As Halloween arrives again (and it's time to put on that
scary
costume), it's creepy to
think
that, just as cannibals are real, there are real
vampires
too (in the animal kingdom, at least).
Vampire Bats are the critters that most of us think about
when we think about REAL vampires. They are found only in
the Americas from Mexico down through Argentina. These
bats feed exclusively on the blood of other animals. The
common vampire bat typically goes for mammals, including
domestic cows and horses, while the other two species prefer
to feed upon birds. Human attacks are rare, but they've been
known to occur. They can't kill you, although their wounds
CAN become infected.
Mosquitoes are vampires, and it's the females who
do the blood sucking, since they need the protein in order to
lay her eggs. Another vampire insect is bed bugs. Nearly
eradicated in the North America for 50 years,
bed bugs
are back (probably due to so much international travel) with
a blood-sucking vengeance, showing up everywhere from
high-end hotels to college dorms to rural bedrooms. After
their victims fall asleep, bed bugs emerge from their hiding
places in cracks and crevices and insert their sucking
mouthparts in a series of bites along the blood vessels,
drinking as they go and leaving as series of red, itchy welts.
Few animals evoke as much revulsion as leeches do with their
slimy squirminess and their faceless, legless bodies. When
such a creature also feeds upon human blood, it only adds to
the horror factor. These parasitic worms attach themselves
to their host and bloat themselves on blood. While most
leeches are external parasites, some species will swim into
nasal cavities and stay there, feeding and growing. Capable
of holding undigested blood in their stomachs, parasitic
leeches can go months between feedings.
No movie director could think of anything as creepy as these
critters! As for us here at unknowncountry.com, the
creepiest thing WE can think of is someone who listens to our
radio shows and reads our
edge news
every day but doesn't
support us: Is
that YOU?
Art credit: Dreamstime.com
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