if you turned into a leech what colors and patterns would u have. id b a h. medicinalis and id be black with glowing red markings.....
Oouuhhh that’s hard. Aesthetically I really enjoy turtle leeches, they are quite pretty
BUT I also really enjoy how European medicinal leeches look like scary slimy jet-black nightmare worms at first but if you look at them under better lighting they’re just like. A tacky scarf
I might also go for H. medicinalis because I do like their fancy stripes and speckly bellies.
His (their? Its?) Name is Larry. I got him from a swamp in Tacoma.
He seems like a *Placobdella* leech, usually feeding on snails and frogs. But i got him to feed on me.
Here he is all stretched out, lounging.
The thing is, there are so few resources about how to care for leeches, especially of this variety. Does anyone know? Any fellow leech lovers on tumblr have any idea about what they need to be happy?
ID: ID: The first image is a screenshot of discord user iz/@anonymousalchemist saying "i need someone to draw a chibi astarion in place of the leech tbh. or some other vampire." The second image is a screenshot of discord user joc/@herbgerblin asking, "With the bow?" Iz confirms, ":3 with the bow." End ID
The Third image is an edited screengrab of a Twitter post. The user's name is not visible, but their icon is of an anime girl wearing pink. The caption has been edited to say, "Feeding time for Astarion again!! I just love watching him get bigger from my blood (blushing emoji)" The photos included in the post have been edited to include a drawn, chibi-version of Astarion wearing a large, pink bow on his neck. He clings to the user's arm, blood trickling around his mouth. End ID.
Hi Dr Scherz, not a frog question but did you also interact with leeches in Madagascar? I heard they suck blood and live with frogs? 🧛
It's spoopy season, friends. Strap in.
Here's a teaser:
Look how cute it is. How much panic could it really cause?
Read the tags before continuing. You have been warned.
So terrestrial leeches are very common at moderate elevations in Malagasy rainforests. The worst I have ever encountered was around 1200 m above sea level on Montagne d'Ambre in the north of Madagascar. I had been warned, but I was not prepared.
On our first night at this elevation, we went out in search of reptiles and frogs and were absolutely besieged by leeches. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. Panic broke out, because you couldn't stop to flick them off onto the ground without having more make it onto you, and the people at the back of the line were picking up those that the leaders had flicked off. We ran back to camp.
In camp, the situation was not much better. Every now and then you would feel an itch and find a leech attached here or there. Small, but annoying, and itchy!
Porters bringing supplies to camp arrived in their sport shorts with their legs completely coated in blood. Even the reptiles were beset by the leeches.
Over the next few days, we managed to adjust, and to find solutions that helped reduce the leech burden. But our clothes were stained in blood, especially around the waist, where the leeches attach when they reach the top of your trousers. I preferred this to the alternative…
You can stop reading here if you are squeamish. Really. You might not want to know.
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One night, working in a tiny forest fragment in northeastern Madagascar, my colleague Marius ran over to me and said 'I have something in my eye, can you check what it is?'. I turned my headtorch on his eye, and there was the black, glistening shape of a leech that had decided that today's meal of choice was sclera.
I had heard and read about this before. Colleagues working in southeastern Madagascar had told me horror stories. I had watched youtube videos about people getting leeches in their eyes. I was prepared with the bad news.
'You're going to have to leave it in,' I explained to Marius, trying to keep the panic from my voice. 'It will drop off by itself. You could really hurt your eye if you try to get it off.'
This did not have the desired effect. Marius and one of our guides exchanged a quick stream of Malagasy that I did not follow. Marius started pouring water into his eye, with no effect. Slowly, the guide began rolling up his zipper in the cloth of his coat, as I watched on, equal parts fascinated and horrified, emitting feeble protests of 'but I read on the internet…' and 'I really think you should leave it in…' (knowing in my heart that I would be doing exactly the same thing as Marius, were I in his situation).
I understood what was planned, and elected to help as best I could. While Marius knelt, I shone my headtorch into his eye. The guide crouched over him, and in one swift but firm movement, wiped the cloth-wrapped zipper over the leech. It came free, and out, and Marius blinked, dousing the eye in still more water.
Over the next days, I had several close encounters, catching leeches at my cheek or on my chin, almost as though they were targeting the eyes. Sometimes when I would go to check a random itch on my face, I would find a leech on my hand on the way up.
Since then, when I walk through a rainforest where I know there are leeches, my body is on a constant subconscious rhythm: check the sleeves, check the hands, use the hands to check the face, check the sleeves, check the hands, use the hands to check the face…
So far, I haven't had the misfortune to experience this myself, but having gotten to experience it second hand, that is quite enough for me, thank you very much.
I also realised that by having a tight seal between rain jacket and rain trousers, the face is the first target a leech might come to. This is why I no longer make this a tight connection, and welcome leech bites at the waistline. They are better than the alternative.