Don't ever go bush walking without closed shoes

[TelC@t]

Yeah, I was doing some fun bush walking with friends today ... wearing sandals. It rained earlier so the track was slippery. Suddenly I felt some stinging sensation on my foot. I thought it was a twig. Then I had a look - OMG there was this leech attached to the bottom of my right foot. Since none of us had salt with us, I had to keep on hitting myself on the spot where leech was until it finally gave up and dropped to the ground.

Then we continued our journey, one of my friend asked "so how is your wound" and turned to look at me, then she screamed "OMG there is another one on your leg". Indeed there was another bigger leech on my left leg. But it doesn't take long before I got it off. Maybe the that leech already got enough blood - it took an whole hour before that wound stop bleeding.

The lesson learnt: don't go bush walking without closed shoes, or else bring salt and band aid .

[Dim]

Cool

[King Missile]

very usefull information for this bushwalking society here

[Subjugation]

what the hell is bushwalking? and wth are you doing chillin in leech infested waters? i thought the internet was restricted to civilized parts of the globe.

[Fit of Rage]

If ever there was a candidate for Useless Crap, this is it.

[Scuggs]

why doesnt someone just can telcat already

[Dameon Angell]

don't you have to burn off leeches? you can't just rip them off?

[Azhran]

don't you have to burn off leeches? you can't just rip them off?

You'd probably die from massive bloodloss if you rip them off

[TelC@t]

don't you have to burn off leeches? you can't just rip them off?

You are not supposed to rip them off, because the harder you try the harder it attachs itself to your skin. So at the end, you will probably rip your skin off. Also since they are attached to your skin, if you burn them, you basically burn yourself too ... unless you use cigarette. But none of us smoke, so that was out of the option.

The best way is to use salt or vinegar on them. If you have neither, hit yourself on where the leech is attached to until it falls off.

[Jacklyn]

heh..like 4 years ago when i fell and made a boo boo on my knee and it got infected..the doctor wanted to use the leech and suck out the bad blood..and i shuddered and told him no...

[Gemfire]

How can you not tell when a leech attaches...Everytime im using them for fishing bait...they try and latch on....i can always tell immediatley when they try to...even if im looking away o.o

[Dameon Angell]

Leeches have to be the only small parasitical bug that I'm deathly afraid of. *cringe*. My dad told me too many stories about them when he was in Vietnam. :/. and Yeah. he told me about the cigarettes. scary shit.

[Jeansi]

Experts say smoking kills, but this shows that it can be a life-saver as well.

[ajaxee]

This is actually a fairly interesting topic.im curious though, are these leaches that you got from walking through weeds? or leaches that were in ponds or some body of water you were wading through?

[TelC@t]

I don't know ... if I had seen where they were I would not have got them, would I? But yes I immerced my feet in a creek once. We also took a few short breaks to catch up with our breath, so those leeches could have taken those oppoturnities to climb up.