When it's dry, look for the mud plugs/mounds that cover their lairs. Remove
the plug, drop a bit of bacon or other bait on a string to the bottom of the
tube. Wait (a few seconds or minutes until the critter has tugged on the
string for a minute, then draw it out slowly. Alternatively, place some
water and bait into a container of suitable size (a "kiddie" pool) and lay a
plank to the edge and another down to the center of the pool, away from the
bait. Collect at will. Few will escape, if any.
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Inigo Howlett" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 8:56 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Crayfish
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
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