Hey All :)
I hope you don't mind if I "pop" in here with a question...Is anyone having problems every year with these darn varmints?? LOL!! Of course we are getting quite a bit of rain and all we see are piled up mud holes. They are coming up from our ditch and now starting into the front of our yard. Do you all know an easy way to get rid of these things??? No...we don't want to eat them lol!!
Thanks!!
Connie
Crawdads or Crawfish
Well there went my suggestion!! LOL!!
Connie, do you have a picture? I have never seen them. :0)
Sorry Pepper (grin)
Hey Jeanette ::))) No. Now I can take a pic of the hole or two but I only see the little buggers if they are dead and laying along the ditch. If this link works you can see the crawdads AND the muddy mounds they make. http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0oGdWwEGaRR230AKwRXNyoA?p=crawdad&fr=yfp-t-900-21&fr2=piv-web
Connie
Good grief Connie, I know people set pots out at night and collect them in the morning to catch those buggers. Send them to me. I'll eat them. But don't want them dead. LOL
Hey did you do the earthbuckets for your tomatoes this year? J
Shoot no :(( We were gone most of May but I do have some buckets now lol. I looked at the loooonnnnnngggg thread and sighed. Too tired to read it so I can be reminded of what all to do. I need a crash course lol. Did you get some going? Hold my hand like you did on the straw bales and I can have them up and running before the weekend (hee, hee)
Connie
Oooooooooh To do the earthbuckets you need the colanders, pvc, and put them together with the buckets. If you haven't started them by now, you probably don't want to. Maybe next year. Oh well. Where were you in May? I have around 8 or 10 going. I really didn't have the time or energy to do it. We, Bob and I, planted them around the second week of May. Then I went into the hospital and had my ankle replaced. So, right now I am "no weight on it for 6 weeks". Yeah, not a good year to try them if it weren't for Bob. I got carboys from Culligan water softener place, cut the bottoms out, and cover them. If it weren't for those, I would have lost them. We had 2 nights of freeze last week.
Are you having a garden at all this year? If not, you will miss it. J
Gotta have a garden Sweetie :) We planted in the regular garden and had tomatoes and peppers inside under lights. They were on the dry side but still looked good when we got home. We put them out in the bales when we got back. We do have extra plants on stand by...so you think it's too late to try? Yeah, I remember the colander upside down I think. I know there is a hole to drill out on the side of the bucket. Didn't someone stick something in that side hole?
I had no idea you were in the hospital. Pray you are feeling better soon Girl :) Let Bob spoil you...it's your turn and 6 weeks will only make him appreciate you more (wink) We spent some time in Arkansas. Our daughter had our second grandbaby!!! We watched our 3 yr old granddaughter and then tried to help a little after she and her husband came home from the hospital. Of course we planted their garden for them lol.
Connie
If you have plants already going, and extras, then hell yes try it. I will get the instructions that are narrowed down for you. I didn't follow them to the Tee. i.e. I mixed the slow release fertilizer in instead of putting it on top, etc. But, ok, I will send them to you. Glad you are home and into your own garden. Hope the new baby is healthy and screaming it's (you didn't say boy or girl) head off. Just to let the world know it is here. LOL, Love em huh!!
One other thing I did, I got some carboys from the Culligan soft water people, cut the bottoms out and put the tops on them. Kinda like a greenhouse. The carboys are ones that have been broken in some way or whatever. But, most are good. Another thing I do with mine, I take a couple of the ones that hold water, carboys that is, and let the sun heat them up. Then I use that water to put on their little feet. (they smile with the warm water). Then fill them again and the sun will heat that water etc.
Keep me posted. J
Thanks once again for your help!! We appreciate you so much ::)) I will d-mail or e-mail you on everything else. Great ideas on those carboys!! You are so smart (grin) Never thought about using those but if I can ever find some rejects they could be put to great use...Warm hugs to ya and I will chat with you shortly ::))
Now if I could only figure out how to get rid of these darn crawdads.....if nothing else Jeanette, you can Bob come down after you heal and you can take all of them you want. We have a spare bedroom and I will even cook for you two (big grin) lol.
Connie
LOL, thanks for the invite Connie. I forgot to ask you. WHY/HOW do the crawdads get in your yard???? I am a northerner so you have to educate me. That is the fun of this site. We learn so much about other parts of the country. J
I agree with Jeanette. I want to know more about these crawdads too! I live in MO, but don't have any experience with them. Do they eat up all your plants?
WOW!! None in St. Louis??? Well, they are just a nuisance by making those holes and piling up the mud around them. We try to stomp down the mud piles but will miss a few then get slapped with mud from head to toe when you are mowing with a push mower lol!! They don't seem to eat plants or anything...
Jeanette, I wish I knew the answer to your question. I would sure undo what we've done to get 'em here lol!! We have them real bad in this area. Guess no one else who posts over here regularly have to deal with them.
Connie
Crawdads like that are a first to me, I live on the other side of Missouri, maybe it's a regional thing there. I wish I could help, they sound like a real nuisance.
Maybe they come from the Mississippi River, just guessing. Welcome to anyone that doesn't post here regularly.
Thanks for the welcome Shortleaf ::)) We are all neighbors but I think this is the first time I have posted here.
I am speechless here...none around St. Louis, none around Kansas City. Anyone living close to Columbia?? LOL! I could be a MS river thing. I grew up here and we have always had problems with them. I honestly thought y'all did too.
Connie
LOL, Connie, is this a dream of yours? How come you are the only one who has them? How do they come thru the ground like that? Bob said he has heard that in Louisianan they come up the ditches with the mud. I gotta say that is really wet. They live in the lakes and rivers here. Bottom. At night people put pots (traps) out because they are nocturnal, and look for food then, and then the folks go out in there boats and get them in the morning.
Yours are probably pretty full of mud. To eat. I'll bet they would make great fertilizer for a drier time.
If I was closer to the Missouri River I would probably have to deal with them. I know the rivers in central MO have them but I haven't seen them around here.
I wish I was dreaming. So do all of my neighbors lol!! I was told it had something to do with the water table here??? Of course we are in flood and tornado watches right now expecting 3-5 more inches tonight and more the rest of the week. They seem to really come around when we do have more rain. Last year was a pretty dry year for this area (and I know for others too) so they weren't too bad last summer. The holes are still there after we stomp down the piles so you just see the holes. We have a Maltese who likes to walk along the edge of the sidewalk and lifts that little leg on the ditch side. He has actually stepped in a hole or two. Scares the bejeebers out of me lol. We can put dirt back in but they dig that hole back out by the next day. Here is a pic I just took since the rain let up. Wonder what a really HOT pepper solution would do if we poured it down those holes>>>>
Connie
St Croix the crayfish! travels with the mud and water, grows large enough to eat in Louisiana, but its really cold for them farther north. Why would St Louis have them? That gorgeous River! They like bacon-tie it on a line, tease em out and snatch em fast! They won't mind the pepper, good fishing!
Those holes and mounds look like our mole holes. LOL Kitt, Connie said she didn't want to eat them. It sounds like you would be fishing all day long. How about letting them die and then plant them in your plants for fertilizer Connie? My mom used to dig my fish in her roses when I was a kid. I never knew that until just recently. My sister told me. I knew she put banana peels and fish heads etc. in them, but didn't know I wasn't eating the fish I caught!!
We use mud bugs to feed our Oscars in our aquariums, tadpoles too. We didn't eat them, but the kids STILL like to see if they are smarter than the crayfish, chuckl. It can occupy the dedicated for hours...fertilizer fishes are called shiners, but sunperchies are also abundant and usable 'in the hole.'
NO, LOL!! We don't want to eat them, we want them out of our ditches!!
Jeanette, I don't think I even want to mess with them. Those pinchers don't feel very good and I wish they would die lol. You brought up a good point though. A lady I know took fish (leftovers from cleaning) and through them in a hole, then planted tomatoes there. She said they were the best plants she had ever grown!! Oh, I have a pic I need to d-mail ya ::))
Connie
Yes, tomatoes and roses take about the same thing. Do you put Epsom Salts on your tomatoes? Roses? I forgot to do that. Good reminder.
GASP!!! I didn't Jeanette!!! Well, they have taken off growing, roses have been in full bloom and we finally stopped picking off the tomato blooms because they look big enough to hold fruit. I need to remember to do that next year and maybe we need to remind each other. I do suffer from CRS LOL!!
Connie
Connie, you can do it any time. Even dissolve it in the water. That is what I am going to do. I know, my sister and I normally remind each other, but I'll bet she forgot this year too. I didn't hear anything from her. Gots to do it lady.
www.fox2now.com/2013/06/24/flooding-causes-crawfish-to-overtake-road/
I stand corrected. Apparently they are an issue near the St. Louis area. :)
Connie and Jnette, I don't know about you guys, but my roses got eaten up pretty good this year. I suspect Japanese beetles, but can't prove it.
Jaimie, that is truly amazing. Especially to us up here. North.
I haven't been able to look at my roses so far, I sure hope not. You haven't seen anything on the roses? What makes you think those are the culprits? Do you have problems with them normally?
I had problems with them last year, but it seemed like it was later in the season than it is now. I'm just going by what my local nursery told me was probably the culprit. But no, I haven't seen anything on them, but I work all day and whatever it is seems to be gone by the time I get home in the evening.
I thought I would pop in here to say that we had Crawdads in the Mtns of WVa. They were usually in clay dirt that was very wet. I would collect their dirt to make doll furniture when I was a kid. What fun we had. Jo
LOL, I am learning all kinds of things about this country listening to you all. Pretty cool. Thanks.