Had a good trip last week, but this was a new one: I took off my wet shoe and I had one big leech on my big toe surrounded by 20 or so little tiny one-eighth-inch long leeches dining on my big toe in a bloody, squiggly mass. GROSS!! I reacted to each little bite like they were bee stings; red, swelled up, itchy. Not pleasant at all.
Anybody else ever get a whole bunch of little leeches? Am I doomed? Are they gonna hatch in my eyeballs? ;)
On the bright side we got a nice brookie dinner out of the deal.

You should of taken a picture. That would of been cool ;-)

At Isle Royale I had to wade to fish as fishing from shore is rather tough. The inland lakes have quite a few of the little monsters and you could expect 3 or 4 on you every time time. My buddy convinced me to take salt for my fish frys but it works great for leech removal.

Had one under the Strap of my flip flop one day sucker would not stop bleeding.
...

When my middle child was 6 I told her not to swim on the rocks. She did so anyway. She came out of the lake with 100's if not thousands of tiny tiny leaches all over her legs. It took a while to get them all off. I was so gross! She learned a lesson. She now will listen to whatever I say when we are out in the woods without question.

I once found a big fat leech attached to the underside of our canoe when we landed and I thought it would be great to save and put on a hook at the next fishing opportunity. What I could not see was that on its underside were dozens and dozens of tiny leeches like those described above. When I detached the big one (mama leech?) I got the tiny ones all over my hands and that did freak me out just a bit. Was hard to find all of those little suckers and get rid of them, too. Now I just fish with the leeches we brought with us in our bucket.

quote Canoearoo: "When my middle child was 6 I told her not to swim on the rocks. She did so anyway. She came out of the lake with 100's if not thousands of tiny tiny leaches all over her legs. It took a while to get them all off. I was so gross! She learned a lesson. She now will listen to whatever I say when we are out in the woods without question. "

This also once happened to my son when he was about two or three years old. He had not been warned against it but was playing in about 6-8" of water over fist-size or smaller rocks. When we picked him up from the water he had many, many tiny leeches stuck to him. He was not bothered by this so much but his mom was grossed out by it completely. Fortunately we were at a lake cabin and we were able to carry him into a bath tub, coat his legs with a lot of salt from a shaker at which point the leeches dropped off and we were able to rinse them down the drain.

We were also fortunate that it happened to him before he developed the aversion to these types of critters that he still has today as an adult. If he had this happen a couple of years later in age than it did, he would have gone berzerk!

I did have dreams later that week that before we were done with the cabin for the week, all of the leeches were going to come back up the drain and attack me while I was in the shower. Thankfully that never happened!

I have picked up the little ones a lot of times usually while swimming. I end up with them on my feet, between toes, and around wherever whoes were touching ankles if I am wearing them. They take a while to get off of there, that's for sure!

So is this the breeding season for leeches?
I've never encountered the little buggers

I don't know their season or even lifecycle, but I've seemed to collect the little 1/8" ones when swimming in moving water in late August/September.

The thing I find interesting is that there isn't any known way of preventing leech attachment.

Like ticks, checking yourself often pays dividends!

I lined through a portage once and collected a ton of those little baby nasties - BUT I was actually wearing thin stretch pants so the joke was on them. I was able to rinse them off, but the thought of them on bare skin was daunting.

At the conclusion of one of my BWCA trips I found a leech on my right foot. I removed the little sucker in the shower let it bleed and then cleaned out the bite area. A week later my foot was the size of a football. This photo is a week after being on antibiotics.

Now a days we wear quick dry socks that are knee high with sandles when swimming to prevent leaches on the feet.

Several years ago, on my kids first trip to the BW, several portages / landings were through ankle high muck. Eventually I noticed what I thought was mud along my teva ankle strap. Tried to brush it off but guess what? It was a leach. Made my husband take it off- and then he found all the babies with it. He thought it was fascinating. I did not.
I was just thankful it was not on my daughter. She's ok with snakes, but an attached leach would have been a major issue.

Not a fan of numerous bloodsuckers being on me.

quote Canoearoo: "Now a days we wear quick dry socks that are knee high with sandals when swimming to prevent leaches on the feet. "

Shudder. I think that's what I'm going to do now, too. I don't know why leeches kind of freak me out when mosquitoes don't.

this thread reaffirms our decision to go with Muck boots and never look back

quote ockycamper: "this thread reaffirms our decision to go with Muck boots and never look back"

+1. This thread is likely to keep me dry-footing a bit longer.

On my daughters first trip, age 5, we arrived at our first campsite and she wanted to swim so bad. She took just a couple steps in the water at our campsite and then came out. She was wondering what was stuck to the bottom of her foot and when we discovered it was a leech she started running around screaming at the top of her lungs. I am sure the other campsite on the other side of the lake could hear her. She wouldn't let me try to take it off at first but kept on screaming for what seemed like an eternity. Finally she let me pull it off with plyers. It didn't come off easily. She recovered from the experience and all was good but she did not want to go swimming in the lake any more. Our family still retells this story from time to time.

quote arm2008: "

quote Canoearoo: "Now a days we wear quick dry socks that are knee high with sandals when swimming to prevent leaches on the feet. "

Shudder. I think that's what I'm going to do now, too. I don't know why leeches kind of freak me out when mosquitoes don't."

Leeches are the one thing that freak me out in life. My kids joke its the only time they will ever hear me scream

quote Canoearoo: "

quote arm2008: "

quote Canoearoo: "Now a days we wear quick dry socks that are knee high with sandals when swimming to prevent leaches on the feet. "

Shudder. I think that's what I'm going to do now, too. I don't know why leeches kind of freak me out when mosquitoes don't."

Leeches are the one thing that freak me out in life. My kids joke its the only time they will ever hear me scream"

Leeches aren't so bad. They don't transmit diseases, they don't cause an infection themselves (though the open wound can be a problem), and they don't hurt when they bite you so its not like there is a pain factor. I find mosquitoes worse because you can't get away from them like you can with leeches, the psychological factor of hearing the buzzing and feeling the bite, then the lasting itch reminding you about how you got bit to be much more annoying and testing of my patience/sanity than picking off a couple leeches.

Anyone ever had the opposite experience? Once, while fishing for pike in a little bay on Snipe I saw something undulating through the water. It turned out to be probably the most horrifying sight I've encountered to date: some sort of giant, green leech with tiny orange diamonds on it that, when fully stretched out, was at least 9 inches long. Thank god it wasn't on someone because I think I'd have had to straight up cut it off (and then burn it and bury it). I have a pic of it around somewhere that I'll see if I can find. I actually captured it and put it in my leech bottle out of fascination.

I once had several itty-bitty leeches, very tiny, between my toes. Just plucked them out. Leeches eek me out, probably just due to the slimy factor.

Mike

quote Xand: "It turned out to be probably the most horrifying sight I've encountered to date: some sort of giant, green leech with tiny orange diamonds on it that, when fully stretched out, was at least 9 inches long. "

The description sounds like it might have been Macrobdella decora.

quote thebotanyguy: "

quote Xand: "It turned out to be probably the most horrifying sight I've encountered to date: some sort of giant, green leech with tiny orange diamonds on it that, when fully stretched out, was at least 9 inches long. "

The description sounds like it might have been Macrobdella decora."

That was it! It was like something out of a horror movie.

Yet another reason to always wear my tall Bean Boots.

I had no idea there were so many hobbits on this board.

Leeches have never really creeped me out too much, but I despise ticks. The only thing worse than ticks are chiggers.