While we were visiting with Lynne last week she mentioned she had sent an email to someone with questions regarding our "leeches" experience. She later sent me this email with their response (thought it was interesting and good to share):
Amy Canning wrote:
Hello Lynne,
I apologize for the delay in responding to your questions about leeches.I checked with one of our biologists, George Oliver, and here are his thoughts: --There are perhaps about a dozen or so species of leeches (maybe as many as ~15) that are known to occur in Utah. --Some of our leeches are blood-sucking parasites, but others (most of them, I think) are not parasitic and do not feed on blood at any point in their life history. --I'm not entirely certain, from Ms. Gilroy's description, that the animals she described were in fact leeches. Her description fits some other aquatic invertebrates, and the fact that only one animal out of approximately 200 "was reported to have blood in it" does not suggest that a blood-sucking species of leech was involved. Even the "one [that]was reported to have blood in it" may not have been a leech. So-called bloodworms are common aquatic invertebrates, of several different,unrelated kinds, that get their English names from the appearance of red "blood" in their bodies; none that I know of is parasitic.
--Even if the one animal was a leech, I would not be at all concerned about it. I've been "attacked" by hundreds of leeches, and I've never experienced any discomfort, infection, swelling or any other negative effect (except for the painless, slow leak of some blood after the leech dropped off---that was just inconvenient and a bit messy). --Our agency doesn't actually manage or oversee leeches. The only invertebrates we monitor and manage are mollusks (e.g., snails,bivalves) and crustaceans (e.g., brine shrimp, crayfish). --APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), a federal agency, has a local office. Their telephone number is (801) 975-3315. It ispossible that they have someone who could address Ms. Gilroy's questions better that we can. (APHIS does have some excellent entomologists, but I don't know whether they have a leech expert.)
I hope this helps address some of your concerns, Lynne.
Thanks again foryour patience!
Amy Canning
Technical WriterUtah Division of Wildlife Resources
(801) 538-4824
1 comment:
I actually looked up some info, too when we got back because Will had a small red spot under his hairline on the back of his neck when we got home. He said it itched real bad, so we put some lanacane on it. I read that it's normal for the spot to itch for about 2 days while it heals. That's exactly how long it took and he was just fine. It seemed pretty harmless, no more than a mosquito bite, but I'm still glad there was only 1 spot. =) Pretty interesting.
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