Asked on Jul 18, 2013

How do you get rid of crawfish/crawdads in your yard?

Pamela Staudt
by Pamela Staudt
I am in Santa Fe, TX, near the coast, but in more of a rural area. We have lots and lots of Crawdads that burrow holes in our yard and ditches. Does anyone know how to get rid of them or getting them to leave? It makes the yard really hard to walk in because of the holes.
  8 answers
  • Douglas Hunt Douglas Hunt on Jul 19, 2013
    I can appreciate your desire to do something about this, Pamela, but I'm afraid the only longterm solution is to work to improve the drainage on your property. Most sources specifically recommend against chemical controls because of the threat to water quality and how widely they can be distributed by water movement. No chemical controls are registered in Texas. For some additional perspective and guidance, see this from Virginia Cooperative Extension: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/420/420-253/420-253.html From Texas A&M: http://landscapeipm.tamu.edu/what-is-ipm/ipm-concepts/pest-identification/good-bug-bad-bug/neither/crawfish/
  • Pamela Staudt Pamela Staudt on Jul 20, 2013
    Thank you so much for your advise. I will take a look at it...hopefully they will have something useful and affordable.
  • Fiona Loper Fiona Loper on Jul 20, 2013
    let a few neighbours know, they will be delighted to come and fish them out for you
  • Pamela Staudt Pamela Staudt on Jul 23, 2013
    LOL Fiona! I'm sure they would. Thanks for your ideas.
  • Pamela Staudt Pamela Staudt on Jul 23, 2013
    Douglas, I did check out the sites you provided, but they didn't offer anything too helpful. We will be building a house on the property soon, so that should help out quite a bit, but I am open to any other helpful advise. Thank you.
  • Douglas Hunt Douglas Hunt on Jul 23, 2013
    Pamela, I think the bottom line is that you need to do the site work to ensure proper drainage before you build.
  • Jerry Jerry on Aug 09, 2015
    We are sustaining damage to our dam due to numerous crayfish burrows. Will calcium carbonate used for ice melt help? Will it hurt other wildlife or fish? We bought a crayfish trap and have caught zero crayfish. Help!
  • Tommy VanHorne Tommy VanHorne on Jul 22, 2019

    I tried moth balls, rock salt, swimming pool salt with little to no success. My mower suffered greatly during that time. I finally tried swimming pool shock with GREAT success! One tbl spoon for small holes, 2 tbl large holes. Can be applied if holes are in or out of the water. After treatment stomp hole closed. Never had to treat more than twice, mostly once.