Leeches are usually more of an annoyance than an active threat. Photo / Derek Flynn
Leeches are usually more of an annoyance than an active threat. Photo / Derek Flynn
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Mention leeches to people and they may recall Humphrey Bogart in the film "The African Queen", his chest covered in the slimy suckers after pulling his little steamboat with a rope through a steamy, weed-clogged waterway.
It's a long way from Africa to Binna Burra, in the forestedhills behind the Gold Coast, but leeches can be a worry here too.
My wife and I had eaten lunch at the Binna Burra Mountain Lodge's clifftop teahouse cafe after walking a rainforest trail, when an employee asked if I knew I was bleeding. No, I didn't.
I was wearing shorts, and she pointed at my leg halfway between knee and ankle where a narrow stream of blood was coursing into my sock. When I removed my socks and hiking shoes there was more blood.
At least a half-dozen of the leeches that frequent the walking trails, especially after rain, had painlessly attached themselves to my legs for a meal.
Cafe staff, accustomed to dealing with leeches, helped me remove the little black slugs, which measured from less than a centimetre to one of 2.5cm, from my legs, socks and shoes.
My wife was wearing slacks and did not realise that she, too, had been leeched until she noticed bloodstains later.
Like Bogart and his co-star, Katherine Hepburn, we exterminated the leeches - his were much larger and plumper than mine, and on his body as well - with dollops of salt and there were no after-effects.
Leeches don't rate a mention in a list of 11 steps for your safety in the bush offered by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, although they're not really a hazard, just unpleasant.
The Victorian Poisons Information Centre warns that applying heat to a leech - as seen in some old movies - with a cigarette, a lighter or hot coal, may burn you and that it is better to use salt, salt water or vinegar.
That will cause an actively sucking leech to vomit and fall off, although it would do that anyway after about 20 minutes.
The centre says leeches cause unwarranted fear in many people even though their bite is almost painless and hardly ever a problem.
But it is possible to get an infection where the leech is pulled off, tearing the skin, and on rare occasions a bitten person can have an allergic reaction.
