Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Anyone deal with crayfish digging in their dike

and property? I'm seeing more and more of their holes and have captured a few of them. I discovered one hole today that is letting water from the pond to the emergency overflow. I was told to put a teaspoon of a pesticide used for fire ants in the hole and cover it. However I'm not crazy about the idea as my dog could quickly dig it up and ingest it before I can stop her.

I'm going to do a search in the net but any experiences you've had with them would be helpful.

Cecil, I don't have any experience getting rid of crayfish, I trap them to put in the pond.
I can see the problem with using pesticides, this may sound dumb but how about pouring boiling water down the holes. Sorry but that's all I can come up with.
Good Luck
Larry

Cecil, I have crayfish too that I am pretty sure are compromising the bottom. If you find a hole in a spot that is subject to cause failure, I would heed the advice given. Now days, pesticides are very low dosage and slow acting nerve agents for insects. They are made so that insect colonies can pass it around before it does its duty. Boiling water would work, just as it works on ants. Gasoline would also.
You could always go the dydamite route, but that could also compromise the dike. I got that idea from Tom G., nevermind.

Cecil - Argh - I can feel your pain. When I used to do 2 weeks of survival camp/canoe fishing in the BWCA and Quetico we used to trap crayfish for an additional source protein and bait it with Walleye innards. I would think beef/chicken/turkey livers would do the trick for your traps. You'd probably have to bait a heckuva lot of traps to control them - but I think it would be possible....not to mention a lot of fun seeing what you caught everyday.

I must say though that I like Adirondack's advice [as always], and it accomplishes the additional goal of precooking a nice snack for yourself. Anyone who's enjoyed a crayfish boil knows what I mean. Don't forget the red beans and rice...or you could make a nice gumbo. The possiblities are endless!

Sorry, but that's all I could come up with also.

TJ

Cecil,

If you have a lot of crawfish, the outlook is not good. If your dyke's are wide, chances are slim they will cause a leak. If narrow, chances are much worse. I wouldn't want to put anything in the holes that I wouldn't want in my pond, because all that stuff will eventually make it into the pond and nearby wells.

They hate salt or sand in their holes, and will vacate and make a new hole nearby. It may be less work in the long run to widen your dyke's.

CB1 - I've heard the boiling water trick works, but never tried it. I don't know if pouring rotenone water or hot rotenone water down the hole will work or not? Ponds without bass predators should get quite a bit of crayfish activity.

Bill from my observations rotenone does not work on craws.

Cecil, any idea as to what species of crayfish you have? Ok that was kinda a stupid question of course you would know, let me rephrase that, what species of crayfish do you have?

The reason that I ask is that we have recent threads regarding introducing crayfish as forage and I'm wondering, given their propensity to dig, if it is such a good idea to introduce crayfish where they don't already exist.

That's one of the reasons Dr. Perca recommends being sure what mud bugs you add and NOT introducing species not already found in an area.

I have gone over some crawdad identification material Cody recommended, and I can state that identifying different species of crayfish requires discriminating parts of them that I didn't even know they had.

There are crayfish in a local lake (2 miles away) and they will tunnel up behind a seawall. I've seen holes 3 feet from the seawall and they had to tunnel up a good 3 feet from the water level. I don't know how far down the seawall goes beneath the sand bottom of the lake, it's been in place for over 50 years.

ewest: When the DNR killed this lake in '69 with rotenone, there were quite a few dead crawfish along the shore along with the fish. Don't know why, just an observation. At least they said they used rotenone! Koontz Lake in Indiana.

I have seen retenone applications with dead crayfish as a result as well. Not sure if the retenone did it, but they weren't dead before, but after the application they were...

I think I read somewhere that rotenone prevents red blood cells from carrying oxygen. Not sure crawfish even have red blood cells. Sure haven't ever seen one bleed!

Maybe rotenone kills them, but is not effective at controlling them because it doesn't get down into their burrows. (?)

Cecil- Try a tablespoon of lye down each hole. It'll be buffered relatively quickly, and not likely to cause any long term effects, and will knock'em dead. Not much else likely to ingest it either.

what about using some close mesh wire along the water line a bit below and a bit above. If they can't drill they can't stay???

Just a thought

Don't pay any attention to Yolk, he's lye-ing (Eagerly awaiting Theo rim shot).

No rimshot, you get a
GROAN!
instead.

Now that's just downright insalting. Exactly the kind of acidic comment I'd expect from JHAP. I'm developing a pHobia regarding your posts. Besides, I'm telling the basic truth. Someone should wash out your mouth with soap. Or perhaps we should titrate the punnishment and use something electronic.

If you continue this type of personal invective, I'm sure you'll get a reaction from the moderators and they'll neutralize you. Now you've ruined my concentration, anyone got some buffrin?

Dang, JHAP, you brought out the Red Devil in Yolkie.

I think it was Tweety Bird that said:

There is nothing to PHear but PHear itself.