snot monster and thing with legs.

[Freeflow]

At 6m at Guildy last weekend I picked up a flat stone. On it were [a] a brown thing that looked like a lump of snot about 4mm across, then it stretched itself to 12mm long and then contracted again. It was light brown-ish.

[b] The other thing was a lighter brown and 8-10mm long. It had lots of legs and some feelers at the head end.

Anyone got any idea what I saw? I have tried an internet search for freshwate wildlife to no avail.

Probably shouldn't have typed in snot monster though.

[pieater]

Originally Posted by Freeflow

At 6m at Guildy last weekend I picked up a flat stone. On it were [a] a brown thing that looked like a lump of snot about 4mm across, then it stretched itself to 12mm long and then contracted again. It was light brown-ish.

[b] The other thing was a lighter brown and 8-10mm long. It had lots of legs and some feelers at the head end.

Anyone got any idea what I saw? I have tried an internet search for freshwate wildlife to no avail.

Probably shouldn't have typed in snot monster though.

I've got [a] for you. It's a leech. I have a massive and serious issue with Leeches. It's a worm, without a head - but with teeth.

I can't deal with that.

In foreign parts with rain forests there are terrestrial leeches that are up to a foot long. They can feel your footsteps as you appraoch, and sometimes you can see the path "moving" in front of you as they get ready to bite.
*uck me, that's grim.

[Prometheus]

Yep
Sounds like you found an aquatic leech can be found in most freshwater ponds and lakes in this country, they attache themselves to fish and using the circular ring of teeth cut into the flesh to allow themselves to become engorged with blood, when full they drop off. They are still used in micro surgery to enable healing.
The leggy monster was probably a caddis grub or some such larveal stage of bugdom.

[frosty the snowman]

Yup, certainly sounds like a leach. I found one in a freshwater pool on Dartmoor and my kids insisted that I demonstrate its sucking abilities...

[Hazel W]

Originally Posted by frosty the snowman

Yup, certainly sounds like a leach. I found one in a freshwater pool on Dartmoor and my kids insisted that I demonstrate its sucking abilities...

funnily enough someone found me in a freshwater pool and was asked the exact same thing

H

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by pieater

I've got [a] for you. It's a leech. I have a massive and serious issue with Leeches. It's a worm, without a head - but with teeth.

I can't deal with that.

In foreign parts with rain forests there are terrestrial leeches that are up to a foot long. They can feel your footsteps as you appraoch, and sometimes you can see the path "moving" in front of you as they get ready to bite.
*uck me, that's grim.

Yep we have them here too and it's certainly not tropical. Not a big deal ATM as it's so dry but during cool damp weather, the bush here is full of em.

When they haven't eaten for a while, they are skinny like an earthworm and they hang off the end of leaves in the scrub and latch onto you as you push through (well more often wallabies). At this stage, they are so skinny, that they can crawl through the eyelets on your boots, through the weave of your socks etc where they get stuck in. First thing you know is that your boots are full of slushy stuff, feels like water but when you take em off, they are soaked in blood and there's a HUUUGE big black leech (6 inches long and an inch across), groping around blindly up your ankle, trying to crawl away to digest his meal.

Usual way to remove em is with salt or a lighted cigarette held close.

When I was in the Army Reserve here, we used to get covered in em when in our Training Area inland of the East Coast. The worst thing is that the blood doesn't coagulate, so you ooze blood for hours and it just makes a horrible mess everywhere. It's not at all painful but I remember lying on the edge of a clearing one cold wet night, for hours on an ambush, imagining I could feel them crawling on the back of my neck. Worst part was that after we'd sprung the ambush some hours later, I hadn't imagined it and I had half a dozen on me, including in my hair, feeding through my scalp and right down my back under my shirt. When I got home from that trip, all three spare uniforms were stiff with dried blood.

I've seen people with em up their noses, even one guy who found one latched on under his foreskin. He wasn't too keen on the idea of the lit ciggy either.

There'a an amusing account of a bit of a leech attack in here

Tassy Highlands Trip

There are some great photos on here if you care to look too.


Richard M

[pieater]

Originally Posted by Richard Mason

Yep we have them here too and it's certainly not tropical. Not a big deal ATM as it's so dry but during cool damp weather, the bush here is full of em.

When they haven't eaten for a while, they are skinny like an earthworm and they hang off the end of leaves in the scrub and latch onto you as you push through (well more often wallabies). At this stage, they are so skinny, that they can crawl through the eyelets on your boots, through the weave of your socks etc where they get stuck in. First thing you know is that your boots are full of slushy stuff, feels like water but when you take em off, they are soaked in blood and there's a HUUUGE big black leech (6 inches long and an inch across), groping around blindly up your ankle, trying to crawl away to digest his meal.

Usual way to remove em is with salt or a lighted cigarette held close.

When I was in the Army Reserve here, we used to get covered in em when in our Training Area inland of the East Coast. The worst thing is that the blood doesn't coagulate, so you ooze blood for hours and it just makes a horrible mess everywhere. It's not at all painful but I remember lying on the edge of a clearing one cold wet night, for hours on an ambush, imagining I could feel them crawling on the back of my neck. Worst part was that after we'd sprung the ambush some hours later, I hadn't imagined it and I had half a dozen on me, including in my hair, feeding through my scalp and right down my back under my shirt. When I got home from that trip, all three spare uniforms were stiff with dried blood.

I've seen people with em up their noses, even one guy who found one latched on under his foreskin. He wasn't too keen on the idea of the lit ciggy either.

There'a an amusing account of a bit of a leech attack in here

Tassy Highlands Trip

There are some great photos on here if you care to look too.


Richard M

*uck me. No wonder we sent all our convicts there. Where's me Prozac?

[frosty the snowman]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

funnily enough someone found me in a freshwater pool and was asked the exact same thing

H

Well at least I didn't feel obliged to buy the leach a drink first.

[Freeflow]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

funnily enough someone found me in a freshwater pool and was asked the exact same thing

H

Fancy Stoney on Sat?

Thanks for the info, I'm glad I didn't get the leach on my hand like I did the thing with legs. None of the group smoke, and I'm sure it would have gone out under water anyway.

Is there a good website for a look at the larvae of various stuff so I can see what it as?

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Freeflow

Fancy Stoney on Sat?

Thanks for the info, I'm glad I didn't get the leach on my hand like I did the thing with legs. None of the group smoke, and I'm sure it would have gone out under water anyway.

Is there a good website for a look at the larvae of various stuff so I can see what it as?

I wouldn't worry too much about em in England - the only one there that bites humans is the Medicinal Leech and I understand that these are now extremely rare, this being a result, initially, of over collecting in the 19th C and latterly, through loss of habitat. There's unlikely to be anything you'll see in Stoney that will bother you, they are more likely to be predatory, like Horse Leeches or else the sort of thing that parasitises fish, water birds etc.

Interestingly, because Australian Leeches are so tough (they have to be to survive in a place that's in drought for months at a time), there was a thriving export industry to the UK in the olden days. Now it's taken off again as they are starting to use them in wound treatments etc. They will go over a year between meals too, so easy to store.

And it's no big deal, a leech bite is completely painless, it's just the "yuck" factor that horrifies people; although the bite does itch a bit a few days later and some people do develop allergies after many bites. The worst thing is the mess, as you bleed for quitre a while and it won't coagulate, meaning it gets everywhere and on everything, which is pretty disgusting.

(so don't let it put you off Aus)


Richard M