Sandra

Ok you are hearing this from the spider phobia queen and a person with an even bigger phobia of cockies!

But leeches !!!

It has been raining in Sydney for the last five days..big storm clouds and loads of rain, with a few bits of daylight inbetween.

The electricity went off again (fused cause we put on the heater in the wrong plug) and husband went out to flip the switch ......and came back in and forgot to wipe feet...hence we had two hungry leeches in the kitchen!

eeeuck....you want to believe I keep this house so bug free, I have sprays for everything, sod the ozone (not really I care).

Leeches are tiny worm like things that sort of stand up and search around to latch on to things, it is only when they have sucked they become big so they really aren't something you might notice. Whilst small then can move very well and pretty fast.

But anyway this post is for information really, cause I learnt about the buggers because of this site and now know what I am talking about. It might possibly be where I live (across the road from a national park) but I really did not need them when we have UK visitors!!!

so that is my bit on leeches...but lets on start on ticks!!!

Cheers Sand

Hels

I am not an expert on them, but I do know if you get one on you, salt is the best way to remove them....Just sprinkle salt on them and they shrivel up and fall off....

You dont wanna go tugging on them, cause they are like ticks and can leave their head behind to keep on sucking...(this is what I was told!! Possibly an load of crap, but I will leave that up to you to determine )

markeh

Hels,
if you pull them off, thay leave part of them in you and it gets infected. Nota good idea.

The old heat trick or salt sounds on. (I think I'd use salt, less chance of burning myself )

Bye
Mark

tonyk38

I got covered in leeches in Malaysia. I used to find them looping across the carpet in the evenings!

They're attracted by the Carbon Dioxide you breathe out. If you see one looping towards you, walk around it......it will in all likelihood stop, wave its head around, and loop back towards your new position!

They inject an anticoagulant when they feed so as to keep the blood flowing. This is why you can bleed excessively after removing them. Though not enough to cause any problems I might add. They also inject an anaesthetic so that you don't feel them latch on to you. Having said that, I certainly felt the initial bite when they latched onto me! They're unpleasant for the squeamish, but I rather like them. As a nurse, I've been fortunate enough to observe medicinal leeches do their job. They've saved lives before now.

For the uninitiated, you normally encounter leeches after heavy rain, and usually in or near wet forest areas of Aus. Ticks are more a dry country, and in wetter areas, dry season beastie.

NickyC

I've had a few leeches whilst bushwalking in dampish areas. They don't bother me particularly and I always seem to feel the initial bite (usually around the ankle area) and just whipped them off before they have any chance to get stuck in. Never had any bad after-effects from pulling them off.

chocaholic

Oh no Sandra.......I hadn't considered the possibility of leeches and I see you also live in Sydney. I was just going to walk the dog in my sandals.....but I'm now considering my green wellies.....no it's too hot. Maybe my walking shoes and thick socks. Oh yuk - the thought of leeches makes me squeamish

65 million

Do they have these little blighters in the countryside around Melbourne???

lesleys

I had my first tick the other day. I didn't notice it until several hours later and then it felt like a lumpy scab. I got my thumb and finger nails either side and lifted it off - felt like detaching some very strong velcro. I wrapped it in tissue to look at in the daylight - it was still alive next day so I assume it still had its head. The effect on me was less dramatic than a mozzy bite - a bit sore then itched a bit.

Lesley

philian4

OMG!!!! I think I'm going to get sick!!! I lost a night's sleep when I came across my first Aussie sized cockie. :scared: I like you am terrified of spiders, not quite sure how I'm going to fair when the visa finally arrives and it's all a reality. Is it a really big issue to you??

Regrds,
Phil

Sandra

It is just getting edummmucated

it rains more in Sydney in Summer than in Winter........we all try to live to live nearer the green areas....so we all get more thingys than .....!

I hate the whole creeeeepy crawley thing and I was leaving after my first gecko/lizard in the bathroom in the rental downstairs flat and all it did was poke his head out whilst I was on the loo! My husband swears it was so tiny I was lucky to see it!

The first cockroach whilst cleaning the rental house before we moved in! (hubby hit it and cleaned it up), That first had me on the back porch shaking and crying and swearing the container that came in on monday was going out with me on it! Unpacked! But seriously I had seen cockroaches in some holiday destinations...I just didn't have to stay after two weeks !

Seriously .......my post....is get educated on this thread rather than frighten you later. I heard about leeches on this thread a couple of years ago and never thought for one second it meant anything to me in burbs of Sydney - only after two point five years in Aus I have to worry about leeches! but we did have horrible rain rain rain for five days. (but it might have filled the dams!)

So ..........my point.........it happens,
Sydney
has spiders...I freak! however small
cockroaches.....I freak! the smaller the worse I freak
Ants....I cover my food

have you got the message .....I personally am a complete nightmare about bugs....well to tell the other side of the story - I love living in Sydney, I love being educated about the bugs ...so I know. Tissue paper (bog roll) ....wipe it up and flush it when I shout loud enough for my son to do it! ....But then again in the UK I used to phone my husband on night shift and warned him about the pint glass I managed to get over a spider in the house in the UK!!

I am the world worse bug freak, And 2.5 yrs in..knowledge is the key, they teach the kids in school not to be idiots about swimming/boogie boarding....dark bits of the garden/sticking hands in dark bits of the gargage....et al. We did not get that growing up.....so get over and get on....????

Thanks to this site I knew what to look for! We all just need more education from each other and we will live with it too......



cheers Sand

honeybob

we use leeches alot at work and larvae therapy too. i don't find the leeches are usually the problem, in any way, it's enabling a patient to cope with the fact they have a parasite/s attached to their body that obviously is the dilemma!

to dislodge them we just nip them with forceps and pull them off, i've never had one of them leave their head behind, they do get quite big once they've done their job but they aren't very nimble then! but they do latch on with both ends!

however, being australia, the 'breed' out there will i'm sure, be very different!

as for ticks, what the hell did they evolve from! tonyk (aka david attenborough) over to you mate!

bob..

philian4

We're off to Wollongong. Got friends in Sydney and Kiama, when we visited I was ok (ish!) with most animal/creepycrawlies but the Cockies freaked me. It does cheer me up slightly to hear how freaked you are as I thought I would be on my own! (In fact my hubbie reckons I'll be on the first flight home-like he'd know!) My friend in Sydney is hillariously casual about the cockies, she's been there 8 years, she just sweeps them under the fence into next door (and they do the same back!) I was quivering in my boots (well flip flops actually!) and she was totally unphased.

Still worse things to worry about in life I suppose!

Phil

tonyk38

Hi Matey!

Attenborough indeed!

I walk a fine line on this forum between hopfully providing what info I have.....
and totally freaking people out!

I had a couple of ticks on me in Aus. They feel like itchy scabs and tear away from your skin like velcro (very good way of describing it Lesley), both were on my back under my clothes and both were picked up in rainforest in the dry season.

Ticks are arachnids, thus related to spiders. Unfortunately, they're not all harmless and you can get tick fever from some species which may require hospital treatment.

I've seen larva therapy too.....I was the only one on the ward who wasn't too squeamish to work with the tissue viability nurse when he changed them for a new 'batch'. I remember later that day finding one wriggling around in the patient's medical folder!

ezzie

Ok....what the hell is 'larva therapy'?

tonyk38

DISCLAIMER........

Squeamish folks please look away now.......
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larva therapy is the application of flesh-eating maggots to wounds and ulcers that have started going gangrenous in order to 'clean' the wound. Naturally the patient has to consent to the treatment.......

They're more accurate than surgeon's knives and can usually do a very good job, sometimes of saving someone's limb!

However, you then have to remove them with tweezers once they've done their job. Sometimes they object to being removed and scarper in every direction. I once heard an account where they escaped all over the ward. It took two hours to round them all up!