canyoncreek, yes they are red swamp crawfish. I put in the initial thousand to provide another food source for the LMB and CC I was raising 15 years ago. When the pond went dry, the crawfish just burrowed in and waited out the drought. Interestingly, over the years we've had numerous big crawfish visit our front yard on their way to who knows where. Our yard is 200 yards from the pond.
I Googled the turtles eating crawfish videos and it looks like my turtles have much easier pickings with forage fish and young bullfrogs. Dismembering a crawfish looks like hard work for them. Most of the sliders have to go.
I've also got racoons eating a lot of crawfish but I'm actively live-trapping them out. I hate racoons, the thieving, destructive, wildlife killing marauders that they are. It's personal. I know that the coons would take care of a lot of the crawdads burrowing into my pond banks but I can't tolerate their presence. I wonder if there's some chemical I could put a drop or two into each burrow that would stop the crawfish and not hurt the ecosystem?
