The post a couple of weeks ago about moles and yard damage made me think of these. We dont have moles around here, too wet I guess.
But we do have crawfish, in the low parts of yards they make these "chimneys" you can see below. Something to do with the female needing to keep the eggs and babies she carries unde her tail damp. As the water table goes down they have to burrow deeper to stay wet.
Don't ask me why they don't just go into the swamp, there's about 50,000 acres of it 200 feet away. Maybe they have to be dry for part of the time?
Anyway, as they burrow they push up mud, a marble sized ball each time, when you run over one with the mower the heavy clay mixed with the grass clippings sticks to the inside of the mower deck and doesn't come off easy. In picture 2 you can see in the background the mess made when I ran over one about a week ago.
This one is about 8" high they get up to about 14".
At least these guys are good to eat, I havent tried mole, yet, might make a good Gumbo?
the fire ants are worse!

Steve W

Attached Images

	Crawfish chimney 1.jpg (220.5 KB, 253 views)
	crawfish chimney 2.jpg (256.4 KB, 232 views)

Hi stevens,
That would be a great problem to have.
We get em' along the river when the flood water recedes. We put rubber boots on and take barbecue tongs and reach in the holes and chimmenies and pretend we (OOPS! spellchecker went nuts on chimmineys) are Cajuns.
Red beans rice and tails, ditch bug enchiladas etc.
I'd trade you my moles for dads any day.
Thanks for the pictures
Mike

I got voles, moles and crawfish chimneys too. I must be doing something right.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

I have never heard of such a thing!!! I live in grizzly country and would trade you a bear or three for some crawdads any day.

John

Stevens, you are right about what a mess it makes cutting grass right after a rain -- there is more dirt/mud from the chimneys under my mower deck than grass. Me, you would think the crawfish would want to live in Bourg or Pierre Part, huh?

Some people would complain if you hung 'em with a new rope.

I would apologize for that but I saw that line in another 'Lounge' thread and I've waiting for a chance to use it.

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Field Researcher. IGC

I have them things all over my backyard...tried for hours to dig up the crawfish several different times but have yet to get one. What is the secret? Seems like nobody is ever home.

Not all of those crawfish chimneys have crawfish in them. I have a bayou on one side of my property and 4.5 acres of grass. So needless to say I do a lot of grass cutting. More than a couple of times have seen cotton mouths or water moccasins make a bee line for the nearest one. I have a john deere tractor and was cutting the grass and one day it lurched. Figured it was one of them chimbleys but when I came back on the next pass there was a rather large dead snake sticking half in and half out of one of them holes. Was easily 4' long and chucked him near the fence. Usually if I see the mud I first run over it with the tires, this way it won't damage the blades. On my craftsman mower I have bent the blades when not paying attention. I have three extra blade sets and a couple or two bent ones. Frank

check out this site


Some Assessments of Crawfish Burrows - LSU AgCenter

Steve W

That was an interesying article, as far as it went. There
wasn't even 1 (one) recipe in the whole thing! I guess they
do need more studies of this kind. TACC1

You can pruchase regular crawfish boil which is a pre seasoned packet of spices. Although some really jazz it up. Add corn on the cob and salad type potatoes boil for about twenty minutes and enjoy. Me I don't eat them. Anything I have to bite and suck at isn't worth the trouble. I've melted more lead using the burner unit that it will ever be used for crawfish. Frank

That is an LSU site, they assume every one already knows how to boil Crawfish.
Steve W