Blood Suckers

Yikes! thought I upon finding this leech on a dead Pennywort leaf in the pond today. Looked around online and called the guy at Sunland Water Gardens, who said that if one has a pond, one is pretty much going to have leeches. They are introduced by plants, they like muck (supplies of which ponds provide), and they won't harm the goldfish, he says. If the fish see the leeches, they're likely to eat the leeches, he says.


It's gross, but I guess they're fine. There was something online about trapping them in a submerged coffee can with raw hamburger meat inside, but everybody posting on that site said it didn't work anyway. That sounds grosser than the leeches themselves, which aren't very large. . . yet? So, there are leeches in my pond, and that's oh. . .kay.



P.S. Last night I hadn't properly set the scarecrow. Bradley heard a noise at 4 o'clock and went out back with the flashlight to find at least two (maybe three) humongous raccoons out back at the pond. The fat sonsabitches just stood there and stared back at him until he pegged one with a stone.

Once I came out, they were making all kinds of racket behind the shed, and to avoid the barking neighbor dog (barking dog of the neighbor, I should say), they start crossing the top of the rear fence. I'd say those two suckers (not the leech kind) were forty pounds each! Tonight I will not make the same mistake with the scarecrow. As a matter of fact, I might even turn it up to five. Plus, we bought a big piece of flagstone in Tujunga today and made a much more significant structure under which the fish can hide.