Leeches

[tasadam]

i think adam would do quite well down a little hole tho...

Now that you put it like that, it's starting to sound appealing

[Son of a Beach]

Note that the last few posts have been split off to a new topic: Wasps and Jack Jumpers

[north-north-west]

As for caving it is generally a petite person's sport.

*snigger* The lass who first introduced me to serious dry-caving was 6foot tall and built like a brick . . . outhouse. Technique, relaxation and flexibility are more important than size.

Fortunately our tigers and copperheads are almost friendly by comparison--I have been so close ,so many times and have never had one actually strike at me.

They flatten heads like cobras and tigers stand up ,but mostly in defence , and usually they just like to get away.

Just never get between a mother tiger snake and her young. That's the only time I've ever come close to being bitten.

Leeches don't tend to bother with me much. I picked up one on a barefoot walk around one of the Atherton rainforest lakes 15 or so years ago, and have had a few crawling up my boots in Tas, but normally they don't seem to be too interested in me. Sandflies mostly ignore me, too, as do ticks. Mozzies, on the other hand . . .
Still, some of the leech stories in this thread are just plain gross. Bleeccchh! And DON'T talk about spiders! Especially huntsmen in cars! There's nothing worse than flicking down the sun visor to find that you've flicked a saucer sized huntsman into your own lap . . .

[corvus]

scavenger wrote
Leeches don't tend to bother with me much. I picked up one on a barefoot walk around one of the Atherton rainforest lakes 15 or so years ago, and have had a few crawling up my boots in Tas, but normally they don't seem to be too interested in me.[/quote]

OOPs another Alien!! this trend is getting serious folks so we had better get someone to check out these individuals who do not attract leeches it may be the start of the quiet invasion of Mother Earth from Planet Anaemia
c

[north-north-west]

Pffft! You're just jealous.

Now, if we were talking about flies . . .

[corvus]

Oh !! wow jings crivvins let's be vigilant for muscas domisticas the wee fly bastradies may well suck us dry or keech on our pies or snags.
c

[flyfisher]

C'mon, you blokes should know we don't allow flies inTassie. They are a north island pest and some just come with the visitors.
FF

[Area54]

And DON'T talk about spiders! Especially huntsmen in cars! There's nothing worse than flicking down the sun visor to find that you've flicked a saucer sized huntsman into your own lap . . .

Don't know if you get them in Tas, but up here we get the Golden Orb spider, beautiful spider to look and brilliant colouring, huge web made from thick, gooey strands glistening with adhesive. Trouble is, they cast their webs at night across trails right at head height. We do a lot of night rides up here, the trail leader always gets covered in web and quite often has to stop to not only remove the sticky mass but search rapidly for the spider, often as big as the palm of your hand (leg to leg) with an abdomen the size of a thumb nail. Not many accounts of bites though, perhaps they never make it back to post online...

[north-north-west]

Don't know if you get them in Tas, but up here we get the Golden Orb spider, beautiful spider to look and brilliant colouring . . . often as big as the palm of your hand (leg to leg) with an abdomen the size of a thumb nail.

There are many species of Orb Spiders, and heaps known as Golden Orbs. You wouldn't mean one of these, by any chance:

[ben.h]

Ah, that's what they're called!
I used to do a lot of riding in the hills around Yandina and Beerwah. These things set themselves up right smack bang in the middle of the trail right at head height!

On one particular trail running from Mt Cooloolabin (it only takes 100m height or so in QLD for something to be called a mountain!) back down into Yandina, you would literally have a spider web veil all over your head at the end of the ride

[Area54]

That's similar scavenger, imagine the abdomen twice as large (we grow 'em big here in QLD ) and it's enough to put the fear of Shelob into you!

[deratu]

Hi All,
A few weeks ago, after some overnight rain, I set off on my regular Sunday morning bushwalk. After walking through a section of damp bracken, I noticed my boots and socks were crawling with leeches. There were so many that after I had found a clear space to sit down and remove them, I had to move on several times because those I had flicked off were re-attaching themselves before I could finish the job.
Anyway, it cost me several visits to the doctor and chemist after one of the bites became severely infected.
So, taking some tips from those who are less sanguine about leeches than I am, I decided that I’d be better off trying to discourage the little fiends. I bought some 40% Bushman repellent and sprayed it on my boots and socks and set off on a damp morning to try this out.
Here is a video clip showing how effective it is. (Apologies for the very shaky phone-camera images).
http://picasaweb.google.com/deratu/Leec ... directlink
Des

[Son of a Beach]

great demo... it also shows how fast those suckers can move too!

[Orion]

Very nice video... but it was missing the ending part where you presumably stomped it to death with your boot.


I don't know if this short story has travelled to Australia. It was written by Broughton Corburn and appeared in the U.S. magazine "Rock & Ice" in 2001. It's a really wonderful leech story.

"The Horror! An Insidious Souvenir from the Himalaya"
by Broughton Corburn

http://www.petting-zoo.net/~deadbeef/archive/3624.html

Anxious and distracted, I gripped the table leg where I sat in a tea stall
pigeonholed in Kathmandu's noisy and crowded central bazaar. I tried to
concentrate. A boy wearing rags patched on rags stepped from behind the
counter and, balancing a trayload of tumblers of milk tea, set a glass at
an adjacent table. Then, he looked at me. It was there. Something was
crawling out of my nose.

The boy froze as if electrically shocked. Dropping the tray, he ran from
the teashop, fleeing as from the curse of the Hindu demoness Kali, Shiva's
wrathful manifestation, whose gaze alone can mortify armies.

So, it was real, after all. Reflexively, I leaped up and over the spilled
and broken glasses, and found the boy half-crouched and trembling against
the wall of a nearby building, burying his head into his folded arms.

"What did you see? What did you see?" I asked him intently in Nepali,
wanting to grab him and shake out an answer, or sympathy, perhaps. I felt
as frightened as he. Shielding his eyes from mine, he ran from my voice,
head down, arms pumping, through the alley and across the next street....

[flyfisher]

Yuk!!!!!!!
ff

[sml_12]

I feel sick.
There is no appropriate icon.

Thank god for all the amazing photographs you all post of Tassie - this thread is freaking me out (and yet it's strangely compelling...).

[the_camera_poser]

The lack of flies and the scarcity of ticks make up for leeches in my books....

[sml_12]

I have developed a "nervous tic" from reading about leeches...
Does that count?

I suppose it's like the standard (and reversible) joke about sharks/crocs up north -
"got much of a shark problem up here?"
"Nah - the crocs have eaten them all..."

Hijole!

[the_camera_poser]

They're not as bad as they sound.

Have you moved here yet?

[north-north-west]

That's similar scavenger, imagine the abdomen twice as large (we grow 'em big here in QLD ) and it's enough to put the fear of Shelob into you!

Twice as large? That photo was taken with a wide-angle lens, you know!
That thing was up on Mount Cook, and the size of my hand. I've seen similar sized beasties up in Kakadu, too.

[sml_12]

Have you moved here yet?

Um... no.
I am waiting till the coldest possible time of year to ensure the shock to my system is as completely devastating as possible........
It's taking longer than I thought. etc. etc. yadda yadda yadda.......
I have been guilty of playing in my shed a wee bit too much. What can I say... Dirty tools...!??



I'd like to blame my horror at your leech stories - but that would just be fibbing...

[tasadam]

Does anyone dislike leeches more than the guy in this story?
Question is, which is the biggest leech?
Pure gold!

October 20, 2009 07:08am
TASMANIA Police have used blood taken from a leech to match DNA eight years after an aggravated robbery.
In what is believed to have been a world first, police found the engorged leech about an hour after the crime.
Peter Alec Cannon, 54, of Lalla Rd, Karoola, north of Launceston, pleaded guilty in court yesterday to an aggravated armed robbery committed on September 28, 2001.
Detective Inspector Mick Johnston said he had never heard of a leech being involved in a crime scene before.
"It is the oddest way of convicting anyone I have ever been involved in," the 25-year police veteran said.
"I have not been able to find any similar cases anywhere in the world -- nothing like this at all."
Det-Insp Johnston said the leech was the only thing found during a full forensic investigation.
"It was the only evidence we found, and as there was no evidence of any leech bites from the victim or the police present we thought it was a good chance to have come from one of the offenders," he said.
"We took it from the scene because it didn't belong there."
In denying a defence claim it was a weak case, Crown prosecutor John Ransom said: "The leech was found next to the safe and it had this man's blood in it."
He said Cannon and another man, who has not been caught, went to the home of Fay Olson, 71, near Lilydale about 4pm.
Both men were wearing black hoods and were armed with sticks when they confronted Mrs Olson.
"They poked me with a stick and forced me inside and asked to know the location of firearms," she said in a statement.
The men ransacked the house and when she went towards the phone the other man ripped the handset off the cord.
They stole $500 from the safe as well as $50 from her handbag which they stuffed in a pillow slip.
The men tied her up and put a belt around her ankles.
Mr Ransom said Senior Constable Nathan Slater had located the leech next to the bed and handed it to Det-Insp Johnston when making a forensic examination of the scene.
A DNA profile was taken from blood in the leech.
In 2008, when Cannon was charged with drug offences, police took a further DNA profile and found a match.
Mr Ransom said the chances of the DNA belonging to someone were one in a hundred million.
In a subsequent video interview in May 2009, Cannon had made no admissions.
He described Cannon as the less aggressive of the two men.
Defence counsel John Oxley said Cannon's guilty plea had come in spite of the "relatively weak case" by the Crown.
"There was very limited other evidence and no witnesses identified the accused's face," he said.
Mr Oxley said Cannon had been plagued with guilt as a result of his conduct.
"He pleaded guilty in the hope that he can move on," he said.
He asked Chief Justice Ewan Crawford to take into account the plea of guilty, given the strength of the Crown case.
Mr Ransom denied Mr Oxley's claim it was a weak case.
"It was a reasonable hypothesis consistent with the facts," he said.
Justice Crawford remanded Cannon in custody for sentence on Friday at 2.15pm.
In 2007, a national criminal investigation DNA database known as CrimTrac gave police the chance to match DNA profiles across Australia.
The new system enabled DNA profiles dating from before the 2001 Forensic Procedures Act to be used.
In 2007, Tasmania Police had a list of 63 unsolved crimes it was going to check against the national database.

Det-Inspector Johnston said there had been other cases where offenders were retrospectively charged as a result of DNA evidence but nothing as unusual as this.

[corvus]

What a good result,do you reckon that Crim will be looking for Deet + when he gets out !!
c

[Nuts]

Ha har, thats a good story... they Can catch crims

[Jellybean]

After an experience last weekend, I’m not so sure about some of the advice above to just let leeches suck their fill and drop off in an engorged state. Ugh!

We did a quick walk in Ku-ring-gai Chase NP (northern beaches of Sydney) – along Resolute Track and West Head Track visiting Resolute Beach, Great Mackerel Beach and West Head Beach and return. It was a hot afternoon so, despite some steeper sections which resulted in plenty of sweating, it was nice to visit the beaches and enjoy tracks that, for the most part, were uncover from the canopy above.

A couple of pics of the local wildlife and scenery below. Nice area.

Local wildlife

Mackerell Beach

As we hadn’t planned any off-track walking and the tracks were quite open (easy to spot any snakes, as long as you’re paying attention) and the terrain very manageable, I wore low cut hiking shoes and socks. (My more sensible - in hindsight - walking partner had boots and longer socks on). On the way back to the car however, a thunderstorm was brewing and we decided to walk off-track a short way to hasten the return to the car. As we followed a mostly dried up waterway and walked through leaf litter I briefly thought about the possibility of leeches but then just as quickly dismissed the thought - we were more focussed on getting back to the car as quickly as possible, before the rain hit (and keeping an eye out for bigger beasties – snakes – we didn’t see any). We made the car just as a torrential downpour started and then drove back to a friend’s place without doing any leech checks. About an hour later, as we were enjoying a glass of wine, I happened to look under the outdoor table we were sitting at and noticed some fluid on the ground that wasn’t there when we sat down (it was getting dark, so I couldn’t see the colour). A moment later I noticed an engorged slug-like creature (probably 8cm long by 1cm wide) lying at the edge of this pool of fluid and realised that it was a leech and the fluid was my blood! The unwelcome passenger had been having a drink himself for just over an hour, and then had fallen off to lie on the ground and spill some of his contents like an old drunk. I then looked at my ankle, this was the result!

Leech bite

Unfortunately I didn’t get a shot of the offender and the pool of blood, I was more concerned about checking for other leeches (found 3 other smaller ones) and cleaning it all up. Yuck!!

[Macca81]

thats a good effort, they dont usuallt get a chance to hang around long enuf to make that much of a mess! lucky lil bugger!

[corvus]

Top strength DEET try "Bushman80% "on the legs for any trip in our sneaky leechy country,works a treat
corvus

[johnw]

...We did a quick walk in Ku-ring-gai Chase NP (northern beaches of Sydney) – along Resolute Track and West Head Track visiting Resolute Beach, Great Mackerel Beach and West Head Beach and return.

I'm surprised that you managed to find any leeches around there. Walked most of the tracks around West Head and don't think I've ever had one there, even doing an entire walk in pouring rain on one occasion. Even though it gets quite a bit of rain that sandstone country drains very quickly and I've usually found it too dry that you'd expect them. Maybe a case of bad luck that you picked up the only ones around . If it's any consolation I've had some equally messy looking bites in the past . Looks nasty though...

[Jellybean]

I'm surprised that you managed to find any leeches around there... I've usually found it too dry that you'd expect them.

Yep, I've never seen them up there before either - hence my lack of vigilance in looking for them or being prepared for them (in contrast, we recently walked into the Walls in the rain and it was an absolute leech fest from the car park up to Trappers Hut but we were expecting them then, had all the necessary gear and did regular checks). That relatively recent experience is probably the only reason I thought of them at all last weekend. I'm guessing the leeches we encountered up at West Head were the result of recent rain and the heavy leaf litter (perhaps that stopped the water draining as quickly as it might normally and kept the area moist? The area was certainly well shaded).

Top strength DEET try "Bushman80% "on the legs for any trip in our sneaky leechy country,works a treat
corvus

Yes, we made a point of carrying that when we were in Tassie!

thats a good effort, they dont usuallt get a chance to hang around long enuf to make that much of a mess! lucky lil bugger!

I couldn't believe the mess it made when left to feed unnoticed! If I'm expecting them I check frequently and flick them off as soon as I see them! Definitely my biggest (and most itchy! aargh!) leech bite ever.

Cheers,

JB

[WarrenH]

Not wanting to digress from the leech topic, but because there is some interest in Browns ... I concur with those who think Eastern Browns are psycho snakes that having really dark tempers.

Brown snakes do have filthy tempers, tempers as-dark-as. I've seen it and I believe anything that I hear or read about their aggressive nature.

A while back, I was driving near Googong Dam not too far from Canberra. I was in a Land Cruiser Troopy, sitting high off the ground. I had the window down. I stopped on the road about 10 metres from a large Eastern Brown. The snake was motionless. I didn't care how long it took, I was waiting for the snake to move when it was ready ... but after about 10 minutes, I lost patience, and I blew the horn.

A rabbit, hidden in the grass beside the road, not far from the snake's head, that I hadn't seen, bolted. The snake then, like lightning, came at the Troopy. I looked out of the side window to see if I could see where the snake went and the snake was repeatedly striking the driver's side tyre. It saw me leaning out of the window and turned towards me and had a crack at me ... but I was too high off the ground, thank god (or thank whoever).

That snake could have been stalking that rabbit for hours and I blew it ... no wonder it was so dark. Disturbing a snake that might be hunting its only meal in weeks(?) isn't a good look. If its an Eastern Brown start running and keep running.

Warren.