Are these leeches?!?? HELP!

[Cicitina]

I recently moved into a home with a pond and waterfall. Today I noticed while feeding my fish there are all these tiny little leech like creatures stuck clinging to every flat rock with a current going over it. One was even on me which is how I noticed and looked for them.
I have fish in the bottom pond and my dogs love to walk through the stream and drink from it.
What are they? Are they dangerous? And how do I get rid of them without harming other animals?!?!?
I circled the areas that are COVERED with them

 

[Maro2Bear]

It’s kind of hard to tell. Seems late in the season for tadpoles.

Can you net a few & look closely?

 

[Cicitina]

It’s kind of hard to tell. Seems late in the season for tadpoles.

Can you net a few & look closely?

I will try!
There are both frogs and toads living around the pond. I’m also hoping they may be black fly larvae?

 

[Cicitina]

It’s kind of hard to tell. Seems late in the season for tadpoles.

Can you net a few & look closely?

This is as close as I could get, I’ve also noticed flies hanging around in weird groups. And these leaves with eggs/larvae on them?!??

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Those don't look like leaches. And theyre lined up in the water stream like whatever it is that they eat is suspended in the water.
I'll bet a few crayfish would just destroy them.
@Markw84 Have you experienced these?

 

[wellington]

Take one out and see if it has a sucker type mouth on one end. They look like leeches but it's too hard to tell with your in water pics to be sure.
Also be sure your dogs are current on their leptospirosis (lepto) vaccine if you continue to let them drink pond water. Wild animals visiting your pond could spread it to your dogs. I lost a puppy to lepto and it's not nice.

 

[Cicitina]

Take one out and see if it has a sucker type mouth on one end. They look like leeches but it's too hard to tell with your in water pics to be sure.
Also be sure your dogs are current on their leptospirosis (lepto) vaccine if you continue to let them drink pond water. Wild animals visiting your pond could spread it to your dogs. I lost a puppy to lepto and it's not nice.

I will try and take one out to see. My one fear in the world is leeches so I’m really creeped out by them 😂 spiders no problem. Leeches? No thanks

My dogs are all up to date on vaccines fortunately. Can’t be too safe living in the country try

 

[wellington]

I hate leeches too so I understand. Use something to get it. Like a stick or net. You don't have to touch it that way.

 

[Cicitina]

I hate leeches too so I understand. Use something to get it. Like a stick or net. You don't have to touch it that way.

Every time I tried with a stick they’d fall into the waterfall 😂 I was very unsuccessful. I will have to try again in the morning

 

[TammyJ]

They seem to be fly larvae.

 

[wellington]

Every time I tried with a stick they’d fall into the waterfall 😂 I was very unsuccessful. I will have to try again in the morning

Probably not leeches then. I would think they would they would be sucked on.

 

[Cicitina]

Probably not leeches then. I would think they would they would be sucked on.

They don’t appear to be stuck on very strong. It’s easy to knock them off. Even when I had one on my hand it flung right off

 

[wellington]

They don’t appear to be stuck on very strong. It’s easy to knock them off. Even when I had one on my hand it flung right off

You probably freaked it out lol. I know I would have.🤣

 

[Markw84]

I've not seen anything like those. It doesn't look like a leech to me as it does not appear to be segmented. Leeches are in the same phylum of invertebrates as earthworms and all are segmented. The picture looks like a smooth uniform worm like structure which would indicate a type of flatworm.

Sorry can't be of more help on this one1

 

[Tom]

I recently moved into a home with a pond and waterfall. Today I noticed while feeding my fish there are all these tiny little leech like creatures stuck clinging to every flat rock with a current going over it. One was even on me which is how I noticed and looked for them.
I have fish in the bottom pond and my dogs love to walk through the stream and drink from it.
What are they? Are they dangerous? And how do I get rid of them without harming other animals?!?!?
I circled the areas that are COVERED with them View attachment 347550View attachment 347551View attachment 347552View attachment 347553View attachment 347554

I'm in the passenger seat of a moving car in full sun and with slow internet, so I can't see the pics too well, but I've seen little leeches like that in ponds here. They were all over my diving fins, but strangely wanted no part of my wetsuit or skin. They were also all over the pond turtles. After becoming aware of their infestation, they were adding a local species of bluegill to get rid of them. I did not follow up after the bluegill introduction to see how it went.

I've done a couple of jobs with medical leeches. Of course we put them on ourselves after the job was over, and it hurts. So much for their salivary anesthetic! You should try it.

 

[Cicitina]

I'm in the passenger seat of a moving car in full sun and with slow internet, so I can't see the pics too well, but I've seen little leeches like that in ponds here. They were all over my diving fins, but strangely wanted no part of my wetsuit or skin. They were also all over the pond turtles. After becoming aware of their infestation, they were adding a local species of bluegill to get rid of them. I did not follow up after the bluegill introduction to see how it went.

I've done a couple of jobs with medical leeches. Of course we put them on ourselves after the job was over, and it hurts. So much for their salivary anesthetic! You should try it.

Leeches are one of my only fears in the entire world (next to butterflies) so I will not be partaking in that 😂 thanks but no thanks