RE: Leeches

["Conole, Lawrie" <>]

Everybody else has had a go; it must be my turn now.

The other option is to go birding where there are b*gger all leeches,
mozzies, ticks, etc.  I spent a month in Java during the wet season of
96/97, mostly in rainforest, and saw ONE LEECH, a negligible number of
mozzies, and no ticks.  I took no particular precautions to deter
leeches, and after a while found that it was not even necessary to use
repellents at all as mozzies were so rare.  Why is it so?  

There must be some birds that feed extensively on leeches &/or mozzies,
& presumably those birds are rare or absent in parts of Java.  

Lawrie Conole