The back yard has become taken over by leeches. I thought I’d try to catch them to relocate.

Australia and SouthEast Asia are the only known places where leeches live on land, usually in wet or moist forests. These are the kinds most likely to attach themselves to you! The bulk of the world’s recorded leech species are aquatic and become attached when paddling in creeks or rivers.

Australia’s known land species are found on the east coast, east of the Great Dividing Range. It is difficult to distinguish land or aquatic leeches by sight alone and many species are brightly coloured and marked. Australia’s land leeches only have two jaws whereas the world’s other species have three jaws.

Leeches contain a component in their saliva which prevents blood from clotting and allows them to have their fill before dropping off. This anticoagulant can cause a wound to bleed slightly after the leech has been detached. It’s said a leech can suck up to 10 times its own body weight in blood.