulging pulsing blood circulating through leech mouth and "anus" and mouth and "anus" and so on and so forth for, it seems, at least six months.
-- calum, Dec 13 2011


What do you propose doing with your leeches 6 months down the line? Reuse? Release into the wild?
-- Loris, Dec 13 2011


[Calum], that's just excellent! Post it!

[Loris], i used to keep leeches. I'm not proposing releasing used leeches, although it seems unlikely that it'd cause much of a problem. The idea is that there's a leech reserve in an aquarium or something, they get fed every few months, possibly by simulating the surface of a mammal's body onto which they can latch, and they live out their days in this environment.
-- nineteenthly, Dec 13 2011


//Retirement home for leeches//. Baked. It's called the Canadian Senate.
-- AusCan531, Dec 13 2011


... and you express surprise that your ideas excite controversy.

Agreed: [calum] should post the Ouroboros leech idea. It might actually be useful as a training exercise for microvascular surgeons.
-- mouseposture, Dec 14 2011


If catch and release fishing is just called fishing, what's catch and release leeching?
-- RayfordSteele, Dec 14 2011


Real-estate brokerage.

// a sort of perpetually sucking Ouroboros//

Maybe the retired leeches could be fed off retired lawyers. That would be neatly circular, beautifully ironic, and a sort of poetic justice.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 14 2011


//The idea is that there's a leech reserve in an aquarium or something, they get fed every few months, possibly by simulating the surface of a mammal's body onto which they can latch, and they live out their days in this environment.//

Are you planning on sterilising or segregating the leeches - or if not, how will you cope with the potential geometric explosion in leeches?
Do leeches have natural predators which would keep them in check?

...

My parents have a fishpond; waterlevel is maintained by means of a ballcock regulated supply in a small covered tank. Once when I was young, I was helping my Dad with maintainance of it. When we opened the tank there was a living toad inside, absolutely covered in leeches. Quite disturbing.
-- Loris, Dec 14 2011


I think leeches will eat little pieces of meat.

Re calums tail cut leech, I can imagine a review of something or some edgy political commentary that opens with discussion of leech feeding, and suck endlessly, with the contrived transition to the review subject which like a tail-cut leech also sucks endlessly.
-- bungston, Dec 14 2011


Yes they do. I used to feed them on chunks of raw mutton.
-- nineteenthly, Dec 14 2011


I read it yesterday, and I still can't help feeling sorry for [Loris]'s toad. It might be better if you could strike up a conversation with your leech(es), you know, pass the time of day, swap anecdotes, discuss blood viscosity, that kind of thing - but for them to latch-on, without a by-your-leave and just suck to their heart's content seems a bit of a liberty. Yes, it might be useful under certain situations to bend their natural appetites towards something beneficial to the public - and perhaps, as a consequence of being so used, they might deserve more to anticipate in life than the prospect of an unceremonious squish on the back patio, but still, as things stand, I can't say I'm that fond of a leech. Perhaps they could be sent to some far-flung colony wherin they might start new pioneering lives forging a nation of their own making.
-- zen_tom, Dec 15 2011


I too feel sorry for your toad, [Loris]. I am now wondering about whether there's a way to sterilise leeches gently, either by adding something to the water or by microwaving their gonads. However, i suspect that leech gonads are multiple and distributed through most of their segments. Thanks for reawakening my interest in leeches.
-- nineteenthly, Dec 15 2011


halfbakery: microwaving leech gonads since 1999.
-- calum, Dec 15 2011


Tagline, surely.
-- theleopard, Dec 15 2011


Oh yes. Quality, definitely.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 15 2011


Definitely. As it happens, i've just looked into this by looking it up in an actual physical book about leeches, and it seems they have several pairs of laterally situated testes and a single pair of medial ovaries, so it would be feasible to destroy the latter with a sort of induction-powered microwaving girdle or something. Or maybe - hmm, another idea needed i think.
-- nineteenthly, Dec 16 2011


//I have heard it reported that if you cut the "tail" of a still sucking leech, it will continue to suck endlessly//

So this is what happened to George Lucas around 1990 or so?
-- ye_river_xiv, Dec 19 2011


Yes, apparently in the industry it's called the 'Spielberg Effect'.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 19 2011


Let's see what his new WWI movie has to offer before we make the final judgement. And as for Lucas, well, the way I see it, the man has earned the right to tear his own house down.
-- Alterother, Dec 20 2011


Blegh. Just like Pearl Harbor. Let's cut the balls off what could be a good war movie by making it a relationship flick / love story / coming of age picture / lassie come home movie with the war just serving as backdrop. Does Spielberg pick his stories by committee?
-- RayfordSteele, Dec 20 2011



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