Should we drain the Everglades?

Leeches freak me out, I can't imagine swimming with (or falling on) the gators!

The alligators are generally scared of people. It's the crocs that you got to worry about. (not really though - even they are quite timid, unlike their African counterparts)

Why? That's like being afraid of mosquitoes. You can't even really feel a leech.

Well GP didn't say they were afraid. I have pretty much the same reaction of being "freaked out" by leeches too. And while my reaction to mosquitoes is hardly the same, I'm going to avoid both if I possibly can, which seems entirely reasonable to me

Anyway you don't feel leeches coming off? That's surprising.

> there are parts of the Florida keys

Then allow me to ease your mind. Leeches are not a problem in the marine environment of the Florida Keys, unless you are a turtle. They person you replied to changed the topic slightly from the Everglades, where they could be a problem. In either case I'd worry about midges and mosquitos first.

Similarly with alligators, they are primarily freshwater and uncommon in the keys. American crocodiles can tolerate the marine environment better, but they are threatened as a species and have just two confirmed attacks in 75 years.

So wear a personal flotation device and you should be okay.

Mosquitoes are the deadliest creature on the planet, to be fair.

I’ve been in clouds of mosquitos so thick they cover you in black when you sit down. They land in your food and try to eat it. I could understand being afraid of them having seen that buzzing miasma bearing down at all times, relentless for a drop of blood.

Leeches are ubiquitous in North America, though I've seen more of them east of the Rocky Mountains. Most freshwater streams and lakes probably have some.

I understand the psychological aspect but they are otherwise totally harmless.

Because we're large. In nature, crocodilians prey on small/mid-size mammals and birds. Humans are larger than their normal prey, and we're also tall, so we appear more massive to them. And most predators actively avoid animals that are too large to be their prey.

That's why it gets so much more dangerous if you're swimming. If a crocodile is above the water, then it can only see your head. And it's just the right size to be its prey.

And if the crocodile is underwater, then it may be even worse. Humans usually look clumsy when swimming, just like an animal in distress. In other words, an easy prey.

>> Speaking of the uncanny feeling of shallow water, there are parts of the Florida keys ...

> Leeches freak me out, I can't imagine swimming with (or falling on) the gators!

FWIW, neither leeches nor alligators are indigenous to salt water, which is what surrounds the Florida keys.

Alligators maybe not, but in the one time that I have paddleboarded in the keys I saw a crocodile. Probably a crocodile rather than a gator, I didn’t get that close… but from reading articles they’ll occasionally eat a small dog around there, so they are definitely out there.

Saltwater crocs do exist in southern Florida, no doubt. And there's some chance a gator could swim from one island to another (or the mainland).

The easiest way to discern each is based on their snout. If the reptile you saw has a blunt nose about the same width as its jaw, then it's a gator. If, instead, the jaw looked more like a trapezoid, then it's a croc.

Both are opportunistic hunters capable of taking down mammals up to adult bovines or horses. The latter two examples are rare as the size of the croc/gator has to be rather large.

That's right, I (GP) am not really afraid of them, I just find leeches and bloodsuckers quite unpleasant.

A funny story: a few years ago I went canoeing up a small river with my younger cousin. There's not a lot of current because the river is shallow and there are beaver dams around every corner. Most of the dams are unused and broken up, but the river's so shallow in the late summer that they block quite a bit of water anyway and necessitate portaging.

My cousin, being young, gets bored and stops padding, though he's still willing to help portage. We zig zag up the small river, crashing into either side every few paddlestrokes, because I hadn't realized that being the heavier one, I should be in the back of the canoe.

Eventually we get to a large felled tree blocking the river, and we attempt to portage around it, but the banks are quite steep and thick with brush, and I end up losing the canoe down the river. The current is slow, still, but the canoe is floating away, so I have to strip down and jump in after it. Unfortunately my feet touched the bottom and I was covered in bloodsuckers large and small, some of which hid themselves under my feet and between my toes for the rest of the excursion.

When I got back to the house, I lifted my leg, put my foot in the sink, and said "get the salt!"

Not being able to feel them is honestly scarier. It's one thing to suddenly feel a single bloodsucking parasite attach itself to you, but suddenly realizing that you're covered in them out of nowhere is the stuff of nightmares. If I could be outside in the summer blissfully minding my business and then glancing down save suddenly seeing like a dozen mosquitoes all gorging themselves on my arm, I'd be more afraid of them too.

Umm, I'm hugely afraid to mosquitos: the biggest killer of people among all the world's fauna.