[i]Hey - nothing's OT here, so....[/i]

Mowing the grass, I ran the over a crayfish hole (& the occupant) in my front yard today.  
This is the second time I've noticed the things around in the last month.
At first I knew what the hole was (any fishing nut does), but I just blew it off as some whacked out crawdad, & forgot about it. Today I got his brother splashed all over my pants.

The closest river is over 2,000 yards away, the yard sets high, & stays bone dry. There's no weird "underground streams" I've lived here for 15 years.

Has anyone else seen these things survive (actually thrive from the looks of them) this far away from water?
Seen the things around my whole life, but never wondered WTF these guys eat.
Are they scavengers?  

[i]Please - no recipes from you guys in LA, & MS.[/i][;D]  

AFAIK they eat everything they can get their claws on. Dead or alive.

I think they are scavengers. I think they eat dead plant and animal matter. They are fun to catch and are tasty too.

Rotten food,ham.

they are usualy water scavengers, like dead fish and stuff. funny they eat dead shit, but are soooo good

As a young lad in the Arkansas boonies, I caught them with bacon on a paperclip tied to a string!  Really!  I never have seen one eat anything in the wild...


[url]http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/trees/ef417.htm[/url]

There are about 100 species of crayfish in North America. Most are strictly aquatic but a few live in non-permanent water or semi-aquatic situations. They burrow into the soil to get to water when free water is not available on the surface. Some crayfish burrow into the soil even when surface water is available.

[url]http://www.mackers.com/crayfish/info.htm#behaviour[/url]

Crayfish, common in streams and lakes, often conceal themselves under rocks or logs. [b]They are most active at night, when they feed largely on snails, algae, insect larvae, worms, and tadpoles; some eat vegetation (various water plants). A dead fish, worms, corn, and salmon eggs are also favourites of the crayfish.[/b] Studies show that adults (one year old) become most active at dusk and continue heavy feeding activity until daybreak. Young crayfish are more likely to be the ones out during bright sunny days, while the older crayfish are more active on cloudy days and during the night. General movement is always a slow walk, but if startled, crayfish use rapid flips of their tail to swim backwards and escape danger.

Yeah...  weve got em in Houston.....  Some of the mud mounds are so big they stall my 6.5 HP mower....  Most of the mounds are in the front ditch along the road.. but some are along the fence line too.... I hardly ever see the crawdads.. but I've got a few stray cats I feed that hunt them.. plus at night, I've got about 4 owls in my trees out back that hunt for them too...  Its an awesome sight to see their large wingspan swoop down into my ditches.....  [:)]

I heard that the big ones will eat little kids. Remember the little girl about 10yrs ago that fell down the well? It turns out that it wasn't a well at all, just one big media coverup. The damn thing snapped her out of the yard and was on his way to have lunch when the little brat got stuck halfway down the hole. Being that it was summer in Texas and that crayfish are aquatic animals he had to abandon her and thats when everybody heard her crying.

Crawdads....Their not just for breakfast anymore...

OK, that's what I was wondering, & it makes sense.

In June I had $14,000 worth of concrete poured - 55 yards for a 145' X 22' driveway, & all new sidewalks. There was roofing shingles in the driveway to keep the dust, & mud down. When we picked them all up there was a lot of garter snakes living under the stuff. The guy who did the finishing work was helping with prep, & forms. But he's afraid of snakes, so he left my dog out for an hour. It kept the dog busy for a solid hour (he LOVES snakes!), he doesn't eat them - just loves to tear them to pieces (We USED to have a lot of squirrels, bunnies, toads, & all sorts of furry things before I had to put my OLD retriever down).


When we used the compactor I know there was a zillion "snake parts" everywhere, we didn't have any choice - we just had to go over them - a LOT of them.



I didn't connect the two until now, but if they'll eat long dead snakes (or should I say short=) it does make sense.

Thanks
.

Put the little fucker back in your pocket. He's an overgrown crotch crab gone mutant on too much dick cheese and "Tommy" cologne.

Sheesh.  11 replies and nobody has come up with the answer yet.

Crawdaddies eat crawmommas.

#$%^&^%$ THATS WHAT I WAS GANA SAY

         "crawmommas"

[i]Since I don't name my firearms,,,,,[/i]
Think I should name him first (after a board member)?

WTF?

Rumor has it that sometimes kids in New York City get baby crawdads as pets, but eventually they become too big and dangerous, and just aren't cute pets any more, so the kids' parents usually flush them down the toilet.  With the abundance of food available in the NYC sewer system (rats, mice, insects) young crawdads are able to thrive quite well, eventually growing to immense proportions. The problem is some of them grow so big that it becomes necessary to seek out larger prey to sustain themselves, occasionally snatching an unwary homeless person, or street walker.

That's pretty much what I was thinking last night JDP.

I was in a good mood though, so I played along instead of popping queries about grimshaw's unusual personal hygiene.

They eat cigars a la Monika.

OH NO, that was creepdads.......