The ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ camp has been plagued with blood-sucking leeches.
The 12 famous faces – including Carol Vorderman, Larry Lamb, Lisa Snowdon, Danny Baker and Adam Thomas – have been dished out repellent spray and urged to check their belly buttons and clothing regularly for the parasite after a number of crew members found the worms on them.
Show medic Dr Bob McCarron told The Sun newspaper: "They are attracted to the time of the month and they’re attracted to heat. If it’s the time of the month they will seek out the nearest blood supply. We get camera crew finding them in their belly buttons. What they like to do is crawl into their socks and they do not even know it. If they walk in the rain they need to check themselves. In the first aid kit they have their own vinegar spray. Once you spray it they die."
The leeches found in camp suck blood from humans and can cause infection if they are not removed properly, while other species of the segmented worms feed solely on decomposing bodies and open wounds of amphibians, reptiles, waterfowl, fish, and mammals.
The majority of leeches, which have been historically used in medicine to remove blood from patients, live in freshwater, but some can be found in terrestrial and marine environments.
But leeches aren’t the only thing the camp mates have been told to keep an eye out for, as eight funnel-webs, the world’s deadliest spider, and a brown snake, the world’s second most venomous land snake, have been found lurking in the show’s jungle in Murwillumbah, Australia.
Bob said: "In Australia we have the world’s most dangerous spider which is the funnel web. In fact this year in one of the camera hides we found eight. That’s the most we’ve ever found in one day."
However, although security around the base has been kicked up a notch since the eight-legged creatures were found, Bob isn’t overly worried about the spiders as he has anti-venom on hand in case any of the stars do get bitten by them.
He explained recently: "There is an anti-venom and of course none of the celebs have ever been bitten by them – a couple of crew have been bitten in the past."
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! plagued with blood-sucking leeches
