Invincible Piscicola leeches?

[kryten22uk]

I use about 30% of bleach, soak only for about 1/2 hour. The other thing you can do is add 4 tbs of salt in just enough water to cover the plant, soak again for about 1.2 hour, rinse well. That will kill living matter and not harm the plant.

Do a test leaf of the plant, see if it harms the leaf before doing the entire plant, some might be more sensitive. Also you could start out with a milder bleach solution.

Wow, can the plants really survive being in bleach or high concentrate water? Does this also kill eggs?

 

[adavisus]

It's fairly easy to try it and see what dose rate works.

Take a 3 gal bucket of water, mix in one tablespoon of domestic bleach, add a representative sample of plants

See how quick all the bugs drop dead... (kersplat)

A few days later, repeat the bleach dose, see if any bugs survive. The air breathing bugs like water beetles might, the submerged insects that have gills or breathe underwater won't. The brief exposure to chlorine released in the water will bump off aquatic organisms that rely on dissolved oxygen

The plants aren't vulnerable to chlorine. Nor are egg capsules

Bleach degrades to a trivial amount of common salts after a day or two. Pffft. gone

 

[callingcolleen1]

Wow, just read about your leeches! I have had leeches in my ponds for over 20 years now and never had I ever had a leech on my fish! Yuck! Maybe down in Texas the leeches are from hell or something!! Ha ha ha

My leechs have spread to every fish tank in my house too, the leeches that I have are Horse Leeches, I suspect.... they can suck from both ends from what I hear, but never had them hanging on any living fish in my fish tanks either or I would really be freaked out for sure!!

From what I have read, Horse leeches live in plants, and they are always in my plants! The leeches that I have, must have came from the plants many many years ago.

I have fast running water in my ponds, most of the surface water is broken by ripples of water at the surface. The leeches seem to stay in the quite areas. The water in my fish tanks and ponds are always crystal clear and everthing always looks good, just don't look too hard or you may find leeches deep in the plants!

I had so many leeches in my 10 gallon fish tank filled with tons of guppies, you can sometimes see them crawling on the glass! But it never effected the millions of guppies in there! I have read that the cleanest lakes in Canada are filled with leeches and they do not affect the fish population at all. For sure you must have some "Monster" type leeches from way down south or something .....

 

[kryten22uk]

Hi all. Just by way of closure on this thread for future searches, after the 3month removal of the fish, it seemed that there were only a few hardy leeches left. When I put the fish back in, they stuck straight to the fish, and all I did was remove the leeches from the fish each day for about 3 days, and after that they were all gone. I think that I broke the breeding cycle by removing the fish. So all that remained were the last hardy adults, or the last set of eggs to hatch. Once removing those, then no more Piscicola!

 

[Big Lou]

I hate leeches. Fording wilderness waterways are a prime spot for those blood suckers. Also detest eels especially lamprey eels. Like like creatures from hell.

 

[addy1]

Hi all. Just by way of closure on this thread for future searches, after the 3month removal of the fish, it seemed that there were only a few hardy leeches left. When I put the fish back in, they stuck straight to the fish, and all I did was remove the leeches from the fish each day for about 3 days, and after that they were all gone. I think that I broke the breeding cycle by removing the fish. So all that remained were the last hardy adults, or the last set of eggs to hatch. Once removing those, then no more Piscicola!

Fantastic, what a good idea! Glad you got rid of them.

 

[HARO]

I hate leeches. Fording wilderness waterways are a prime spot for those blood suckers. Also detest eels especially lamprey eels. Like like creatures from hell.

While working in the bush, we'd have to shave those things off our legs every evening. A razor-sharp hunting knife, five minutes of your time, and Bob's yer uncle!
John

 

[Big Lou]

Salt helps also.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Thats why I say that plants when brought into ponds should be first cleaned well

So true. I bought some pond plants from a gardening store last year and noticed little leeches on them as I had already put two in the pond. I didn't see any after that but it definitely taught me to look for things like that.