Leeches; disembodied stomachs crawling along waving 300 razor
sharp teeth at the end of their tiny necks.
Mouths filled with anticoagulants and painkillers designed to allow them
to feast on my blood without detection.
Leeches; not what I want to see when I pull back my kayak
skirt. And yet it’s happened-
twice.
This little creature is the most recent.
Oh sure, it looks all innocent and plump, but trust me, it
was just waiting for bare flesh to get near it.
Worse, while I was looking for a stick to remove it, it crawled under my
seat and hid.
“Pour some water in your boat,” Mark suggested; being as unwilling
as I to reach in after it.
I tried that, to no effect.
“Let’s just put the hose on it at home.”
With a sigh, I helped lift my kayak onto the car. But, at
home, after running the hose under the seat, the leech failed to appear.
“Maybe it just crawled away on its own.”
Oh yeah, I’m going to trust that this little blood sucker is
gone and not just lingering under my seat waiting to act out scenes from Stand
By Me. I don’t think so.
It took a pancake spatula, and a few minutes of searching, but I made sure my
cockpit was leech-free; for now anyway.
A few leech related links:
This Youtube video shows a Maine leech merrily crawling over the surface of a kayak. I’m not sure if my
leech came in off a foot, or if it just crawled up over the side and slipped in; I had not worn a skirt through the entire paddle.
And this article is by Tamia Nelson- who claims to like leeches,
and offered the same advice Mark did: "Deal with it- leeches are everywhere; unlike mosquitos and ticks, leeches are not linked to any serious diseases." Easy for Mark to say, he’s never been
surprised by a leech hiding in his boat.
How about you?? Leech fan or foe? Any great leech stories to share??