Comments on: New Uses for 5 Old Pests

By: Tom Rankin

Tom Rankin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:03:18 +0000

Bees are not pests. w/o them there would be virtually no pollination, and we would all be very hungry!

By: jen

jen — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:41:37 +0000

I worked on a reconstruction unit as a nurse where we used leeches all the time to help a re-attached body part take right to a body. Nothing works better than the leeches. They are not only anti-inflammatory, but they provide a short term anticouagulant, getting the stagnant blood that tends to pool after a reattachment out from there it shouldn’t be. The only thing I didn’t like was having to kill them after they were done feeding – wasn’t violent – just dropped into alcohol, but it was a little sad :*(

By: Manda

Manda — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:37:32 +0000

I can’t recall the source, but I’ve read about Garra rufa spas. In order to make the fish hungry enough to eat the skin, they are denied other food. If you look at the wikipedia article on them, it mentions this.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:32:56 +0000

I’d read some where else recently about the fish treatment. Now whenever I’m at the beach and all the little silver fish are eating my dead flesh I think about how much money I’m saving just by living in New Jersey! Then I get stapped with a hypodermic needle and I’m sad again.

I would totally pay to have fishies eat my feet if there was wine and apps involved!

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:34:27 +0000

I live in Asia and get doctor fish pedicures whenever I can! They do a great job on calluses and blisters. There’s a wine bar in Seoul with a pool of the fish — you can drink cocktails and snack on appetizers while the fish snack on you. It tickles at first, but you get used to it quickly and don’t really notice the fish after a few minutes.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:18:12 +0000

When I was a kid my cousins made me stick bread between my toes and sit at the end of the dock so that they could try to scoop the resulting fish up in their nets. I remember it being tickle-y but not unbearable. It’s really no weirder than half of the other “beauty” treatments out there. Even waxing is worse to me.

By: Debi

Debi — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:11:32 +0000

The list is missing the story on the spa in Israel that uses snakes for massage.

By: Vickey

Vickey — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:43:49 +0000

I used to have a pond with goldfish in it…. The goldfish would nibble on my fingertips as I fed them…. A really weird feeling it was, too….