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#1
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Leeches in Pond?
The other day I went into our small pond to get it back into shape after the
winter, arrange our 2 water lilies and 1 annual plant, clean it out, etc. I believe it is about 500 gallons, pretty small. We live on Long Island in New York. We don't have any fish, and really don't want any. There is a small waterfall, but for most of the time we have the pump off. I was wearing rubber boots (almost, but not quite as high as the water level) as there was a lot of crap on the bottom and I didn't want to step on it. When I got out of the pond about 15-20 minutes later, I had three small (1-2 inches long) reddish worms attached to my boot by their mouths. Two took a little effort to pry loose, but one had actually imbedded its teeth or sucker or whatever into the rubber and was well affixed to it. That was frightening! Are these blood sucking leeches or some similar creature? What can I do to get rid of them? I have two dogs who have the run of the yard, and I certainly don't want to poison the water in any way in case they sip from it unsupervised. Could they have attached themselves to my leg? Thanks in advance for any tips on what I found, or what found me in the pond. Alan |
#2
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Leeches in Pond?
"Alan Rubin" wrote in message
... I was wearing rubber boots (almost, but not quite as high as the water level) as there was a lot of crap on the bottom and I didn't want to step on it. When I got out of the pond about 15-20 minutes later, I had three small (1-2 inches long) reddish worms attached to my boot by their mouths. Two took a little effort to pry loose, but one had actually imbedded its teeth or sucker or whatever into the rubber and was well affixed to it. That was frightening! Are these blood sucking leeches or some similar creature? What can I do to get rid of them? I have two dogs who have the run of the yard, and I certainly don't want to poison the water in any way in case they sip from it unsupervised. Could they have attached themselves to my leg? Thanks in advance for any tips on what I found, or what found me in the pond. Alan A simple way to test it, is to take an old plastic soda bottle, and put a few chunks of liver in it. If after a few hours, you find leeches in the bottle, you've got a problem. Otherwise they're probably the kind of leeches that eat pond muck. You can use the liver in a soda bottle trick to trap and remove the leeches from the pond. |
#3
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Leeches in Pond?
I was wearing rubber boots (almost, but not quite as high as the water
level) as there was a lot of crap on the bottom and I didn't want to step on it. When I got out of the pond about 15-20 minutes later, I had three small (1-2 inches long) reddish worms attached to my boot by their mouths. Two took a little effort to pry loose, but one had actually imbedded its teeth or sucker or whatever into the rubber and was well affixed to it. That was frightening! Are these blood sucking leeches or some similar creature? What can I do to get rid of them? I have two dogs who have the run of the yard, and I certainly don't want to poison the water in any way in case they sip from it unsupervised. Could they have attached themselves to my leg? Thanks in advance for any tips on what I found, or what found me in the pond. Alan A simple way to test it, is to take an old plastic soda bottle, and put a few chunks of liver in it. If after a few hours, you find leeches in the bottle, you've got a problem. Otherwise they're probably the kind of leeches that eat pond muck. You can use the liver in a soda bottle trick to trap and remove the leeches from the pond. And I would add/clarify that needs to be fresh raw liver. The best solution is salt. It is nontoxic to your dogs, and for a short duration won't hurt most water plants. A level of 2.5 pounds per 100 gallons is effective. If your plants haven't woken up (started growing) it won't hurt them. Unpotted plants, WH, anacharis should be removed. Leave salt in for 1 week, remove 50% of water an add new. Continue to do this once/week for 4-5 times to remove the majority of the salt... or better, do it in one swoop. Salt the pond, wait a week, empty, clean bottom with shop vac, refill. After several weeks do the liver trick again. Or, you could do the drain/clean/fill and retest and see if you didn't get the worst of the problem. Or... you could continue to walk thru the pond daily and kill what attaches to you. ;o) ~ jan -------------- See my ponds and filter design: www.jjspond.us ~Keep 'em Wet!~ Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a To e-mail see website |
#4
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Leeches in Pond?
~ janj wrote:
Or... you could continue to walk thru the pond daily and kill what attaches to you. ;o) ~ jan That wouldn't necessarily eliminate a problem. aiui, there are leeches that like mammalian blood, and there are others that will prey on fish or frogs. So you could eliminate the yuck factor, but not the hazard to your koi :-( -- derek |
#5
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Leeches in Pond?
Or... you could continue to walk thru the pond daily and kill what
attaches to you. ;o) ~ jan That wouldn't necessarily eliminate a problem. aiui, there are leeches that like mammalian blood, and there are others that will prey on fish or frogs. So you could eliminate the yuck factor, but not the hazard to your koi :-( Derek Come on Derek, try to keep up. That was a joke (note winky face?). Besides, the OP didn't have fish in the pond. ~ jan ----------------- (Do you know where your water quality is?) |
#6
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Leeches in Pond?
~ janj wrote:
Or... you could continue to walk thru the pond daily and kill what attaches to you. ;o) ~ jan That wouldn't necessarily eliminate a problem. aiui, there are leeches that like mammalian blood, and there are others that will prey on fish or frogs. So you could eliminate the yuck factor, but not the hazard to your koi :-( Derek Come on Derek, try to keep up. That was a joke (note winky face?). Yeah, yeah. I was just pointing out that there are other reasons to be concerned about leeches than the fact that they may attach themselves to you or the dogs. Besides, the OP didn't have fish in the pond. ~ jan otoh, I missed that pertinent fact :-) -- derek |
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