You can try a 'leech trap'.
1.) Start with a coffee can with a plastic lid.
2.) Poke holes in the sides of the can with a nail. Holes should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch in size. The nail holes should leave a sharp burr on the inside of the can (approximately 50 holes).
3.) Put about 1/4 cup of raw meat in the can (ground beef, liver, chicken or turkey giblets are recommended).
4.) Put the lid on the can and submerge it completely in your pond. A rock placed on top of the can will prevent it from falling over and will help prevent snapping turtles from tampering with it.
5.) Check the trap a couple of times a week and remove the leeches. Keep the trap in the pond until the leech numbers decrease, or you no longer catch any leeches in the trap.
(Courtesy of
www.the pondguy.com)
@Dave 54 Oh, I am so sorry to hear! But I wonder if the fish died of "other" causes, and the leeches found the body afterward?
@Meyer Jordan I didn't have the "recipe," but I was going to suggest something similar, as they are attracted to raw flesh.
I'll occas. find a small leech when I clean filters. I usually don't do anything about them, but I may start now!! I was always of the impression that they were one of those signs of a healty pond ecosystem.
We had our health expert out at 19:00 BST last night , after having looked at the leaches we had taken off the dead koi.
His thoughts on the leaches that in his view they where not from the pond .
We next took out the dead koi and with him we spent a good 15 minutes going over its dead body in great detail and could find non of the tell tail markings that leaches leave after feasting .
We also took in the koi's condition which apart from a few damaged scales and damaged tail [from its stuggles],we could find nothing at all wrong with the koi .
In fact it was in tip top condition ready for the rigures of winter , so an equally mortifiying thought has now hit us, in that anything landing on the pond sets off a feeding frenzy.
We see the same frenzy when feeding our koi pellets or alternate feeds and in it we see koi literally lifted right out of the water.
So looking at the evidence putting everything together with the evidence provided that weve come to the conclusion that more than possibly an insect landed on the pond and the frenzy was activated this koi entred the frey and rather unluckily for it one or two of our largest koi came up under it and acidentally knocked it clear out of the water and over the side o the pond to be found later that morning by Val and I.
But we are going to look at all the evidence because we missed out the leaches , they may just have happened upon the koi and are not from the pond.
So today we are going to take a close look at some of our koi looking for evidence of a leach infestation in the pond, if we cant find any then we have nothing to worry about there , however we are going to have to think of a quick fix for the pond edges .
My thoughts at the moment are on a large length of bungee strap, wrapped around and across the pond.
Any koi being forced upwards in the frenzy would then b e deflected by the strapps an idea we had toyed with before but removed after my incident with the new parasol.
I'll add an update after the tests and let you know what we found and if our conclusions are indeed right .
@Meyer Jordan @Mmathis many thanx for your ideas about a leach trap [plus you had your own ideas about the same suggestion Maggie] , its a great idea and something that is so easy to make [now all I need to do is to is try and get Val to part with one of her old coffee tins], no mean feat
.
Dave
