How can I treat water infested with leeches?

More Kiprotich Kiptum's questions See All

Reclamation of the Sahara desert to combat Climate Change.

I am having this idea of reclaiming part of the Sahara by planting trees to see whether it will assist in combating Climate Change.

01 January 1970 4,335 12 View

Where i will get the Desmodium and Napier grass seeds?

26 February 2021 975 4 View

Are there methods for automatically mapping floodplains, fans and terraces?

I want to map these river geoforms with as little subjectivity as possible. I have a high resolution DEM generated by drone data.

22 February 2021 7,800 3 View

Habitat Suitability through GIS without presence-absence data?

What kind of models/techniques can be used with GIS spatial analysis in order to determine habitat suitability for a species that is not (widely) present in a certain region? For my bachelor...

31 January 2021 2,777 2 View

What are possible factors influencing the isotope-based hydrograph separation in river confluences?

When performing hydrograph separation (EMMA method) with isotope tracers in river confluences (natural large basin), we found that the contribution of each end member sometimes exceeds the...

20 January 2021 8,403 5 View

What are the natural background values of Major,Trace and REE elements in sediments deposited by Indian rivers?

We are working on geochemical analysis of sediments derived from eastern and western ghats of India.

20 January 2021 8,963 6 View

Thresholds in MaxEnt ?

08 January 2021 4,769 3 View

Does anyone have an insight into the behavioural response of fishes to moving wind turbine blades as seen through the air-water interface?

I am interested to find out if wind turbines located close to rivers or lakes, or perhaps even in marine locations, are a potential problem for fish. This seems to be a very under-researched area...

04 January 2021 3,468 2 View

Does Tea Garden proves to be an alternative to forest landscape?

Is there possible that the Tea Gardens proves to be an alternative habitat to forest dwelling organisms? If yes, what pressure do they face in relation to anthropogenic pressure?

03 January 2021 429 13 View

Are there mathematical or statistical processing of satellite imagery or digital elevation data in the detection of historical buried rivers?

In the lands with ancient plain sediments, the courses of rivers change dramatically over time for easy movement and the arrival of rivers to an advanced geomorphic stage. Are there mathematical...

02 January 2021 3,098 3 View

Detection of old river streams?

What are the methods of detecting the ancient streams of rivers using remote sensing, and do the satellite images achieve the possibility of detecting and tracking the change.

02 January 2021 5,213 4 View

Abhishek Mukherjee

Hello Dr. Kiptum,

Forgive my presumption but if you wish to study leech habitat then why do you want to treat water infested with leeches? Isn't this a bit of a oxymoron? Anyway, contrary to popular belief most of the leeaches are not haematophagous in nature and will simply resort to larvivory and detritivory. Removal of bottom sludge and aufwuchs have proven effective in controlling leeches in confined aquatic habitats. But it also destroys the habitat unless the water body is for recreational purpose only. Koi carps and othar major carps love to snack on them on a regular basis so introducing them in a confined habitat might be an option for you.

I guess application of freshwater aquarium salt will also see a reduction in number of the leeches. Apply a bit extra than what is normally recommended but not as much as to affect osmoregulation through the gills of the fish living there.

Tell me how it goes

Regards

Dr. Abhishek Mukherjee

Kiprotich Kiptum

Thank you Dr Murherjee,

The problem occurs in a seasonal river in my home area, Emsea, Kenya. During the wet season cows and goats can drink from the river, but, during the dry season, animal die as they take in water invested with leeches. This stream is a fresh one and has stones on the bed and very few sludge.

Okay Dr. Kiptum, then I believe the best and cheapest solution would be to make an artificial shallow concrefied watering hole and filling it via pumping water from the river using a low-powered motor (with vertical lifing capacity of few metres). The outlet of the hose should be fitted with a nylon mesh sock of less than 100 micron to prevent the leeches and other planktonic invertebrates from entering the reservoir. This way you can cleanse the water more without destroying the river and the habitat itself.

It is surely a win-win scenario for both the live stocks and the native fauna.