Welcome

20’s, asexual, non-binary. Sanguine. I’m just your friendly local plague doctor. You can call me Alex. I’m cool with any pronouns. If you like plague doctor cosplay, pictures of my pets, and the occasional shitpost, this is the blog for you I also wrote a book, you can get it here: Quest for the Sea's Revenge Vega, Alex Buy Now

[plaguedocboi]

FAQ about leeches

Please read before you ask about my pet leeches! If these don’t answer your q, send away!

You have leeches???

Actually, not at the moment. But I used to! You can search my blog for “the squish squad” to see pics and videos of them!

How many leeches do you have/what are their names/how do you tell them apart?

The Squish Squad originally consisted of five leeches named Squish Baby, Chungus, Burrito, Chocolate Chip and Wormitha. Over the years they have all passed on, with the last one dying of natural causes in March 2025. I could tell them apart by their different colors, patterns, and sizes.

What species are your leeches?

They’re H. verbana, one of three species of European medicinal leeches.

How do you feed your leeches?

I usually feed them on myself. They latch on, take roughly 30 mins to feed, and then drop off.

How often do you feed your leeches?

Roughly once every 4-6 months is best, but they can go up to a year between meals!

Does it hurt to let a leech feed on you?

The initial bite feels like pinpricks. It’s equivalent to/slightly less painful than a flu shot. Once the leech has broken the skin and starts feeding, their natural anesthetic kicks in and it usually doesn’t hurt after that.

Are there any negative effects from letting leeches feed on you?

The main side effect is bleeding. They have a very powerful anticoagulant in their saliva that will keep blood flowing to the bite for 10-12 hours. But it will leave your system on its own and the bleeding will stop after the first day. Other possible side effects are allergic reactions and infections, but they are rarely seen in medicinal leeches.

Isn’t letting leeches feed on you dangerous?

Not when they’re a domestic species that’s been bred in captivity. Mine were purchased from a responsible breeder and were given a specific diet to minimize chances of infection/disease. Don’t ever just plop a wild leech on you and expect the same results as a captive-raised medicinal leech!

How do you keep your leeches from having babies?

Leeches only lay their eggs on land, so keeping them in an all-water enclosure will prevent them from reproducing. They will simply reabsorb their eggs, which doesn’t hurt them, and is actually much less energetically costly than laying eggs would be.

Where did you get your leeches?

Leeches.biz

[plaguedocboi]

Plankton in the air I guess??

[annabelle--cane]

gothic horror is when there's a location. cosmic horror is when there's an unauthorized fucking Thing. folk horror is when you're outside.

[stalker-among-the-stars]

Okay, what is it when there's an unauthorized fucking Thing lurking outside of a location?

[of-starships-and-wombats]

Then you’re in John Carpenter’s 1982 masterpiece The Thing

[plaguedocboi]

Hello,

Would you be willing to post Neptune Thee Lobster photos?

Thank you

So, I don’t actually work at the same facility where Neptune lives anymore. But here he is last summer when I visited him!

I plan to go see him again sometime this summer!

[plaguedocboi]

OP question about Neptune, do you plan to help him live and molt beyond the point at which lobsters usually die from their shells being too heavy and thus create a new Leviathan Lobster Lord?

I would love to but there’s a few reasons why that wouldn’t work realistically:

1. Lobsters are more susceptible to various shell infections as they get older. As they get bigger, they molt less and less often. A super huge lobster might only molt once a decade. This means that ailments like shell rot can set in and start literally eating holes through their exoskeleton before they have a chance to grow a new one, which often ends up being fatal on its own. And, even if it doesn’t kill them, it can reach a point where they’re basically falling apart and it’s more humane to just euthanize them.

2. Lobster molting is not super predictable. It happens very suddenly and very quickly (like, once it begins it only takes a few minutes to complete, and they can die just as suddenly if something goes wrong) and frequently happens at night. We would have to be monitoring him constantly and be prepared to step in and assist at a moment’s notice, which is kind of unrealistic. And, even if we did catch him mid-molt and notice that something was wrong…

3. Lobsters are basically jelly when they come out of their shell. They have no hard parts in their body. Grabbing them and trying to forcibly pry the shell off could just end up ripping them apart. In order to help a lobster molt, you have to wait until they harden up a little and gently remove the pieces that are still stuck, and if the lobster only has minutes before it suffocates, chances are you won’t have time.

That being said, if anyone figures out a way to ethically and efficiently make an immortal SuperLobster Supreme, I would be more than happy to try.

[plaguedocboi]

There is,,, a lobster. On the way

[plaguedocboi]

There is a lobster somewhere in the facility but we don’t know where

[plaguedocboi]

This is not a joke btw I was supposed to receive and acclimate a lobster today but I waited around in the lobby for an hour before finding out that the Lobster Deliverer went around back and gave the lobster to the aquarist and he went out on a diving trip without telling anyone where he put the lobster. There is literally a lobster here somewhere and we can’t find it. Lobster location unknown.

[plaguedocboi]

Update he put it in one of the lobster traps tied to the pier. Which is fine, that’s where it was gonna go anyway until we set up its display, but I would’ve preferred to acclimate it before plopping it into the ocean. But the hooligan has been contained. There will be no surprise lobster attacks today.

[plaguedocboi]

Update 2 here is Thee Lobster

[plaguedocboi]

Oh my god happy anniversary to that time we misplaced Neptune!!!!

[hardwrench]

We make fun of steampunk and mock it but imagine if there really were marvelous devices

[plaguedocboi]

My article, for those who wanted to read it (I believe @bunnybloggereshi and @sarcasm-n-insomnia asked about it)

[smol-paw]

Is anyone able to make a transcript of this? I cannot read the text, and I bet our screen reader friends would love to have access to this too! 😄

[plaguedocboi]

Image ID: a picture of a newspaper article that reads;

“As a biologist, I have been asked by many, many people; “why do we need mosquitos?” and “Why can’t we just kill all the ticks?”. People may argue that they serve no purpose in the ecosystem, and nothing would really be affected if we got rid of them. After all, these animals are just nuisances, right? Everything would be better off if there were no parasites to bother them.

This is, of course, an untrue claim. Parasites play many roles in the ecosystem and their presence is absolutely necessary. For instance, let’s look at mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes are remarkable animals. There are many thousands of species, and only a few drink blood. Mosquitoes of all species subsist primarily on nectar, just like bees. This makes them critical pollinators. Of the few species that drink blood, only the females are interested in doing so, and they only do so to secure vital proteins for incubating their eggs. The males will continue to only feed on nectar for their whole lives.

But, besides being pollinators, what makes mosquitoes really incredible is their larvae. These larvae are aquatic and capable of surviving in extremely hostile conditions and in very small volumes of water. A mosquito will happily lay her eggs in an otherwise barren muddy puddle, and thousands of babies will thrive there, filter-feeding on microscopic organisms. This, in turn, provides food for other animals. Other aquatic insects as well as larval amphibians subsist largely on mosquitoes. Some insects will seek to lay their eggs in areas that mosquito eggs or larvae already exist, because it is a guaranteed food source.

This sudden abundance of life will attract predators of those animals, and so on and so forth. Suddenly, an entire thriving ecosystem has sprung up around this muddy puddle that otherwise would have supported little to no life, all thanks to these hardy larvae. In this way, mosquitoes are the foundation of many food-webs and allow life to colonize new, formerly inhospitable places.

However, defending the ecological importance of any animal is ultimately an exhausting task for biologists. The idea that animals must serve a purpose, must benefit humans in some way, is a fundamentally flawed way to view the natural world.

Every living organism that exists is a result of billions of years of evolution, all interwoven in a delicate balance with each other. If any of these pieces are removed, things will begin to collapse around it. We cannot sort animals into the categories of “useful” or “not useful”, because animals do not exist to be useful to us. They all have a place in the world, and we don’t get to pick and choose which species deserve to live without sending catastrophic ripple effects throughout the surrounding web of the ecosystem.

Whether we like it or not, parasites are part of the world and we have to coexist with them. Our focus should be on prevention of diseases associated with these parasites, by deterring them from biting, vaccinations against the bacteria they may carry, and affordable treatment if infections do occur, rather than figuring out a way to remove them from the planet entirely. Nothing in an ecosystem exists in isolation. Everything is deeply interwoven, and every species is necessary. The moment we allow ourselves to debate which species could be driven to extinction without consequence is the moment we will begin unravel the world around us, and, ultimately, humans will feel those ripples too.”

There is a picture of a mosquito in the bottom corner. End ID.

[bedupolker]

Worm situation in Maine has me absolutely gobsmacked. Some kind of polychaete worm, maybe a king ragworm, never seen any polychaetes this big in person, all in all saw five 8-10 inch worms after just a couple minutes on the beach. The colors were even more stunning irl!

They look wiiiiild in motion too:

[plaguedocboi]

Also if you enjoyed my article and want more of my writing I have a book

Post by @plaguedocboi · 2 images

💬 3  🔁 243  ❤️ 407 · Amazon.com: Quest for the Sea's Revenge: 9798218410735: Vega, Alex: Books · Hey I’m just gonna promote my book real qui

And I will be publishing my War of the Worlds spinoff novel sometime this year so stay tuned if that interests you

[obsoleet37]

Is this a face that could fall off a wall?

[plaguedocboi]

My article, for those who wanted to read it (I believe @bunnybloggereshi and @sarcasm-n-insomnia asked about it)

[cathartidae]

oooh okay a human claiming an entire group of animals is useless. how novel.. and you think killing them all would do barely anything? that's so interesting! and you believe you're stating truth right? you're not a biologist either? damn... this... this may be a stroke of genius... you're so right... wow...

[cathartidae]

TWENTY MINUTES BABEY CAN WE HEAR IT FOR TWENTY MINUTES!!

[hawkpartys]

[plaguedocboi]

There’s something both intriguing and amusing about the book’s implication that the Martians picked humans as their primary food source not because we were the most abundant large animals in the area but specifically because their natural prey on Mars is a humanoid species. So they just perceive us as inherently food-shaped. Like if we discovered a planet populated by sentient cheetos and went “hellllll yeah I’m going there”

[rostekhorn]

They book also suggests that the Martians were themselves originally humanoid; their current octopus-like shape is what happens when they've evolved so far that the only things left are their head (the center of mass) and their hands (the two sets of tentacles). Which makes their fixation on eating humanoids even more interesting. And, potentially, gross.

[plaguedocboi]

I mean, humans eat other mammals including primates sometimes. It’s not THAT weird that the Martians would eat animals they’re closely related to

[rostekhorn]

I have to admit I'd feel weird about eating a primate. Nothing rational about that, of course, but... too weird.

And you're right that eating isn't really the word. They're just that advanced.

[plaguedocboi]

There’s something both intriguing and amusing about the book’s implication that the Martians picked humans as their primary food source not because we were the most abundant large animals in the area but specifically because their natural prey on Mars is a humanoid species. So they just perceive us as inherently food-shaped. Like if we discovered a planet populated by sentient cheetos and went “hellllll yeah I’m going there”

[rostekhorn]

They book also suggests that the Martians were themselves originally humanoid; their current octopus-like shape is what happens when they've evolved so far that the only things left are their head (the center of mass) and their hands (the two sets of tentacles). Which makes their fixation on eating humanoids even more interesting. And, potentially, gross.

[plaguedocboi]

I mean, humans eat other mammals including primates sometimes. It’s not THAT weird that the Martians would eat animals they’re closely related to

[plaguedocboi]

WHY do I always think that the radio is so much older than it is. Like you’re telling me that the Victorians had electric stoves and vacuum cleaners but not radios?? Fuck off.

[macronectes]

this can't be comfortable