Vampires Strike Back! … not yet Halloween

 

Finally, it seems to me, fall has begun honestly for Kanagawa Prefecture. It’s about time. Although flower cycles are still in confusion (that’s for next week), all creatures including humans are feeling respite from LONG, HARSH, BOILING summer. Yeah. It’s a good thing. Autumn. We should be fair for all living things around us enjoying easier weather. Yet … the same condition also gives OK for vampire leeches in Tanzawa to be active.

Somewhere here, vampires are waiting …

In Yadoriki Water Source Forest, especially after showers, the blood suckers are eager to paste on the skins of mammals and amphibians. We simply walk around the strolling courses off the paved path, and they appear here and there, trying to reach our bare skin for blood. Poor creatures. They must have been starved during the days of baking sunshine + occasional downpouring of summer 2024. I guess those which poke out from the crannies of trekking roads are survivors. They endured strong sunlight, laying down under the pebbles for 3 or so months. They escaped landslides when torrential rains attacked the water source forest and washed over the topsoil. Vampire leeches. Tough guys. Still, I think they are smaller than in the previous years.

An apparent scenery of landslide in Tanzawa

I would say such foggy trekking road is so beautiful.
But … be ware of vampires.

If during summer they had sufficient nutrients = blood, they should be 3+cm long in October. This year, nope. They are skinny. They are more or less 1cm long. They move almost frantically on our trekking shoes for finding skins, even when we drenched our gear with DEET or some leech repellent. In encounter with tiny blood suckers trying to reach my skin for blood, I unusually felt sympathy for them. Oh, so, you must be very hungry, aren’t you? Haven’t you noticed your entire body is absorbing strong venom, called DEET, which would be lethal for you? Are you OK? What a Faustian question …

Japanese skimmia are having lots of fruits
these days in Yadoriki Water Source Forest.
Caution:
the plant is poisonous from the root to the tip of head.
Their ripening red fruits are attractive
but lethal for kids when they eat them.

I haven’t heard any news reporting annihilation of vampire leeches due to climate change. Rather, they say their habitat range is expanding. Previously snow-covered mountains during winter are now snow-less or ice-less, which is easy for leeches to ride over the cold days. Then, there is a nation-wide exploding population of deer. They can move around in mountains carrying leeches between the nails. Now, leech problem is in Sizuoka, Tokyo, and Yamanashi which are surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa. No need for sympathy for blood suckers. Yup.

Nonetheless, I feel sorry for the animal who do not have any means of changing the course of climate. Or they could be wise enough not to fight a losing battle. They would be clever by adapting the changing climate and spreading their “home” … What will happen in 5 years’ time for Tanzawa and vampire leeches on boiling planet?

By the way, sweet osmanthus are at last opening in Yokohama. I think they are 2 weeks late. Still, it is the time when our ordinary suburbia is in sweet natural fragrance. Thank God, at least we have them flowering as previous years …

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121

〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657

Phone: 046-248-0323 You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/