Leeches!!!

This past week we had a couple visit us to adopt a dog. Their little girl was splashing around in the shallow end of our spring-fed pond with the dogs for several minutes. When she came out of the water, we noticed two small (1/4") leeches on her legs! [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

How do I make our pond a leech-unfriendly environment? Fish? Pete

Pete,

I don't remember exactly what the chemical was, but when I was a little boy, I remember them killing the leaches in a lake near us. What ever they used was a blue crystal stuff and they tossed it by hand from a small row boat. Worked pretty good for one season and then the leaches were back.

Steve

The chem your looking for is called bluestone.

Bob

Bluestone, AKA copper sulphate. Buy by price, you don't need it to be really pure.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

It's very good for treating fence post's too.

Egon

Hi,

I can understand that you don't want leeches in your pond. But after a couple of centuries of being equated with horror shows and vampires, leeches have a new "respectability."

"Believe it or not, there are farms where people raise nothing but leeches. Not any bloodsucker, though. These are medicinal leeches - the kind Matthew Concannon, MD, keeps on standby. The director of hand and microsurgery at University Hospital and Clinics says medicinal leeches [hirudo medicinalis] are of value to plastic and reconstructive surgeons as they help restore blood circulation to grafted tissues and reattached appendages."

Link to Medical uses of leeches

I have studied Eastern Indian and Persian medicine, and leeches were very commonly used for dozens of different applications up until about 1900. Now they're back, apparently.

Hey, come to think of it, if you ALREADY have them, what about growing for a medical center to buy? They go for top dollar, aropund $7.50 PER LEECH (better than chickens!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] )...

By the way, this is cleared by the FDA FDA Press Release on leeches

Here is a recent web site devoted to current medicinal leeches. This could actually be good commercial business for someone interested in it, and who doesn't get the heebie jeebies.

You need to grow them under special conditions, and only one species is used. But here is the rest of the info: Leeches USA

Six hundred years ago, if you got sick, they stuck a leech on you to make you better. Today, if you get sick, they stick a leech on you to make you better.

And that proves how far medical science has come, because today's leeches are registered purebreds. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]