wow a new twist

[El Jefe]

SO I have worked hard at balancing my pond out. I have Freshwater clams, Water striders, freshwater grass shrimp, crawdads  (although very few left) Mosquito fish, Bream (sunfish) of every size, Bass (several sizes) LOTS of minnows from all of the aforementioned fish groups. Oh yes and lets not forget the snails, Trapdoor and pond snail. Lots of polywogs and all manner of frogs, Mostly leopard with a few bull frogs and tree frogs mixed in.
    Just when I thought I had all the residents that a healthy pond could hold  I FOUND A NEW RESIDENT (well several actually)......

First a little background. I normally spend quite a bit of time wading in my pond cleaning up yellowing and dying pads, cleaning fountain heads and just doing routine pond maintenance the Bass always follow closely for the ocasional minnow or frog that flees the wrong way.  The Bream tend to eat any larvae I find and toss out to them. Well with this last workout the Bream and bass alike kept nibbling at the back of my legs, a couple of times I got nailed pretty good. Made me jump pretty high a couple of times. I could not understand why they kept picking at my legs and they were getting pretty determined... As I finished Up I saw why....I had a dozen or so leeches on both legs, very small like an 1/8th of an inch BUT DANG!  No wonder the fish were attracted I was a walking smorgasboard..... Needless to say I will need to correct that before I 'wade' in again... Great!
Andy

[miguynmkoi]

G-R-O-S-S!!!!!  The description of your Leaches that is!  I was cleaning out my water-plant pools and I too found a leach in the one pond where I keep new trade plants.  I mean I found a leach!!    Too scary to think that this leach could be attached to my leg while I wade through my ponds!

BTW Andy, your description of your lake is wonderful and we deserve a photo too, don't we...? 

[sushi]

That's weird...I have leaches too.  I never have before.  What do you do about that?

[Julles]

Where do leaches come from, and what do they do?

And Andy, I sure hope you were only wading up to your thighs, and no deeper.   

[tammie]

The leeches Andy is describing don't suck blood, they eat rotting vegetation.  Still gross.... They could have been carried in by a bird, but most likely on plants.  Plants can be treated with Alum to kill leeches before you put them in the pond - but it's to late now, Andy.  I think the dose is 1 T per 100 gallons.  All my pond info is still on my old hard drive, hopefully I'll have my info back on Monday.... not holding my breath tho. Don't add Alum to your pond, it will crash the Ph.  But you can pre treat the plants.  I'm surprised you found any, since the fish seem to like eating them.  They won't hurt you, your plants or your fish.
Tammie

[El Jefe]

They were stuck on me pretty good. They were down in the bottom plants (char) and were working their way way up my legs, My fish sure loved it and they were not shy about feeding off me 

[Sandye]

EWWWWW....YUCK!!!   

I hate leeches!!!   

P.S. I'm glad they weren't the bloodsucking kind, tho.  Did they leave marks where they were attached to you, or was it just a suction-type thing?  I didn't even know there was a leech that wasn't a blood-sucker.

[marla]

Gross, but then that is part of the natural pond   Last year after having several, nymphs and other unidentified kritters on me, I have now turned to wearing waders if I will be in for more then a few minutes

[happyoutsidegirl]

Yuck! I saw some tiny ones in my bio falls once? My piggys must eat them cuz Iv'e never seen any in the pond.

[El Jefe]

Nope no marks that I could tell. They were all pretty small. I was able to wipe them off pretty quick. Even though they may not be the blood sucking kind it was still kinda gross. Andy

[barb]

Ewww.  I have not seen any leeches in my area, thank goodness.

[Julles]

There's a whole lot of info if you Google.  Some sites say they just eat muck, some say they WILL suck blood (fishes or yours), but it takes a long time for them to attach, so you have plenty of time to knock 'em off. 

They also say you can put salt on them, which will disolve them, like with slugs.  I did that once to a slug, and swore I would NEVER treat an animal that way again.

[tinkster]

just when I thought I might be able to finally go in my pond with my chest waders.. NOT ....

This has been your year for strange things.. alligator and now leaches.

tinkster

[SueSTx]

Gross

That is the good thing about a 8' stock tank.  I can reach the middle without getting in.

[Jonna]

Tammie, do you know about them because they are a tropical thing?  Just one more thing for me to worry about in building this pond in a whole new environment for me.  From desert to jungle, only thing my pond locations have in common is it never gets cold.

Soaking plants in alum sounds good if I can figure out how and where to buy it here, first off what it is called in Spanish, then who would sell it.

[Julles]

Alum is a drug store item, isn't it?  There must be an on-line translation site to help with the Spanish word.

[tammie]

In the "horsey" world we use Alum for proud flesh (granulated tissue).  You can find it in the drug store.  You can also find it in the spice section of the grocery store - it's used for pickling stuff. 
I don't think leeches are a tropical thing - I think it's a everywhere thing!  I think it's kind of like fleas - us in the tropics don't have that "killing freeze" that keeps the pests down to a low roar... we have them year round!  Lucky us...
Just to reassure anybody who has gotten lilies from me this year - I treat all out going plants, and am a licenced, inspected nursery.  If you've got leeches didn't come from me!
Tammie

[Jonna]

At any rate, it added another word to my Spanish vocabulary.  El alumbre is alum in Spanish.  I'll ask at the pharmacy and the vet supply store.