There are crawdads in my parking lot.

[Kizarvexius]

I was almost on time this morning as I herded Kizarvexilla out the door this morning for her ride to school. We climbed into the station wagon (lovingly dubbed "Moby") and set out on our merry way. I had driven no more than 20 feet when I screeched to a halt. What I had thought was a small bird pecking in a puddle turned out to be something else entirely. A crawdad. A really BIG crawdad. Just scuttling through the parking lot, minding his own business.

"Okay, that's weird," I said, and pointed out our crustacious pedestrian to Kizarvexilla. "I wonder where it came from."

We watched it for a moment, then I prophesied that the poor little critter would be roadkill within the hour, and we resumed along our path. Then I spotted a second one. And a third. And what looked to be a flattened fourth.

By the time we left the parking lot, we were both shaking our heads in wonderment. Kizarvexilla was quite excited, as the class she used to belong to at her daycare was called the Crawdads. "Wait until Miss Karen hears about this!"

Okay, I've only lived in Austin for a year, and it rained quite a lot last night. But is this normal? Or should I presume that these little guys were liberated by PETA during transport to our neighborhood H.E.B.?

[Anaamika]

First of all, they're crayfish.

Secondly, eew. I remember I used to pick them up and not have a problem with it. Now I wouldn't touch one.

[Anaamika]

Supposed to be a smiley after crayfish. Sorry.

[Squink]

Originally Posted by Kizarvexius

should I presume that these little guys were liberated by PETA during transport to our neighborhood H.E.B.?

That's not a safe assumption these days; they could be terrorist crawdads. I've heard that the big ones pinch hard enough to clip off the valve stem of a tire with just one nip.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

In Middile Tennessee, I've seen them make burrows in the lawn!
But not everywhere.

I suspect ground water or underground streams make this possible.

[Amp]

You sure they weren't Claw Shrimp?

[An Arky]

It's mating season; they're out looking for some tail. Also, after a big rain, their little mudholes might have been washed out.

[don't ask]

Check out a road on Australia's Christmas Island when the crabs are on the move.

[Hal Briston]

Originally Posted by don't ask

Check out a road on Australia's Christmas Island when the crabs are on the move.

I really hope I get to see that one day.

But I wouldn't want to live there.

[LouisB]

Originally Posted by Anaamika

First of all, they're crayfish.

Secondly, eew. I remember I used to pick them up and not have a problem with it. Now I wouldn't touch one.

Texans call 'em crawdads or sometimes crawfish. For a taste delight, kill 'em, whack off their tails and fry 'em--the tail, that is. Tastes like shrimp.

[swampbear]

Well, Kiz there's only one thing to do. Start a large part of water boiling and go crawdad pickin'! There'll be good eats tonight!

[swampbear]

Originally Posted by swampbear

Well, Kiz there's only one thing to do. Start a large part of water boiling and go crawdad pickin'! There'll be good eats tonight!

Err... make that large pot of water boiling.

[Dazzling White Diamonds]

Call 'em crawdads up here in my neck of the woods, too. And we have 'em living in our yard.

I think they're neat. Of course, I've never had one attached to any of my bodyparts, either.

[Finagle]

Originally Posted by don't ask

Check out a road on Australia's Christmas Island when the crabs are on the move.

Dang. Looks like the Saturday night B flick on the SciFi Channel.

[Kizarvexius]

I hear you, Swampy. I think only the fact that they'd been wandering around in the gasoline soaked parking lot prevented my father (born and raised in Louisiana) from driving over with a bag of rice and a cooking pot.

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by LouisB

Texans call 'em crawdads or sometimes crawfish.

Actually, I do know. I'm a Northerner and will be all my life but I did live in TN for a while and they all called them crawdads. And Og knows I've read plenty of Southern literature! I was just teasing the OP.

And I've never eaten one.

[VunderBob]

Originally Posted by Anaamika

Actually, I do know. I'm a Northerner and will be all my life but I did live in TN for a while and they all called them crawdads. And Og knows I've read plenty of Southern literature! I was just teasing the OP.

And I've never eaten one.

I was born a danged Yankee myself, but given a hefty Cajun influence via my wife's biofather, I call them mudbugs...

[Count Blucher]

Originally Posted by swampbear

Well, Kiz there's only one thing to do. Start a large part of water boiling and go crawdad pickin'! There'll be good eats tonight!

"Etouffee, Brutus...?"

[Tully Mars]

I'll bring the corn and 'taters. Anyone have some andouille?

[Daithi Lacha]

Upstate New York, Otsego County. Butternut Creek. Crawdaddies as big as ...

Well, my thumb, anyway.

[Kizarvexius]

Originally Posted by Count Blucher

"Etouffee, Brutus...?"

I loves me some crawdad etouffee. The red or the white, it don't matter. Jus' pass me another bowl.

You know why Lousiana cuisine is so tasty? It has to be. When you're living among the biggest concentration of truly UGLY wildlife known to man, the cook had better have more than two or three tricks up his sleeve to make it palatable. How else would you convince an otherwise sane person to chow down on crawdads, alligator snapping turtles, and other denizens of the slimy bayou muck?

[myskepticsight]

That's funny.

Yesterday I was at work (at a large electronics store) and was outside behind the stereo installation place chain smoking on my break. It had been raining. I saw this large scary thing in the corner of my eye. Looked like a cross between a crab and a roach or something.

I called the stereo guy outside to figure out what it was.

Crawdad.

And one guy picked it up. Ew. Those things are hideous. And I thought it was weird being in our parking lot. But luckily I did not see another one.

[Dijon Warlock]

Man, I miss those things.

We used to have them on the farm, down around the creek (or "crick"...hey, we grew up on a FARM!), but decades of non-organic farming techniques (read: chemical pesticides and herbicides) have killed pretty much every living thing in the ecosystem other than the designated crop and a lot of weeds.

I never ate one, but I remember my older siblings catching them and keeping them for pets when I was very young. By the time I was old enough to go find and collect some, they had all vanished from the property (as had the salamanders, clams, fish, frogs, snails, etc.).

[Lynn Bodoni]

My husband started drooling when I told him about this thread. His mother was Cajun, and he is very, very fond of anything that has a shell. We've found a Chinese/Mongolian BBQ place that we all enjoy. It has crab, two kinds of oysters, at least two kinds of shrimp, and baked salmon just about every day. Plus the BBQ section has shrimp as well. He thinks that restaurant is a little bit of heaven.

If we lived in Austin, he'd be right there with a huge collecting basket, catching dinner.

[blondebear]

Well, at least in Texas you get the big ones. After heavy rains In southern California, , all we get are these dinky lawn shrimp.

[appleciders]

Originally Posted by LouisB

Texans call 'em crawdads or sometimes crawfish. For a taste delight, kill 'em, whack off their tails and fry 'em--the tail, that is. Tastes like shrimp.

Why're you whacking off the tails? Boil 'em whole, with some spices in the water. The tail's the meatiest part, but a true Bayou type sucks out the innards, too. And don't miss the claws! Lots of good meat in the claws.

[Kizarvexius]

I don't know how big these critters were, but I'd have to guess at least 4 inches long from head to tail. Big enough for me to sit in my car and watch them scuttling about from, say, at least twenty feet away. And to think I had my camera with me, and didn't even think to snap any pictures.

I mentioned the crawdads to a lady I work with, who told me that she used to catch them when she was a young girl here in Austin (not so terribly long ago), but over the years they shrank away in both size and numbers. Now, granted, I live in an area that wasn't even close to the Austin city limits when she was growing up, but still. Recovery is recovery. Of course, she couldn't argue against the plausability of my PETA-at-work theory.

I had a song running through my head all day yesterday. I song I haven't even heard since, oh, 1981.

You get a line and I'll get a pole honey
You get a line and I'll get a pole babe
You get a line and I'll get a pole
And we'll run down to the crawdad hole
Honey, baby mine