Leeches in oregon?

[fish0n]

Do we have leeches (blood suckers) in OR/WA?

[Subtlety]

leeches live in almost every body of water and I do not believe there are any blood sucking ones in oregon..

[MikeT]

Leeches suck blood.
Last year I was duck hunting on the lower Columbia and had a few ducks piled up in the marsh grass. It's a tidal area and everything was very wet.
When I packed up I found LOTS of leeches on the ducks (that obviously weren't there when I shot them.). They didn't seem interested in me or the dog, though.
Next time you're wading wet remember they're everywhere.....

Mike:laugh:

[Fish_N_Russ]

yeah all leeches suck blood and they are just about everywhere its a moderate climate

[NWFloridian]

Leeches are definitely in Oregon, and they definitely will suck human blood if given the chance. Last spring while chasing carp in our local sludge pond, my buddy Mike picked one up on his foot. He didn't notice it until the following day, so it had been there for at least 12 hours or so. Yuck! :sick:

[Queeg]

... I do not believe there are any blood sucking ones in oregon..

Having emerged from various Oregon bodies of water with leeches sucking my blood, I have to believe otherwise!

[Threemuch]

I fished the Deschutes at the end of the salmonfly hatch in my shorts, because it was so dang hot, and I wound up with really small leeches ALL OVER. Not to mention a pretty good case of poison oak. Waders for me in that river from now on. So they are definitely in the Columbia and it's tributaries, and probably every other fresh body of water from a puddle to crater lake.

[tnj8222]

leeches arent in all the waters but they are all over the place. i noticed they are mostly in still water mucky areas.

man that dude didnt know he had a leech on him for hella long i couldnt go in any water without a shower right away afterwards.

[Aufish101]

Yes, there are leeches in Oregon. I was at Marion Lake one time and was talking to a fellow fisherman that had his fish sitting in the water next to the bank when I saw a leech swim into the gills of the fish. At Crane Prairie while turning logs to get bugs, Dragon Fly Larvae, you would see these blobs on the bottom of the logs, they where leeches. At Paulina, I was visiting one of the hot springs, and while in-joying the water a couple of them floated by. They where dead, but it just makes you wonder when your in the buff!!

Aufish101 http://members.aol.com/garyk10/images/poisson_39.gif

[joemomma]

My kids will swim in anything! Spent some time burning them off them at Crane Prairie

[wheredafish]

Be careful if you get a leach on you. be sure to allow it to pull itself off by pinching it or burning it with a match. If you were to pull it off yourself you might end up with it's proboscis in your body with can cause a bad infection and you could end up sepsis. If anyone ever gets a leach attached the wound needs to be cleaned throughouly and observer for a week for sign of toxic striations ( red spider-like marks on the skin around the wound).
I few years ago I got a leach while fishing Lost lake on the santiam pass and pullled it off after running around screaming like a girl. 5 days later I has flu like symptoms, fever, chills, N/V ect. me whole calf was red and swollen with toxic striations and numb around the site. After 30 days of heavy hitter antibiotic I was back to normal aside from hte small numb spot on my leg.... I will never wet wade a lake again.....

just my two cents...

[AndyK]

I've lived in Oregon my entire life and never got a leech on me. Then again, I always use waders.

I had many, many leeches on me in Viet Nam. I found that the military insect repellent (aka Jungle Juice) worked good to prevent them and for removal. Just apply a quantitiy of Jungle Juice above the leech and as it flows down your skin and hits the leech, the leech would immediately let go on its own. The leech was usually full of blood and when it let go, it would lose most of the blood it had been sucking up!

[Wild Chrome]

Haven't you all seen the movie "Stand By Me"?

My vote for "best leech seen in a movie"!

[Tanner]

One decided to attach itself to my leg once while I was fishing Lake Creek not far from where Suttle Lake flows into it. This thing was close to 2" long and it was definitely sucking my blood.

[Snakebite]

Hey! They make great bait! Why do you think fly fishers use a leech pattern?

[Tick Camper]

Great topic, I have had the little buggers attach to my waders, on the Deschutes.
I would rather deal with leeches the ticks, but have had my share of both.

[Slow and Low]

I saw one in the water swimming about 2 inches long above colorado on the deschutes.

[Mokai]

When I was a kid I use to pluck them off of rocks at Crane Prairie...Some of them were pretty big..

[Paddlefish]

My 5-year-old daughter climbed out of Davis Lake on a hot mid-summer day in the mid-1970s with quite a number of leeches attached to arms and legs. Not knowing any better, we just pulled them off, drawing a bit of blood but with no other ill effects, fortunately. She lost all interest in swimming Davis Lake however!