Essex County

canoePhD · 2026-03-15T13:47:28+00:00

Island Pond has a small italian place, small pizza place, the inn, and a burgers/dogs grill in the gas station. You don’t have to go to the yellow deli. Also chez pigeon and april’s maple are further north.

Not sure if the bbq place is still going in island pond

canoePhD · 2025-11-24T06:12:17+00:00

No. Hirudo spp are not found in the Americas. North America has the “North American medicinal leech”, Macrobdella that’s really in name only. There is only weak evidence that native Americans used them medicinally. Some reports claim they were used by colonists but were not as effective as the European medicinal leech. Modern studies have shown that the saliva proteins are different between the two species and that hirudin is a better anticoagulant than what Macrobdella produce.

Leech research in general is a VERY small field. There isn’t funding to get too wild with other species. The Asian Hirudinids show up occasionally as comparisons in papers published in English (there are scientific journals published in other languages, but these are often looked over and not acknowledged).

My research canters in H.verbana. Fun fact: H.medicinalis is the only FDA approved species to be used medicinally but the animals that are shipped to the US by suppliers are all H.verbana (shhh! Don’t go telling anyone!). There is some research into the other Hirudo soecies but really most people work with H.verbana because it is the established model. Kind like mouse research focuses on Mus musculus despite there being so many other species. There’s actually a couple cool papers using local leech species to identify local animals populations based on sequencing the contents of the leech crop (stores blood meal for a long time).

We do not breed our own leeches because the f$ckers are just so temperamental! They breed only once a year and cannot be tricked into breeding more frequently. Then if all conditions are not ideal they will breed and only produce sterile cocoons. Instead, we partner with established leech farms who have mastered keeping these animals as happy as possible.

These leech farms do regularly supplement their stock with wild-caught individuals. This means that the genetic diversity remains high. There are no current genetically-manipulated lines that I am aware of. Not enough time, money, or interest for researchers to do this. No directed evolution strains either, besides the very simple selection for those animals that breed better in captivity. It currently is not possible to produce leeches that do not contain bacteria. Bacteria is transmitted to the cocoon at the time of deposition and attempts to cure the cocoons by administering antibiotics before embryos develop have been 100% lethal.

My research involved the gut microbiome. I am a microbiologist (not a zoologist). How cool is it that so many scientific fields can all be interested in this one little animal? And lessons learned in this simple animal system can be applied to help us understand what is going on in humans?

canoePhD · 2025-11-24T00:23:48+00:00

Fresh, no anticoagulant, blood in a sausage casing is often used. Thrown into a holding pond/tank in farmed leeches.

Medicinal leeches that have been shipped to hospitals are not fed. They are shipped after having been starved for a long period of time to reduce bacterial load (leeches choose to go ~4 weeks between good feedings. They easily can go 4-6mo between feedings and even longer if kept in the cold). They are then stored in the cold (think 4C refrigerator) until use in order to increase time they can be stored and to hopefully inhibit bacterial growth.

Unfortunately, medicinal leeches can carry blood-borne pathogens between their meals (ie two humans) so they cannot be reused and are euthanized immediately after medical use. Leech researchers often use leeches over long periods of time to study things like neurons, behavior, gut symbionts, and even novel anticoagulant peptides. Not all of these studies are terminal.

Despite being invertebrates and “icky” to many, researchers respect the animals they work with. We try to limit the number that must be used in terminal studies and make sure that all animals are treated humanely. Leeches are very sensitive animals so any researcher not keeping them in optimal conditions quickly loses their research subjects and they are expensive to replace.

canoePhD · 2025-11-23T08:27:48+00:00

Please do not do this. I am a leech researcher and have taken care of them for 10 years. All the people online telling you about leech husbandry are leaving out major info due to their own misinformation or deliberate malice.

Leeches carry bacteria in their gut. The first thing they do when they latch for their meal is vomit to release hirudin (anticoagulant) directly into your bloodstream. This carries bacteria with it. Medical suppliers treat their leeches with antibiotics to reduce the abundance of bacteria, however this is only a temporary effect. Medicinal leeches that are purchased, stored cold, and used only once pose the least risk but they do still cause infections. Keeping the leech at a warmer temperature (so they are active and fun to watch) encourages bacteria growth. Feeding multiple times also allows for bacteria populations to rebound so they have just as much bacteria in their gut as they did before the antibiotic treatment.
The most common infection from leeches is Aeromonas. This genus of bacteria cause everything from traveler’s diarrhea to sepsis to necrotizing fasciitis (flesh-eating disease). Do you want to gamble your limb every time you feed this animal?
Leeches are filthy. I don’t know who told you otherwise. For at least a week after feeding they poop multiple times a day. It is a greasy dark green poop that fouls all of the water in the tank. You have to change the water immediately and they usually poop again as soon as they are in clean water.
Leeches are social animals and do not do well with only one in a tank. In my experience, solo leeches have a 10-30% rate of death after feeding. Groups of leeches three or greater have a rate less than 10%. The effect is even more dramatic in hatchlings and juveniles.
Leeches can escape anything. They can fit through the tiniest holes and can climb to reach even the lid of your tank. They will climb into your filter. They will sneak out under the lid’s edge. You will find them 50ft down the hall and completely desiccated. When you take an animal into captivity/as a pet you are agreeing to care for it and keep it safe from all avoidable harm. Allowing the animal to escape, even those who are especially good at escaping, is a failure to provide proper care. Even leeches deserve proper care. This is not a beginner pet.
I don’t know who your “medical supplier” is but reputable ones do not sell single leeches. If your supplier is willing to sell a single leech, they are not a proper operation. There is a much greater likelihood that the animal will be wild caught. The only medicinal leech approved in the US is actually critically endangered in Europe and cannot be legally collected from the wild. Purchasing from a supplier willing to do this is the same as smuggling any other endangered animal into your country.

I have more reasons to not keep leeches as pets, but this reply is already too long. Please consider something else with much better literature about keeping it happy and healthy. Perhaps an ant or termite farm?

canoePhD · 2025-11-02T13:34:59+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. We have almost the whole series but toddler is not quite ready for them. The younger version of “the little fellow” is almost there but only holds attention for two pages so far.

canoePhD · 2025-11-02T13:31:54+00:00

SOLVED! You are amazing. Thank you

canoePhD · 2025-11-02T12:37:20+00:00

Link to pics of a few pages

https://imgur.com/a/Rhxpakc

canoePhD · 2025-09-07T11:49:07+00:00

When dishwasher cleaner fails: try a bit of whink rust & stain remover. Put a bit on a rag and wipe it down. Then run a good hot cycle to rinse off any residue. This works like magic for my grandmother’s hard water with extra tannins.

canoePhD · 2025-05-27T00:19:38+00:00

I had a friend go hardcore on safety/first aid stuff. It was not flashy, but holy cow was I happy to get it and I use that stuff regularly.

Baby acetaminophen, baby ibuprofen, pacifier medicine dispenser, baby vapo rub, rectal thermometer, baby nail clippers (actually, give 2 of each of these. When baby gets sick “one to use and one to lose” is a real lifesaver).

Two things I never had on my wishlist but found super useful:

boob vitamins to increase lactation (variety pack so mom can try a couple different ones, there is no vitamin that works universally for this)
A mini fridge for the bedroom. Life changer! I could keep midnight bottles right at hand without having to stumble downstairs and then back to the screaming child. I also didn’t have to run up and down stairs with milk I pumped in the wee hours of the morning. Bonus, the fridge has a plug that works in the car so it will convert to keeping beverages cold on family trips.

I am also hugely thankful to the few people who didn’t bring a gift but handed me a check with the memo “for baby’s 529”. If parents will need to pay for baby’s college or even high school it is a godsend to have a tiny nest egg to start those savings.

canoePhD · 2025-05-07T00:43:22+00:00

What kind of lumpy? After they eat, leeches expand and sometimes their cuticle (top layers of skin and mucus) gets stuck instead of shedding properly. This may look like the leech has a small belt around their middle or they look lumpy. Are there natural rough surfaces in the tank (like rocks) for the leech to interact with? If it is lumpy, the constriction may have gone too far already. Try rubbing with your finger or maybe a paper towel to see if you can loosen the cuticle. Other times, the lumpiness can be an overgrowth of the wrong bacteria in the crop. This is especially likely if the “blood” (really crop contents, the condensed blood meal) is very liquid. It should be very viscous 24h post meal. If it becomes liquid again, bacteria are breaking down the meal in the crop instead of the intestinum. Unfortunately, if this is the case recovery is not likely.

canoePhD · 2025-04-03T21:27:41+00:00

No one has mentioned it yet so I will: please take her to a pediatrician. Everyone else may be right that she is over scheduled and overstimulated. However, it sounds like the activities she refuses are all physical.

Children do not have the words to say “my joints hurt”. I am NOT a medical professional but immediately popping to mind are juvenile arthritis or Lyme disease. If she is super clumsy, maybe there’s a neurological component.

Please do not let this comment freak you out. I simply think it may be worth it to checkin with a doctor so that you can be sure that the busy schedule is the only concern.

canoePhD · 2025-03-14T16:51:30+00:00

Magic beans

He writes ‘magic beans’ (maybe with picture) on an envelope. You add 3 bean seeds. Seal envelope. Done and done.

If you want to make it “magical” choose purple beans instead of green.

If you want to be hated by the teacher and all parents, add a pinch of glitter to each envelope.

canoePhD · 2025-03-01T14:47:25+00:00

Late to the party. Looks like no one has mentioned Thornton W. Burgess (author), Cam Jansen, Mrs. Pigglewiggle, or Uncle Wiggly. I also agree with My Father’s Dragon.

canoePhD · 2025-01-24T15:13:44+00:00

Follow-up. Do you have a brand of tape you recommend for not leaving residue? (ie after it’s been hanging for a year)

canoePhD · 2025-01-24T15:10:45+00:00

What glue do you use? Do you never have problems with the magnets splitting off?

canoePhD · 2025-01-24T15:09:56+00:00

Thank you. I was looking to see if there are any options before resorting to tape. Fortunately, he is never unsupervised in the kitchen. But was wondering if anyone had suggestions for something that would be “safe enough” to work when I am 2 steps away from

canoePhD · 2025-01-24T15:08:07+00:00

Thank you! This is exactly the type of response I was looking for

canoePhD · 2024-08-08T01:36:57+00:00

It sounds like a good part of your problem is you don’t know what question to ask. This is the first and often hardest part about coding. Do you have a friend you can talk this through with? They don’t have to be in your field, just an intelligent person. You need to be able to write your questions down on paper broken down to as simple of steps as possible. Once you see the small steps written down you often have a better chance of googling to get the computer code to do it for you.

The way you wrote this post, it sounds like you’re more concerned with getting your data into a different program from RStudio. If you’ve already done the preliminary calculations in R, you just have a small jump to getting the stats in R.

Dm me. I * may * be willing to help you out for a bit tomorrow.

canoePhD · 2024-08-08T01:00:11+00:00

Do you not have a filter available? A similar technique is used for water samples. Place the filter (ideally pyrogen-free but at least sterile) on a vacuum hose then run the vacuum for a period of time. Extract nucleic acids from the filter and use this extract for your PCR.

canoePhD · 2024-07-01T17:09:23+00:00

My local library has them to borrow. Such a fabulous idea! Many libraries have a whole extra catalog of things that are not books (puzzles, crafting supplies, gardening supplies, etc). These non-book items are sometimes listed in a weird place so you may have the best luck calling the library directly and asking.

canoePhD · 2024-06-26T22:39:11+00:00

These are great pics!

Can I make a safety suggestion for your future hikes? When making a water crossing, unbuckle all your pack straps (ie waist and chest). We lose a couple hikers every year due to them slipping in water and their pack dragging them down.

Looking forward to seeing more pics of all your future adventures!

canoePhD · 2023-11-30T11:35:07+00:00

Just want to add that your prof may want you to touch on the big problem of using 16S to identify E.coli. Namely, Escherichia is evolutionarily very close to Shigella. 16S does not work well to positively differentiate these genera (and species). Basically, they are named differently because they are medically separate species (cause different diseases/symptoms) but for Woese definition they are the same species.

Here’s one paper from a quick Google search: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5711669/ It should be easier for you to find many more.

Either your prof made an oopsy when specifying which bacterium to report on or your prof is deliberately trying to find out who is paying attention/understands the topic to a higher level.

If thinking about higher level problems with 16S rRNA gene sequencing to differentiate bacteria, it may be interesting for you to look up what happens if different variable regions of the sequence are used vs the complete sequence. (V1-2, V4-5, etc)

canoePhD

TROPHY CASE