Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management 8 year old large Swimming pond now has leeches

We have a beautiful swimming pond with sandy beech, rock and stone bottom and landscaped nicely all around, It is weed free and has no mud or clay on the bottom. maybe some decomposing leaves but pretty clean coverall, 7 feet deep at the deepest point, appx size is 25'x50'. We have 2 pumps circulating the water and have a waterfall at one end. We use beneficial bacteria to keep it clean and some times rely on an algaecide. We don't have fish, just frogs - and in the last few years lots of snails. We dug the pond in 2005. Today hubby went for a swim and came out covered in small leeches. I did have 1 last year. But only 1. Maybe the leeches brought in by the occasional duck or goose? how do I get rid of them? the whole reason for the pond was for swimming and I'm way too squeamish to swim with so many leeches. I've heard to using meat as bate, but that doesn't sound promising. could I shock the pond with chlorine or something? I would risk losing all the other living organisms to rid the leeches. but only if it would work. Such a shame, we finally have such a great Eco system. The water is usually very very clear and beautiful.

If you had fish you wouldn't have this problem. Fish eat leeches.

Well not really sure how you could get rid of them all together except like you said. Some sort of chemical or put a few adult red ear in there and a few Large Mouth Bass. They both like leeches and would eat most of them but not sure about all of them??? In that small of a pond though I bet the fish would find most of them pretty quick. This is just me but I would rather swim with a few fish then leeches any day!!!

RC

any particular kind of fish? how many would I need? do they bother you when you swim?

sorry...I guess my question was answered while I was typing. Thanks!
Still leaning toward shocking the system and starting over...because we had eight years without problems I'm hoping we can get rid of this batch of leeches and start fresh. It is not feasible to empty the pond though....

Tonight I made a leech bate with meat in a coffee can. Unfortunately I didn't tie the rope properly and it fell to the bottom of the pool! now we have a can of meat at the bottom and no one wants to go diving in the leech infested water to get it! Yikes! Guess we'll have to try some creative fishing!

Bluegills! However you would need some bass to keep their numbers down. Some claim they will nip at the hair on your body but I've only seen that in ponds where they are stunted and starving.

I'd add a hand full of LMB. With nothing else to eat but leeches and the babies they make, they're be eating a lot of leaches and they won't bother you when you swim.

In areas that are too cold for Redear Sunfish, Pumpkinseeds act like them. I don't think Redear Sunfish (RES) will survive up there.

Agreed, you need a few fish in there to control the leeches. Snails are a problem too, and the Pumpkinseeds will eat them too. Snails are a part of the life cycle of swimmers itch.......

Before I renovated our pond, it was overrun with stunted BG. We still had lots of leeches. I often wondered why.

One of our local lakes used to have leaches and was stocked with rainbow trout.
After it was stocked with yellow perch they all disappeared. I would try a few perch

That would be a good idea blair as far north as she is perch may be the answer. Plus they don't get that big. If it were me I would attempt to get all the same sex fish. That way you would not have to worry about fish everywhere in 2 years! A half dozen perch would take care of it I bet! Only problem is they don't eat snails. So you would still need a few pumpkin seed for that. As stated above red ear may not make it that far north. You would hardly be able to tell 6 perch and 3 or 4 same sex PS brim are even in there.

Good Luck,
RC

I think YP consume snails, mussels, and leeches. Stocking single sex YP in this scenario, for their goals, would seem like the perfect fish to me. IMO

Sounds like a good idea to me. YP are easy to sex in the spring too vs. largemouth bass.

Yes - give the female yellow perch a try. I would add more than 6 maybe 10-12 if you can get that many in spring (ice out to May 07-12(?) before they spawn and females are full of eggs. Reproducing perch will be a problem to too many then you will need a predator. Perch will eat the common pond snail that you can easily crush pinched between your fingers but not eat the other thicker shelled genera very well. If you make a mistake and introduce a male perch then resort to the chlorine - renovation treatment.

Nature always tries to fill vacuums/voids. Water needs something to deal with mosquitos/snails/leeches, etc. Fish make more sense, to me, than chemicals. Especially if I'm going to swim in it.

Yeah, my snails went from zillions this spring to "where the heck did they all go?" as the perch have been growing up. I did not realize, but glad, that perch eat snails. Good news on the leeches, not a big fan of them.

Perhaps stock some perch and a few Walleye to keep the perch in check, which I think do a lot better up North than largemouth bass. Neither perch or WE are anywhere in sight while swimming unless I sneak up on them very slowly while snorkeling.

My sister-in-law has a pond in Maine with no fish for swimming with now has leeches in it. I will send this thread her way. I did not know which fish to recommend. She is misunderstanding in thinking that it is "cruel" to trap fish in a pond, I fixed that notion for her when she saw our pond this past weekend while visiting.

My wife went swimming the first time since renovation. She came up with a few leeches. Now she is in big favor of me getting YP because of what I mentioned about this thread!!!

don't know if I will, but it's great to get approval without even asking!!!!!!

I'm just curious fish n chips.....Are you having a misquito problem with no fish in your pond?

Hang loose-- I have fish, but not in a concentrated form.....yet. We do have mosquitoes around the pond, in a very bad way too. The pond is in a rural/secluded area of old farm fields and woods, so that's probably why, plus a light stocking of adult fish. Here is a link to what I stocked, I think pg3 says exactly
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=24410&Number=309490#Post309490


...........Jim

Just went through this thread again fish n chips.... I think you're going to need some kind of baby fish (fry) to eat all of those mosquitoe (I hope that's the way you spell it) babies in your pond.