Guys,

I was working on my fence today and while I was drilling one of my fence posts, I dug up a damn crawfish in my yard.

I've known that crawfish were around but I never actually saw one in various holes in my yard. I've always been intrigued by the little critters and the holes in my yard just make me as curious as a cat.

BTW, I took some pictures so if any of you guys know much about crawfish, please comment. I've got plenty of holes in my yard and they seem to be mostly around old tree stumps and such. My soil is very rich in clay and some of the crawfish holes are six or more feet deep.

How the hell do these things survive and what in the world are they doing on my land?

Please help.

Here are a few pictures of the little guy.


https://www.f150online.com/galleries...-453-20530.jpg
https://www.f150online.com/galleries...-453-20532.jpg
https://www.f150online.com/galleries...-453-20533.jpg
~DM~

 

I know enough to keep my hands away from the pinching end. And that they are good with horseradish (everything is)

 

i think if you turn the tail 1/4 turn and pull you can completely gut them, at least that is what i remember from my childhood. never really liked them myself but got good at gutting them back in the day. "old bay seasoning" would probably make them taste pretty good.

 

I live near Cincinnati and I got em in my yard too! When I lived near Chicago I would see them, but rarely. So I guess they must be all over the place. They're tastey, but you better get more than one to make a meal.

 

Hello all,

Thanks for the info. I've eaten them down in Louisianna before and yeah, you need a pot full of them to make a meal.

Next question, how do these guys survive and what do they eat? I guess I should've known that my street wasn't named Lake Drive for nothing, hey? Maybe at one time years ago, this area may have been a crawfish farm or something 'cause that's the only way I can figure they got here in the first place.

I've lived all over the this part of South Carolina and have never run across crawfish in someones yard and now I've got their access holes scattered all over my yard.

I drilled a fence post hole and this little guy got caught up in the spiral bit of my auger but didn't get a scratch, how much more lucky could the little guy have been?

~DM~

 

In your yard, HUh! Of cousre me being from Kentucky I know just what they are but I only seem them in or near the creek and river banks. When I was younger we spent all summer saining the creek for these things. We take them home and a friends mom would gut them (gotta pull that mud vien out). At summer's end she fired them in batter like shrimp, they were very good. A little stronger taste than the shrimp you get a Red Lobster.

 

Hey Kentucky,

Yep, in the yard believe it or not. I was working under my house once a few years back and I was sitting on a piece of plywood to keep from sitting on the dirt and it was fairly dark and I was working with a flashlight. As I would move along under the house, I'd pick up the plywood and move it along and I heard a crunch sound. I picked up the board and low and behold, I had killed a crawfish. Actually, I knew I had the holes in the yard ever since I purchased the property in '99 and I asked the marine and wildlife department to look into these holes for me and they didn't even return my calls or messages.

Clemson University offers support too and I contacted them and they told me it couldn't be crawfish in my yard but maybe it was Florida Armadillas that had migrated and were making the holes. I gave up at that point. These crawfish are extremely secretive and illussive and almost never show themselves.

I've seen huge spiders living in the access holes as well has frogs and just were never quite certain that the holes were made and occupied by crawfish but I always assumed that they were the critters that made the holes. Also, sometimes I'd find a pile of dirt around the holes that looked like something was cleaning out the holes from within and dumping mud on the surface around the holes perimerter.

Oh well, right when you think you've seen everything some story like this pops up, right?

Later,
~DM~

 

As KyFordFreak mentioned, they're around riverbanks and stream beds here in Kentucky. However, my particular notion is that they can dwell anywhere that there might be a high degree of moisture (nearly saturated) in the soils. I've also noticed that the soils that they tend to 'burrow' in are typically loose clays, silts, loams, etc.

Moisture is a key. I don't know how deep you're setting your posts (maybe you should try a little more shallow so that you can get the damn fence done eh?). I'm not exactly sure where the vadose zone is at your particular location (water table) but, I'm guessing it's around the level that you're little yard buddies are living around.

I'm not a biologist; I'm a geologist but, it sure looks like a crawfish to me. (We always called them CRAWDADS--I guess it's the same thing...) I, too, used to wade around in a few streams and play with these little critters. I've never fried them up and munched on them but, I suspect they'd taste like chicken. Everything else does.... LMAO

RP

 

LMAO......'tastes like chicken'.....you are to funny.

wonder what a crawmom looks like

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Crawfish. Had some this past weekend.

They Do not taste like chicken!!!

 

Biggest bass I ever caught was on a crawfish!

rr

 

I remember when I was younger, me and my cousins would go to the park and catch crawdads in the creek with Dixie cups. And we would get a small stick and hold it near their pinchers until they grabbed it. And then hold them up in front of my Mom's face. She would scream bloody murder!

 

We have crawfish(crawdads) out here in oregon also.They definately don't taste like chicken.Like everybody else I used to spend hours catching these little guys to make a good meal.I have never seen one out of water,this is quite strange.

They do make a most excellent fishing bait. The smallmouth &largmouth bass around here love them.You can also catch stealhead (pretty much a sea run rainbow trout averaging 8lbs) using just the tail.

 

Dave,

Feed it lots of table scraps and let us know when it looks like this....


MAINE CRAWFISH

 

These people who aren't from LA know nothin about Crawfish! They taste nothing like crawfish!

Come down to Baton Rouge or New Orleans for some real crawfish. I bet they don't even make them spicey!