May Titthara

Rokar village empties during the dry season as the workforce migrates to find more gainful employment. But when the monsoon arrives, they return, not to fish as has traditionally been their staple income, but for a more lucrative trade: catching leeches.

Chinese demand for the bloodsucking worms, which are used widely in traditional medicine, can earn the Rokar villagers up to 10 times what they would make from fishing, villagers told the Post.

Khorn Kosal, a 40-year-old leech catcher, carries a bucket covered in cloth as he walks towards the house of a local businessman in Kampong Thom province’s Stung Sen district who is a regular buyer who supplies to the Chinese.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/snaring-leeches-their-blood

Besides Traditional Chinese Medicine, leeches are now used in hospitals to keep blood flow from stagnating in re-attached fingers, and in certain other surgeries.

Can we buy them and keep them alive ?

The Chinese are actually paying for blood sucking leeches these days? I have a few ex-girlfriends I would like to give them...take these blood sucking leeches...please.

I'm just wondering the Chinese don't eat them or suck them up their noses for better performance.

THAILAND is the proud owner of the most voracious species of leech in the world.

It Lineal title is Litigator siamensis.

Thailand has its own kind. Plenty of them and pretty good blood sucker too