Does anyone have the crabs?

[TikiRick]

I continually battle blue land crabs which come up from the river beneath the muck of the river bed. They burrow up beneath the poured concrete footer and up into the garden, destroyind roots, and sometimes even pushing entire smaller palms out of the ground. Some of the holes are the size of a softball and the mound of soil is 15" deep.

I planted a one gallon Gulubia costata (Hydriastele now I think....) one day, went out the next afternoon to water it and it was completely GONE. Apparently they are herbivores as well.

Does anyone have any suggestions short of a stick of dynamite? I thought about using rat traps or glue stick pads to catch them. I want to avoid putting any chemicals down the holes because it eventually gets into the water.

Crab cakes anyone?

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Are these guys protected (wildlife protection program or something?).  If they are not protected, then you can catch them and eat them!!  

In Puerto Rico they were sold by the dozens in the highways.  I think they are more difficult to find now because of over hunting.  When I was a kid I would go into the sugar cane fields and set traps on the entrance of their caves, leave them overnight, and next day there would be a nice carb inside (alive).  When we got about a dozen crabs my mom would boiled them and mix them with rice...if I recall correctly that meal is called "arroz salmorejo".

The traps were basically a wooden box, where the front is a door setup with a wire attached to the bait inside.  when the crab pulls on the bait, the door closes.

Personaly, I don't like the taste of anything with these crabs in it.  Even the smell while they are been boiled is so disgusting for me that I would leave the house anytime my mom was cooking them!

Jeffrey

[TikiRick]

Jeff,

I do think they are protected or something. So this has got to be on the downlow!

PS. Seafood disgusts me.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Ok, So I'm not helping here...  

[TikiRick]

A sledgehammer would work fine!

[www.dadluvsu.com]

How about this for a cure!

EEEEWWWWWW!!!!!!!!

[waykoolplantz]

Rick...they crunch when run over...but it might be difficult to drive to your back yard.

maybe a small mesh fence with a electrical charge...or a baseball bat ...i dont believe they are protected.

BTW...youre handy with a hammer & nails...(love your TikiBar)...try building traps

[redant]

everything you want to know about crabs here

I have them as well, don't tell anyone though.

They love to dig by coconut palm roots cause the palms to decline.

[TikiRick]

Many thanks Doug. So it looks like I have to wait until this Thursday (November 1) to legally smash the hell out of 'em!

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

I just spoke to my mom in PR....  down there the current price for a dozen crabs is $30.

[waykoolplantz]

Rick...catch em...put them in a bucket...and sell em .

Put the proceeds in the palm fund

[PalmGuyWC]

Rick,

Back in the 60's when I lived on Old Cutler Road, about 2 blocks from Fairchild Gardens, there were 10's of thousands of land crabs that would migrate out of Biscane Bay on an annual basis. I think they live part of the time in the sea and part of the time on land. It literally looked like a sea of crabs as they crossed Cutler Road late afternoons. You couldn't see the pavement for the crabs and there were thousands of them.

Over the years they slowly deminished as they were run over by the heavy traffic. I was told they were not fit to eat, and they came in colors of blue and red. Their sharp shells would puncture a tire and there used to be a lot flat tires on Cutler Road.

Dick

[chris.oz]

Just like Cutler road used to be,  on Christmas Island the crabs are protected.   They still swarm like this every year.

[epicure3]

Sorry, Rick. No crabs here in fire land. First, I'd need a river. However, that is really creepy.

[PalmGuyWC]

Thanks for the picture Chris.  That's exactly the way Cutler Road looked many years ago. I suspect it was automobile traffic that killed most of them in S. Florida, the same way most snakes and reptiles have been killed in urban areas.

Dick

[chris.oz]

(PalmGuyWC @ Oct. 27 2007,07:55)

QUOTE

Thanks for the picture Chris.  That's exactly the way Cutler Road looked many years ago. I suspect it was automobile traffic that killed most of them in S. Florida, the same way most snakes and reptiles have been killed in urban areas.

Dick

The crabs on Christmas island are omnivores.  During the migration they swarm up the Arenga listeri and eat the seeds apprently......

[Kris]

Dear Jeffrey  

is this box you mentioned,we use it to catch the field rat !

here is the visual of the box avaliable in south india..

love,

Kris  

[mppalms]

I'm almost happy with gophers, rats, and squirrels now.      Creepy.

Jason

[fiji jim]

Our land crabs here are not as big but plentiful and achieve the same kind of damage.

Called 'lairo' they are a bit of a delicacy to the locals when they are 'on the march'. That is a time when they are very fat and prolific.

When they want to rid them from gardens I have known Fijians to poor hot coconut oil down their holes.

When I have had trouble establishing new gardens I put some old nylon pantyhose or stockings next to their hole and they get caught in the fine material and then it takes some skill to untangle them before they enter the cooking pot. Nice curry.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

I have heard you can take your favorite poison, insert it into a bread ball and throw it down their tunnel, that gets 'em.

Jerry

[PalmGuyWC]

If you want to read something really frightening about crabs.....and palms, pull up Coconut Crab on the web. The Wikipedia encyclopedia will tell you more than you probably want to know about Coconut Crabs. Gosh, what a difficult life they live. They are the largest terrestrial anthropod on earth, but they have good taste as they like Coconuts in their diet.

Dick

[DoomsDave]

Rick:

Too bad you don't like to eat crab meat.  I've got a great recipe, fonr Singapore . . .

Smash 'em with a hammer, then bury them.  They make great fertilizer.  Use the shells for drainage in your pots!

[fiji jim]

Dick,

We have these coconut crabs here to.

They have been mostly eaten out except on Cikobia Island where they are prolific.

In Fiji they are regarded as a delicacy and the meat is extremely rich and the females have pockets of oil in them and it is just like coconut oil.

Some people have tried to raise them in restricted areas for supply to city and town folk who would pay well for them but no-one has been successful as they are great escape artists.

Also they are very strong and can peel and crack a nut open so watch those pinchers.

Jim

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Kris,

The trap is very similar to your picture. But, the front door slides down on a set of tracks, while yours looks like it swings to close.

Jeffrey

[BigFrond]

(fiji jim @ Oct. 28 2007,14:56)

QUOTE

Dick,

We have these coconut crabs here to.

They have been mostly eaten out except on Cikobia Island where they are prolific.

In Fiji they are regarded as a delicacy and the meat is extremely rich and the females have pockets of oil in them and it is just like coconut oil.

Some people have tried to raise them in restricted areas for supply to city and town folk who would pay well for them but no-one has been successful as they are great escape artists.

Also they are very strong and can peel and crack a nut open so watch those pinchers.

Jim

I saw a documentary of this crab on PBS.  They said that this crab is now an endangered species because the are prized for the meat, plus they are easy to catch.