The current episode of IPR’s Points North podcast explores the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park by way of cabin journal entries left by visitors.
It brought back my backpacking trip through the Porkies decades ago. Among my memories was emerging from a lake and finding a leech attached to my foot.
I was borderline hysterical.
Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t panic if it happened again. Leeches’ saliva includes an anesthetic as well as an anticoagulant, so the bite doesn’t hurt. And they aren’t known to transmit diseases.
In fact, their use is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Yes, they’re still sometimes used in 21st century medicine, after reattachment operations, skin grafts and plastic surgeries.
The leeches reduce swelling and remove coagulated blood which speeds healing.
Medical leeches are raised at leech farms and sanitized before use.
Leeches have never been very common in Michigan, according to a 1966 report from the Michigan Department of Conservation. In fact, that report references an even earlier report of 1812, which said a reliable supply of leeches was very hard to acquire due to quote “the monopoly of our drug merchants.”
Leeches are also used by anglers and can be found in bait shops.
There are many species of leech in Michigan but only a few feed on mammal blood.
What are your chances of encountering a leech? Slim, unless you’re in excellent leech habitat. So, don’t wade through mucky lake bottoms with woody debris, or you might pick up a passenger.
But do check out the Points North podcast. It’s about time travel in the Porcupine Mountains, not about leeches.
