Leeches

[beetleman]

I wonder, do you (or anyone else on here) still order from carolina?

yeah, i have'nt ordered from them in about 2 years or so.

 

[Ewok]

* Shudder* leeches ack ! Are you sure you want to have one of those vile parasites haha. I remeber when I was little and a leech got stuck onto me when I was swimming in a pond lol it was pretty tramic So the moral of the story is, you won't see me keeping a leach as a pet lol

 

[Ewok]

let's see....we keep cockroaches,millipedes,spiders,centipedes,etc,so why not leeches? :drool: :}

haha thats true, but they are not blood sucking parasites haha A spider almost seems warm ,fuzzy and cuddle-able compared to a leech haha

 

[Conan]

I almost brought home a large leech from a lake a few weeks ago. The only reason i didn't is because i didnt have anything to transport it with. I would totally let a leech feed on me! The way they swim through water is pretty cool to watch as well.

 

[Peter_Parker]

haha thats true, but they are not blood sucking parasites haha A spider almost seems warm ,fuzzy and cuddle-able compared to a leech haha

Depends on your definition of "blood sucking" I mean if you think about it, tarantulas are technically blood sucking creatures too, right? They just don't suck our blood, lol. But if you give a big T a pinkie mouse it does slurp up the insides, so it's kinda the same I guess. Plus I think it was stated somewhere on this thread that very few of the leech species actually feed on mammalian blood, like most of them are either predatory or scavenge for food.

 

[Scythemantis]

And must someone point out again that most leeches DON'T suck blood?

Also, they aren't actually "parasites". A parasite is something that lives in or on another animal. Leeches are thus no more parasitic than mosquitos, as they don't dig in for long periods of time like lice or ticks.

Say, there's a large natural lake AND a swampier pond in my new backyard...if I tie a piece of liver to a string, can I possibly catch leeches and/or planaria?

 

[Peter_Parker]

And must someone point out again that most leeches DON'T suck blood?

Also, they aren't actually "parasites". A parasite is something that lives in or on another animal. Leeches are thus no more parasitic than mosquitos, as they don't dig in for long periods of time like lice or ticks.

Say, there's a large natural lake AND a swampier pond in my new backyard...if I tie a piece of liver to a string, can I possibly catch leeches and/or planaria?

Probably, particularly the scavenging species

 

[DavidRS]

I wonder, do you (or anyone else on here) still order from carolina?

I just placed an order with them. Don't know yet if they are going to send them.

 

[BurrowDweller]

Peter, I see you are in Michigan. There are tons of leeches up there. Use get them all over us when we would wade fish the weedy cattail filled lakes. A quick way to catch a bunch is to take a burlap sack or a plastic woven feed sack and put a chunk of liver or a kidney in it. Tie the top with a rope and throw it into a nice weedy cattail surrounded pond, the cooler the water the better. In a day you should have all the leaches you could ever want. I use to keep them for fish bait and they are very hardy if kept cold and in clean water. Always fed them fresh liver and they seemed to like it (as much as a leech can like something!)
Anthony

 

[Peter_Parker]

Peter, I see you are in Michigan. There are tons of leeches up there. Use get them all over us when we would wade fish the weedy cattail filled lakes. A quick way to catch a bunch is to take a burlap sack or a plastic woven feed sack and put a chunk of liver or a kidney in it. Tie the top with a rope and throw it into a nice weedy cattail surrounded pond, the cooler the water the better. In a day you should have all the leaches you could ever want. I use to keep them for fish bait and they are very hardy if kept cold and in clean water. Always fed them fresh liver and they seemed to like it (as much as a leech can like something!)
Anthony

Sounds like a good idea! I see a lot of the little ones when I go to the metro parks here, and it is cool to see them swim because they are really eerie looking . I want to get a few different kinds and examples of different feeding habits i.e. scavenging, predatory, and parasitic.

 

[BurrowDweller]

They are cool when they swim, very fast and graceful. The ones that use to get on us when we fished were a light brownish green with a couple of rows of red dots down the back. Pretty cool looking. They also don't hurt one bit unless you try to just pull them off. If you let them feed they release and you feel pretty much nothing. The scavengers will hold onto you with their sucker but will not bite. Who knows this might be the next big craze!

 

[beetleman]

well by mistake ofcourse my medicinal leech got me:wall: did not plan this! i was refilling it's delicup and the little "sucker" kinda leaped from the rim and got on my pinkie,and before i could smear it off it started to feed,they are very quick with the sucker so it fed for about 20min,very slight stinging action,then it dropped off (back in the container,happy and fat as ever:drool: and my pinkie wouldn't stop bleeding,the blood just kept coming out,it was really nasty,i put a cloth tightly around it,and in a couple of hours it stopped,and left a little x mark where it fed,don't want to go threw that again! no pain but the blood coming out like that really made me feel weird,when the leech is cold they are not that active,but as soon as it warms up it gets really active and hungry! aside from that still luv the !@#$%^&* it's only doing what it supposed to be doing,and the horse and ribbon leeches are next on my list,they rock also:clap:

 

[Scythemantis]

Well, if someone here is able to order a batch of medicinal leeches, I'll buy a couple individually


One thing I'd want to do is breed them in a small homemade pond......possible?

Probably very difficult since they can't handle stagnant water as far as I know, so the pond would have to have a continuous source of fresh water wouldn't it?

 

[Peter_Parker]

Well, if someone here is able to order a batch of medicinal leeches, I'll buy a couple individually


One thing I'd want to do is breed them in a small homemade pond......possible?

Probably very difficult since they can't handle stagnant water as far as I know, so the pond would have to have a continuous source of fresh water wouldn't it?

Fresh water as in new water, or just constantly moving water?

 

[BurrowDweller]

We had leeches in our small pond in KY, although not year round. It was just a little depression that held rainwater. Early in the year it would be swarming with leeches, newts and frogs. By mid to late summer it was usually gone, but every spring the critters would reappear.

 

[Scythemantis]

Ah, see, I'm just thinking a smallish hole, maybe five feet across at the most, but fairly deep, like a well, with a plastic liner and lots of plant life for filtration. I'd just like to have a colony of leeches in it, but I'm not sure what kind I should get. I wouldn't want them all to die off in the winter. Also wouldn't want the kind that'll crawl on dry land to attack people.

 

[Peter_Parker]

leech farm

Ah, see, I'm just thinking a smallish hole, maybe five feet across at the most, but fairly deep, like a well, with a plastic liner and lots of plant life for filtration. I'd just like to have a colony of leeches in it, but I'm not sure what kind I should get. I wouldn't want them all to die off in the winter. Also wouldn't want the kind that'll crawl on dry land to attack people.

I saw a pbs special once on sanguinivores (blood-feeding animals), and they showed a medicinal leech farm in europe that kind of fit your description. It was about the size you described with plants and everything, but the leeches did crawl out and about, but they didn't go far from the water, just on like the banks of pond. I'm not sure exactly how leeches detect prey, but I think its something akin to a mosquito with movement and smell in the water.

 

[beetleman]

Fresh water as in new water, or just constantly moving water?

yes sir, very clean/cold water,i clean mine every other day,i just pour out the "old water" and replace it with new cold bottled water and that's it,it has been alive for 2yrs now,had others in the past,they did not do well,i didn't clean their enclosures that often,so that was the secret,clean/cold/bottled water for all leeches

 

[Peter_Parker]

Sounds like it worked! What size setup do you keep it in?

 

[beetleman]

Sounds like it worked! What size setup do you keep it in?

ahh, ya gonna laugh i keep it in a decent size delicup,about 3'' of water that's it,it does swim around also,but it always sticks to the sides,it seem pretty comfortable,though it hasn't told me so i have a 20 long tank/live plants/filter/sand it would do awesome in there,but one problem i think my alligator snapper would enjoy it for dinner,or would the leech enjoy him for dinner:} :drool: