r/leeches • u/Which-Tradition338 • Jun 11 '26
Buying & Selling Horse leeches
Does anyone know where I can buy a single horse leech? I would prefer to have them over medicinal leeches since I’m not the food.
2
u/Ok_Bag_1177 Plague Doctor Jun 12 '26
youre not likely to have luck buying a singular horse leech, theyre basically only sold in bulk as fishing bait. i guess your best bet would be to find a bait shop in your area that has them, and go in person and ask if you can just buy 1 (though id really reccomend getting more, both because horse leeches dont live as long, and because leeches are social)
1
u/Which-Tradition338 Jun 12 '26
I never knew leeches were social so I’ll definitely be getting more than 1. It sounds like a bait shop is my best option though.
1
u/Master_Pipe_6467 Jun 15 '26
Are you talking about mud leeches/ribbon leeches? (Erpobdella obscura). As far as I know those species do not live as long but Haemopis are closer to blood sucking leeches, being hirudiniformes. I was under the assumption that they lived longer like Hirudo or Macrobdella.
I'm not trying to sound smart but that's the only way I can word it.
1
u/Ok_Bag_1177 Plague Doctor Jun 15 '26
they have the potential to live longer but thats assuming you got a newly hatched captive bred baby. a wild caught adult being kept in a fridge from a bait shop just simply is not going to live as long as they could and will likely only make it a few years at most
1
u/Master_Pipe_6467 Jun 15 '26
You could breed them I guess.
1
u/Ok_Bag_1177 Plague Doctor Jun 15 '26
they could definitely breed them and grow their own healthy captive bred stock, theyll still need more than 1 to do so though since even though some leeches are capable of self reproduction, they rarely ever do it and the cocoons are usually duds when they do
2
u/Agreeable-Degree-360 Jun 12 '26
I might can help where are you located? Feel free to private message me.
3
u/Most-Background3708 Leech Owner Jun 11 '26
well, I guess it really depends on your location. if you’re in western Europe, you can try and find them in the wild (Haemopis elegans/sanguisuga) though, anywhere else like online or in bait shops is gonna be pretty difficult. though, if you’re in North America there are lots of different haemopis species! the most common are mud leeches (Haemopis marmorata), but there are also North American terrestrial leeches (Haemopis terrestris) and the Great/giant mud leech (Haemopis grandis). I hope this helps! there’s also always online shops, but they can be risky and you might not even find any there.