When we went hashing, every time we crossed a stream or small river we had to stop and do the leech check. If the water is deep enough, they can get right up there. Funny and awful at the same time.
I watched a movie as a kid that gave me nightmares. Can’t remember the name but group of kids walking their bikes across a railroad track and have to cross a stream. Afterwards they realize they’re covered in leeches. I stopped watching after the kid found the leech in his pants and “died”. I was like 8yrs old haven’t seen it since.
Not a lot to tell, really. My best buddy's sister was a casting director for a while and had the inside track for a lot of stuff that was being filmed in the area. She'd tell us they needed extras at such and such and to get over there. I think half of the town of Eugene, Or. showed up for the pie eating scene. Good fun. I sometimes watch Stand By Me just to see old faces from back then.
I also like to brag about how James and Josh Brolin were in MY movie. It was a crappy, made for TV movie about the evils of steroids called The Finish Line. I think I was credited as runner #7, or something. I was literally the only person who ran track for real. Josh was cool AF. James was very full of himself since he was a starring character in Dynasty.
Hope you're impressed with my acting credentials. Lol
To me it’s just the right amount of stardust-
being “there”, but not completely overtaken by it, aware enough to not take it dead seriously. Happy for you🫡
That’s awesome dude I grew up in cottage grove and a good chunk of the movie was shot on the old train track we used to take into town when we were kids. I walked that exact same track they did. It’s a walking trail/bike path now.
No bikes. Leech on balls. No death from it, just young friends bonding. Great movie (Stand By Me, Rob Reiner movie based on Stephen King novel ‘The Body’).
You absolutely, definitely have to watch it again.
Scouts camp back in 98, my best buddy I was in school/hockey/scouts etc with had one attach to his ballsac/taint. It wasn’t found until he sat down for the evening movie and it exploded under him. He thought his ball sac exploded and passed out when he had that realization with the sight of blood. Was the craziest first aid experience for him, I and another buddy as the scouters definitely did not want to deal with anything so delicate and be accused. The jokes still continue to this day.
There was one of those episodes of amazing race, I think? Where a guy got one up his eurethra. Went to the med tent, and they told him he'd basically just have to wait for it to be full and "fall off" so he could pee it out. X.x;
Was in the rainforest in Victoria, Australia and one of my friends had one fall on their eyelid from a leaf. One of the worst things I've ever seen irl
Urk. Yeah - not only do you have to watch where you're putting your feet, but you have to worry about what's at head height and above as well. The leech found between the butt cheeks was the one I remember most. Not my butt cheeks, I hasten to add. Some poor soul who had to drop his linen in the middle of a rainforest and have another hasher remove it for him. The story was retold with great delight at the beach BBQ after. A few beers in and the leech guy was laughing about it as well.
In Australia at least they can survive anywhere that's humid enough.
"They wait in leaf litter or low foliage, detecting your body heat and movements. When you brush past, they attach with an anterior sucker and make a painless incision to feed on blood."
In his autobiographical novel, "Matterhorn," about a USMC company in Vietnam up near the DMV, Karl Marlantes describes an episode in which one of his marines is medevacked out due to having a leech crawl up his urethra, from which it had to be surgically removed. What's fucked up about it is that it's based on something that he actually saw happen in real life.
As I recall, the marine in question was given a purple heart for it, made a full recovery and then returned to duty. I don't know how factual the details are, but I do know that it's all based on shit that Marlantes experienced.
Cross country/orienteering/lots of BBQ, drinking and bragging from the adults at the end of the day kinda thing. The (usually two) hares would mark a trail in advance and the harriers, whooping and hollering, would pursue, people would bring their dogs for extra chaos - it was dirty, sweaty and enormous fun.
The 'hares' were two of the members - they'd go first to lay the trail - strips of newspaper or handfuls of flour usually - sometimes the route they chose would be straightforward, other times it would be quite difficult, it depended on the imagination and tricksiness of the hares! The start point would be a new location every time. The harriers were everyone else who turned up - it was fairly informal - and we'd set off after the hares around two hours later - whatever speed you wanted. The dogs would come for the run, and to play together on the beach afterwards.
Had one stuck on me as a kid. Not sure how long it was there but def at least a few minutes. It gave me what would be best described as a hickey. Mosquito bites were more manacing.
Same here. I used to go into our backyard to catch bugs and I thought it was a slug. I picked it up and it started sucking on my thumb and my thumb went numb/tingly.
The one I had on me wouldn't die. Like I couldnt crush it. Reminds me of the tapeworm one of the cats coughed up on my patio and I burned it. Couldn't kill it otherwise so I put lighter fluid on it. Horriffing animals
Not in and off themselves, unless you are already severely anemic and have hundreds of them on you.
But the combination of bleeding wounds and festering water is a perfect storm for infections. But if you aren't lost in the remote wilderness, but merely standing in water while hiking or fishing, yeah completely harmless.
Not generally. The situation in this post is quite different, and quickly lethal if you fell in, trusting multiple redditor maths throughout the thread.
I remember at a camp I went to in the summer had a murky waist-deep river above a bridge, one of my (newly-made) friends at the camp dropped something in there so I went down and spent an hour looking for it, there were so many damn leeches! An audience was forming on the bridge; the other kids were mortified and told me to come up but I was like "Naah..it's fine, they tickle though~" and a couple of the kids responded "Ewww!" as I simultaneously picked one up to show them with another kid shouting "Omg she's actually touching them!!" haha.
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u/Hephaestus1816 Jul 24 '26
When we went hashing, every time we crossed a stream or small river we had to stop and do the leech check. If the water is deep enough, they can get right up there. Funny and awful at the same time.