Try shining a bright light in their eyes at night. I caught large crayfish
at the edge of a river this way in Algonquin Park in Ontario. They seemed
to be "paralysed" by the light and let themselves be picked up without
resistance. If I left a light by the edge of the water they were drawn to
it, though I don't know from how far away.
Martin Meiss
2010/7/19 Inigo Howlett <[email protected]>
> I have been chosen to give a talk to the volunteer friends of a local
> wildlife refuge on the subject of Crayfish. They're fairly common here in
> tidewater virginia, but so far, I havent found any good field taxonomy keys
> for keying out crawdads that I catch- and I'm having a good bit of trouble
> catching them.
>
> There are plenty around my house, but the water is too shallow for trapping
> them. Various web resources say to try digging them out, but I haven't met
> with any success doing so- that there are a lot more common species in
> larger bodies of water that you can trap, but for rarer things, you'll
> likely have to dig them out of an ephemeral ditch or something.
>
> I need advice on: A good general field guide or textbook, and general
> advice
> / experience on how to lay a hand on the critters.
>
> It's been dry around here lately too, and that hasn't helped.
>
> Thanks to any and all,
>
> Inigo
>
