De-leeching!

L

lowery399

Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
275
Yesterday I took the family over to an area in the Chattahoochee National Forest that is about 30 minutes away. There is a private area on the creek that we have permission to access and while in the water, my daughter picked up a passenger. From what I understand, it does no real harm so we did some basic first aid. I have never seen a fresh water leech like this before and I thought some of you might like to see it.

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So I'm assuming you heated the tip of your BK13 and scorched him off, right?
 
i've got to say i have spent alot of time in that area and that is the first one i have ever seen . thats weird but kinda cool at the same time .
 
I handle leeches all the time when I go fishing, they are great for catching walleye, but the thought of one actually attaching itself kinda give me goose bumps.
 
I was just up at cloudland canyon this weekend and one of the girls i was with picked up one of these too! I used to pick one or two up every now and then when i would play in creeks and rivers as a kid, totally harmless.
 
We had them in Lake Memphremagog where I summered as a child. We called one beach BloodSucker Beach.

Do like they did in African Queen.

I was putting up the tent at a lake/pond in N Wisconsin years back while my girlfriend and her kids jumped in the water. They hadn't been in two minutes before the bloodsuckers became evident.
 
lowery399 said:
It didn't as far as I know. If it does then it's a lesson learned I guess.
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It's all a matter of degrees (literally). :D Heating with a match or something is irrelevant. Heating with a torch will effect the heat treating, but you'd have no business getting it that hot just to remove a leech.

How did you ever get your daughter to stand still long enough to take the picture??? Especially the first one, I could envision even an adult dancing around yelling, "E-e-e-ew! E-e-e-ew! E-e-e-ew!" :D

Like a number of posters here I experienced a "leech beach" on a fresh water pond at a summer camp. Icky at first, then just a nuisance.
 
K9-Handler said:
It's all a matter of degrees (literally). :D Heating with a match or something is irrelevant. Heating with a torch will effect the heat treating, but you'd have no business getting it that hot just to remove a leech.

How did you ever get your daughter to stand still long enough to take the picture??? Especially the first one, I could envision even an adult dancing around yelling, "E-e-e-ew! E-e-e-ew! E-e-e-ew!" :D
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I only heated it with a Bic just enough to warm it up so I really wasn't worried about damaging the steel. As far as my daughter went, my wife was holding her up in the creek and I snapped one while I was supposed to be getting ready to take it off. She later told me, and she is 7, "Dad......I'm mad at you because you cared more about taking a picture than you did about taking care of your daughter". Needless to say we laughed that off and she lived. She's a bit dramatic though so there was plenty of screaming to go along with it.
 
i think lowery was the one dancing around screaming and his wife with nerves of steel took the pic and removed the leech .
 
OREGON FAL'ER said:
Anybody have a rough idea of how long they stay attached?
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From everything I read on them, it seems that they stay on just long enough to get full. One report said that it generally stays on about 20 minutes. The report also said that they generally fall off when they get full and don't leave any lasting effects. However, if anyone has any real medical info about them then they could probably chime in better than me about the issue.
 
AARRG!! I'd be the one dancing around! I've never seen a leech and would be happy if I never do!
Creepy!! Good pic though!
 
gross. I aint never had a leech on me, apparently we dont have them around here? Or I just been lucky. Looks rather disgusting LOL
 
I've never gotten one, but I've seen a few on friends. I even caught a Northern Pike on Leech Lake in Minnesota that had one on him when I pulled it in.
 
When surveying in the Florida swamps, leeches are a way of life....but I raised 5 girls.... Leeches are top
of the ick list.....

You handled it well... Photo, quick fix, laugh it off...

Doc
 
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