how to catch crawdads

[patrickg]

Crayfish, AKA crawdads, may be caught on a fish line baited with pork rind, a chunk of bacon, or whatever. Often they will hold on and allow then selves to be draged to the surface. Bait needs to be tough enough to not come off during the tug-o-war.

Water softener pellets are SALT. Not a good idea where you E V E R want A N Y T H I N G to grow that won't grow in a salt marsh. They realy are good eating, don't waste.

I was dipping water out of a hole at the pad for my mom's new house and filling it with dry dirt the other day using FEL. Ran off two frogs and a mid sized crawdad. The crawdad was headed for a quieter neighborhood but every time I got near him with the FEL he would stop, rear up, brandish his claws, and look like he wanted to go a couple rounds with me. I guess the FEL looked a bit like a giant crawdad to him. To draw a quote from "Top Gun", "It was the gutsiest manuever I've ever seen".

If you simply M U S T kill these beautiful creatures to have a compleat life then use Rotenone, sparingly. Rotenone is used in pond management to kill every oxygen dependent life form it contacts in the pond. It takes up all available oxygen and they are suffocated/asphyxiated (SP?) Run off from the treated area, should it rain before it biodegrades will be the gift that keeps on killing. It does biodegrade (search net for details) rather quickly and new life forms (like desireable fish etc) can be reintroduced in the water real soon thereafter. Usually you pump the pond WAY DOWN LOW before use. Limits amount needed, reduces chance of pond overflow if it rains, and concentrates those about to die so they are easier to remove and bury.

Check safety of using near potable water source!!! It biodegrades quickly, well before it could migrate through much soil but if there were an easy path to the water well, who knows...

Borrow some river otters, they love to eat crawdads.

Patrick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I'm still looking for a worm prod, no one around here sells one (there are disadvantages to living in the country, not very many stores to pick from). Northern doesn't sell them. Next time I get to the big city (not a place I like to go), I'll try some places there. What kind of store do I need to go to in order to find Rotenone?

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Danny,

Been putting a lot of thought into this. Before I tried a worm prod (dangerous for you), or a chemical (dangerous for the environment), I'd try some natural stuff.

Simple, cheap things might make your lawn less hospitable to these critters. First, try dumping some soap down the holes, see if crawdads like baths. The soap shouldn't hurt your tree and will disperse itself. How about cooking oil? Gum up their eyeballs and breathing apparatus. If all else fails, get a bucket full of wood ashes (the grey stuff, not the balck chunks), hardwood will probably work best. Mix it with enough water to make a slurry. Be sure to wear eye protection and rubber gloves. Pour some down a couple of the holes and see if the crayfish vacate. Wood ash has a high lye content. Lye is the basis for drain cleaner. It is also necessary in soap making, and the old timers used to leach the lye out of wood ashes. You can still buy straight lye at the hardware. Look for "Red Devil" brand. Costs a couple bucks for a can. Mix it down with water and run some in the holes. Be VERY careful! Lye burns! Wear GOOD quality rubber gloves, eye protection and keep a bottle of ordinary vinegar handy. Vinegar, we usually use white (Because it seems a little stronger), neutralizes the lye. So any spills you get on you should be washed in vinegar immediately. If you try this, you might want to dump some vinegar down the holes after the experiment just to clean everything up.

Wood ash and Red Devil are two slightly different chemical forms of the same thing. The commercial variety is considerably stronger. I would expect anything in those holes to come out pretty quick or stay down there permanently. The advantage to wood ash is that you could probably dump it in and leave it since its relatively natural, which might prevent the critter's cousins from moving back into the vacated digs at a later time. Don't know if it will harm your tree. But, it would be an interesting experiment.

SHF

 

[Anonymous Poster]

SHF,
Thanks for the ideas. I'll try the soap and wood ashes for the hole near the tree. The next time I'm at Lowe's (we no longer have any regular hardware stores, Lowes ran them all out of business!) I'll see if they have that Red Devil and try that in the other holes. I did try a mouse trap, but no luck. My neighor says they come out of the their holes at night, so maybe it's worth trying the mouse trap some more. It's been unusually dry for this time of year, so their activity has slowed down. What I don't understand is what they do in the winter? By the time fall arrives, I don't see as many holes. I also don't see how they find enough to eat by living in these tunnels of water.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Danny,

One more thing about lye and water. When you mix that Red Devil in the water, it is going to get HOT. So mix it in a good heavy duty plastic bucket. Don't use anything metal, it'll eat the heck out of it. Treat it like battery acid, and you should be okay. Just keep a bottle of vinegar handy in case you get splashed. Check your local grocery stores for the Red Devil, too. Usually it's over by the drain cleaners, since that's what it's used for.

If they are coming out at night, you might be able to sneak up on them. Try a red light, pretend you're hunting crawlers.

SHF

 

[GFB]

Pour 1 cup of bleach in every hole for eliminating the pest. Not quite as fun as attempting to catch them, but a whole lot more effective.

Gerry

 

[JimmyO]

When I was a kid we used to mix dry mustard and water and pour it into the mounds that night crawlers make. About thirty seconds later the night crawler would come popping out of his hole. Note sure how it will work on crawdads but I'm guessing that it will work.

 

[OverlyRun]

When I was a kid we used to stand in the water up to our knees at night with a flashlight and catch 'em with our hands from behind. We could get a bucket full pretty quickly and have a great late night meal over the campfire. Such good fun was this that we certainly never meant to eradicate them. Enough got away that eradication was never a real danger!

(The idea of crawfish coming out of holes above ground makes me worry we've got two entirely different animals travelling under the same name. The biggest we ever came across in ponds or rivers in New England were 3-4" long.)
Chas