01 August 2024

Remembering the leeches of Leech Lake


I've just returned from a vacation at Leech Lake in northern Minnesota, which I visited every summer for most of my childhood.  The lake's name is an anglicisation of the Ojibwa Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag ("lake abundant with bloodsuckers"), and it seemed that way back in the 1950s.   When the fish aren't biting, one spends a lot of time gazing down into the water, and it wasn't unusual to see leeches swimming by (we didn't use them for bait, though others often did).  And after swimming (including at the city lakes down around Minneapolis) it was a common experience to pluck a tiny black leech from one's toeweb or from one's ankle.

But this week the title of an article in the "Curious Minnesota" section of the StarTribune asks "What happened to all the leeches in Leech Lake?"  There is no definitive answer in the article, though the common anecdotal observation is that the leeches are much less common than they were in our childhood.  

See also -

Image (credit Kim Hyatt/Star Tribune) cropped for size from the original.

7 comments:

  1. Good grief, 200 pages of leeches. shiver
    xoxoxoBruce

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  2. I don't know about leeches as pets, but they do have medical uses. People scoff at the use in the Middle Ages of leeches, but they are still occasionally used now to keep down swelling after treatment. (I don't remember leeches in Lake Harriet, but it was a long time ago...)
    Sandra

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  3. Thanks for the non-paywalled Star Tribune article - they usually are.

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    Replies
    1. When links are paywalled, try plugging them into the archive:

      https://archive.is/

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  4. The canary died and there's no escaping the mine.

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  5. UGH.

    Part of my childhood trauma was being forced to live hours inland in south east Queensland, riding a bike to school entailed traversing a few fords.
    Upon arriving one of the teachers would use his cigarette to burn off all the leeches on our feet.
    Thankfully I later on escaped to a more friendly antipodean island, which is sans leeches.

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    1. We had a similar incident, but at camp. Being young teens and boys, we were all learning how to smoke cigarettes at camp. At an outing to a lake that had leeches, one of the campers did get a leech on his foot. The counsellor asked if anyone had a cigarette, saying that there would be no repercussions for providing one. No one did (I don't think anyone had any with them any way). They ended up using a lit match to encourage the leech to let go.

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