A Leech question

[taswegian]

Thanks colinm . I knew you were being lighthearted, just had a blank moment.

Seeing its moved onto techniques. Best way I know is the fingernails. They make excellent decapitators. A thumbnail pressed against the first finger and bingo.

[Miyata610]

Just rub them until they dislodge and then flick them at your walking companion.

[north-north-west]

I managed to kill a few on a recent walk... Most effective kill method was scrape them onto the Simmerlite.

Leech stew. I wonder why Alexander Pearce never thought of that?

[Paul]

Why should Mr Alexander Pearce have thought of leech stew ? - much more quantity on thigh, rump, bicep, quad, rib, shoulder,calf.............

Paul.

[Allchin09]

Salt seams to work pretty well - it makes them shrivel up, drop off and then vomit up all your blood!

[ULWalkingPhil]

I hate the little devils. I get a nasty reaction from them that takes a month to heal.

I never forget the time I hiked the Coastal Track at the Royal National Park, on the 2nd day it rained and all hell broke loose, I never seen so many leeches in my life. At one stage I had 60 of the little buggers on each leg.
The train ride back to Sydney was interesting. I had a couple leeches I missed, was sitting on the tram when I looked down and there was a couple of big juicy full of blood leeches crawling in the tram. You should have seen the look on the other passengers.
There was this trail of blood leading from my foot up the middle of the tram. My nephew joined me on the hike, I don't think he will ever do it again, he never seen or heard of them before, he told me when he went looking for a toilet on the tram, a few carriages down was about 4 rangers and there was leeches all over the floor, he said it looked like a blood bath.

[Rob A]

Roll on RID seems to work round here. Round the cuff of the boot or gaiters or your socks they dont seem to come over.
At night they hit the line you wipe round the mesh of the tent inner and drop off.
It probably weighs too much for ultralighters though.

RID.jpg (5.76 KiB) Viewed 7318 times

[Miyata610]

On an OT trip a few weeks ago one of my group took this photo. The little flying thingies seemed to be attracted to it.

But yeah, worth a try against leeches.

[quicky]

I hate the little devils. I get a nasty reaction from them that takes a month to heal.

I never forget the time I hiked the Coastal Track at the Royal National Park, on the 2nd day it rained and all hell broke loose, I never seen so many leeches in my life. At one stage I had 60 of the little buggers on each leg.
The train ride back to Sydney was interesting. I had a couple leeches I missed, was sitting on the tram when I looked down and there was a couple of big juicy full of blood leeches crawling in the tram. You should have seen the look on the other passengers.
There was this trail of blood leading from my foot up the middle of the tram. My nephew joined me on the hike, I don't think he will ever do it again, he never seen or heard of them before, he told me when he went looking for a toilet on the tram, a few carriages down was about 4 rangers and there was leeches all over the floor, he said it looked like a blood bath.

What a seriously funny story....the thought of it.......

[colinm]

On an OT trip a few weeks ago one of my group took this photo. The little flying thingies seemed to be attracted to it

Entomologist friend of mine told me that DEET works by interfering with insects' ability to home-in on CO2.

[tasadam]

... ability to home-in on CO2.

I knew that was what mozzies do, but I'm pretty sure leeches are attracted to a heat source, like, when you see them sticking up in mid air like a vertical stick, and you wave your hand over them, watch them go mad, then put your hand to one side and see them go into "seek and attack" mode, and watch how fast they can move!
Mind you, be careful that the 7 or 8 that you didn't see haven't latched on from behind while you were playing........

[Onestepmore]

PPS - If the science becomes too hard or bothersome, make something up - works for theologians.

The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" was first described in a satirical open letter written by Bobby Henderson in 2005 to protest the Kansas State Board of Education decision to permit teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes (Wikipedia)
http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/

Pastafarianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

You can get awesome T-shirts http://www.cafepress.com.au/mf/53643509/_tshirt
http://www.cafepress.com.au/mf/51838860/_tshirt
http://www.cafepress.com.au/mf/49375191/fsm-fish_tshirt
http://www.cafepress.com.au/mf/39316967 ... ate_tshirt
(sorry, got carried away there)

And hats..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14135523

Anyway, back on topic.....

I've always used salt on them, and then burn them with a match (a Simmerlite may be slight overkill)
And RID on socks and legs - doesn't completely stop them though
I get annoyed by the length of time it takes to stop bleeding. They inject an anticoagulant and an anesthetic agent (haven't looked it up so don't know the details)
Does anyone know of any particular diseases or pathogens they can spread?

[taswegian]

Does anyone know of any particular diseases or pathogens they can spread

Bdellophobia