What are the leeches commonly found in rice paddies most afraid of?

Summary: There are lots of leeches in rice paddies, and what should you do if you get bitten?

Leeches are extremely common in daily life, especially when fishing or washing clothes in rivers, and they are also very common in the south during rice transplanting. If you are not careful, one will latch onto your body and suck your blood, and people who are afraid of molluscs will be frightened out of their wits by leeches. Actually, leeches are not as scary as you might imagine. Let us take a look at what leeches are really afraid of.

What should you do when a leech is sucking your blood?

I believe everyone played with slugs as a child; they are like snails without shells. According to what old people said, if you sprinkle salt on a slug it will slowly melt away, but after trying it countless times, the slug only slowly died and did not truly melt away. The reason for giving this example is to say that leeches, like slugs, are molluscs. To adapt to freshwater and humid environments, their skin has degraded to being very thin, and sprinkling salt on them or dripping highly concentrated salt water on them can make leeches lose water, promote the seepage of internal body fluids, and then die.

If you are accidentally bitten by a leech in the wild, absolutely do not pull it off with your hands, because this will only make the leech suck tighter and tighter, and after you forcefully pull it off, the leech's sucker may remain inside the skin and could very likely cause infection. If you do not have a hypertonic liquid with you to "kill" the leech, sprinkling soap or laundry detergent water on the leech has the same effect. If you have none of these things, roasting it with fire or shaking the bitten area can also make the leech fall off on its own. Of course, when working in the wild, wearing rubber boots and long trousers, tucking the trouser cuffs in, or applying mosquito repellent to exposed areas is the best way to prevent leech bites.

Besides being afraid of the salt water, soapy water, laundry detergent water, and fire mentioned above, leeches are also afraid of their natural enemies.

Leeches have many natural enemies. Crayfish, fish, rodents, snakes, mosquitoes, birds, and ants are all natural enemies of leeches. This small and rather unpleasant animal is also struggling to live in the natural environment.

Rodents are the biggest natural enemy of leeches. When leeches are active along the banks, rodents will come to the banks and have a hearty meal. Ants pose a relatively large threat to leeches during their egg-laying period and to leech eggs. When leeches lay eggs they lose their resistance, and ants will then attack the leeches. In addition, leech eggs are also a favourite food of ants.

Both fish and snakes can prey on leeches in the water. Although leeches have strong vitality, they have not a single bone in their entire body and find it very hard to pose a threat to fish and snakes, so after being caught they can only obediently become food for fish and snakes.

Finally, let me share with you some information about the largest leech in the world. In November 2013, the world's largest leech was discovered in Malaysia, with a length of more than 1.5 m. It is said that it could swallow a chicken whole. How much blood would it have to suck to grow that big?

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