While Registrar at a museum in Washington DC a decade ago one of my duties as assigned was "leach wrangler". I am not a squeamish guy and I have lots of pets (all warm blooded) but taking care of those things was a drag. By nature leaches are sticky, they really want to chomp down on you, and they are escape artists. Their tank had to cleaned weekly and the medium they lived in refreshed. It was tough pulling them off the tank wall with forceps without ripping them apart and I would invariably have to track down the desiccated remains of the escapees. I can't stress enough they really want to chomp down on you given the chance. I don't know if they still have them on display but I wasn't too broken up when one time I came back from vacation and their tank was empty. Go with plastic!!! From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Westwood Leeanne Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2012 10:48 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: EXT :A strange question for the end of the week..... Apologies for cross posting My colleagues in our education department are planning some sessions around the theme of medicine. Does anyone out there have experience of using real leaches in their education sessions? Or has anyone seen them being used somewhere else? Can anyone recommend suppliers of realistic fake leaches? Many thanks Leeanne Westwood | Museum Curator, Heritage Services Valence House Museum | London Borough of Barking and Dagenham | Becontree Avenue | Dagenham | RM8 3HT Phone: 020 8227 5222 Email: [log in to unmask] | Web: www.barking-dagenham.gov.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/barkinganddagenham | Twitter: http://twitter.com/lbbdcouncil Building a better life for all Host Borough for the London 2012 Games P Protect the environment and save trees; please only print . E-mail confidentiality notice. This message is intended for the addressees only. It may be private, confidential and may be covered by legal professional privilege or other confidentiality requirements. If you are not one of the intended recipients, please notify the sender immediately on +44 0 20-8215-3000 and delete the message from all locations in your computer network. Do not copy this email or use it for any purpose or disclose its contents to any person:to do so maybe unlawful. ________________________________ To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).