We care so much about downer cows and seal pups and rabbits used in cosmetic research, but few people realize how many bugs have sacrificed themselves for the good of mankind. I’m not naïve about bugs, or even touchy-feely … but I’m always respectful. “Entomophobia – fear of insects,” I said meekly, my voice barely audible amid the jeers of my classmates. There were shouts from every corner of the room: “Corporate greed! Racism! Anti-Semitism! Pollution!” I was called last. Once, in the third grade, the teacher asked us what we thought were the worst problems in the country. It is believed that they also secrete substances that kill bacteria and promote wound healing. The wound is then covered with a breathable protective dressing and the maggots are left for about two to three days to chow down on the infected tissue. Sterile maggots of the green bottle fly, Lucilia sericata, are used for a procedure called “ maggot debridement therapy.” The maggots (about five to 10) are placed on each square centimeter of a wound. Doctors have used these little creatures as a therapy for cleaning stubborn wounds. Not a very appetizing solution, but it works. Maggots eat away the dead tissue and leave the healthy stuff behind. Vote: Would you be willing to slap on a leech for health and beauty benefits? After we brush away the “bugs” (maggots are actually flies at a larval stage), the wounds are surprisingly clean. In the ER, it’s not uncommon for a homeless patient to come in with a leg infection covered in maggots. Leeches aren’t the only bugs on the medical scene. There’s another that resides in the anuses of hippopotamuses, a cave-dwelling leech in New Guinea that sucks on the blood of bats and one that attacks the armpits of turtles.” If you want to read other intriguing details about medical leeches, check out John Colapinto’s 2005 New Yorker article, “ Bloodsuckers.” You can learn that “Leeches are found in virtually every kind of habitat - including a species in the Sahara that resides in the noses of camels.
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