# What are these critters on the beach? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435 "2008-07-06T05:41:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/1 "2008-07-06T05:41:16Z")
At the beach yesterday, I was standing in water, averaging maybe about a foot deep (very variable due to the waves of course) when I suddenly realized that all around me were thousands of these little critters under the sand. There were about two or three per square foot I’d estimate. I couldn’t see them for the most part, but I knew they were there because whenever the water would recede after a wave, these critters would all stick their little antennae (or something) out of the sand. They were little “fuzzy antennae” if that makes any sense. I assume they were being used to catch food particles or something. Brave soul that I am, I tried to grab one of these critters. I got a _very brief_ glance at something white, maybe in a little shell (but I’m not sure), about a half inch to an inch in diameter or so, scuttling out of my hand, dropping to the ground, and immediately burrowing back into the sand. I say “burrowing” but it was so fast it was almost like it was simply swimming into the sand. Who knows what these little critters might have been? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/2 "2008-07-06T05:45:09Z")
[Sand crabs](http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/crustacea/Decapoda/Sand%20crab.htm). ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/3 "2008-07-06T05:54:21Z")
Yep. Ditto. Sand Crabs. When I take my son to the beach, he and his friends hunt them and place their catches in a bucket filled with sea water. We dump them back in the surf when we’re ready to leave. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/4 "2008-07-06T12:26:27Z")
[QUOTE=Queen Bruin] [Sand crabs](http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/crustacea/Decapoda/Sand%20crab.htm). [/QUOTE] Hey, as far as crustaceans go, that thing is quite cute. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/5 "2008-07-06T12:32:11Z")
What are the things in South Carolina and elsewhere? The holes look different - there’s all these little holes that you don’t see anything come out of (at least I haven’t seen anything) but you see the holes as the wave washes out. You can try to dig the creature out but IME it’s faster than you. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/6 "2008-07-06T13:42:15Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] What are the things in South Carolina and elsewhere? The holes look different - there’s all these little holes that you don’t see anything come out of (at least I haven’t seen anything) but you see the holes as the wave washes out. You can try to dig the creature out but IME it’s faster than you. [/QUOTE] I feel as though **Zsofia** and I are the only people posting this weekend. “Quick **Zsofia,** ride your bike to the beach and photograph the sand crabs!” If it’s in the intertidal area, where the waves wash up on the sandy beach and then recede, and you leap down onto the sand where you saw the little beastie, and it digs away, and you dig as fast as you can after it, and when you finally get it, it continues to dig through your hand in an amazingly ticklish, yet wierdly disturbing fashion, its probably a sand crab. They have them in NC too. When they draw Scrooge McDuck swimming through his money with no resistance, I think of sand crabs, and the way they tunnel through solidish slurryish sand. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/7 "2008-07-06T19:36:03Z")
[QUOTE=Ale] Hey, as far as crustaceans go, that thing is quite cute. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Aren’t they adorable? I want one. Please can I have one? I’ll look after it, I promise. Not like all the other times - I really will look after it. Pleeeeeeeease! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/8 "2008-07-06T20:16:22Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Aren’t they adorable? I want one. Please can I have one? I’ll look after it, I promise. Not like all the other times - I really will look after it. Pleeeeeeeease! [/QUOTE] NO! Absolutely not! You’ll just eat them! Whatever happened to your sand flea experiment, anyway? Were they delicious? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/9 "2008-07-06T20:24:54Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] NO! Absolutely not! You’ll just eat them! [/quote] Curses! Foiled again. > [@](#): > > Whatever happened to your sand flea experiment, anyway? Were they delicious? Still choosing my moment… I will report on the experiment, when I get around to trying them. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/10 "2008-07-06T20:31:48Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Still choosing my moment… I will report on the experiment, when I get around to trying them. [/QUOTE] What are you doing, trying to fatten them up? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/11 "2008-07-06T20:49:14Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] What are you doing, trying to fatten them up? [/QUOTE] I’m sneaking up on them, slowly. Actually, I’m waiting until I visit a beach that’s clean enough to make me want to collect them. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/12 "2008-07-06T21:19:45Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Actually, I’m waiting until I visit a beach that’s clean enough to make me want to collect them. [/QUOTE] Rottsa ruck! ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/13 "2008-07-06T21:52:06Z")
Oh! I remember mole crabs as a kid in So Cal. We used to wiggle our feet down into the sand at the surfline, and, as the waves receded, would feel the mole crabs bury down between our toes. It tickled! Nice childhood memory. On the East Coast, I don’t recall them being as big or in as great numbers, but perhaps that was because I was older, and didn’t spend as much time in tickle-toe glee at surf’s edge. And, **Mangetout** , [here’s](http://uniqueculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2006/06/sand-crab-chowder-really.html) a recipe for Sand Crab Chowder. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/14 "2008-07-06T23:48:30Z")
The ones in that article are pretty big - bigger than I’d have expected. And they do look tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/15 "2008-07-07T13:50:38Z")
[QUOTE=Attack from the 3rd dimension] I feel as though **Zsofia** and I are the only people posting this weekend. “Quick **Zsofia,** ride your bike to the beach and photograph the sand crabs!” If it’s in the intertidal area, where the waves wash up on the sandy beach and then recede, and you leap down onto the sand where you saw the little beastie, and it digs away, and you dig as fast as you can after it, and when you finally get it, it continues to dig through your hand in an amazingly ticklish, yet wierdly disturbing fashion, its probably a sand crab. They have them in NC too. When they draw Scrooge McDuck swimming through his money with no resistance, I think of sand crabs, and the way they tunnel through solidish slurryish sand. [/QUOTE] Those must be it - I’ve had them tickle me a few times. Scrooge in the money bin is exactly it! Yeah, it turned out to be one of those holiday weekends where I meant to do this and I meant to do that and I meant to do this other thing, but I ended up just screwing around on the Dope the whole time. 🙂 I did buy a bike, get trapped under the bleachers with the entire US Army, and accidentally attend a Mormon wedding, though. (I meant to attend the wedding. I didn’t know they were Mormons.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-critters-on-the-beach/455435/16 "2008-07-07T14:20:16Z")
[QUOTE=Attack from the 3rd dimension] …They have them in NC too… [/QUOTE] I’ve seen them on the beaches of Nags Head, N.C. ever since I was a wee lad. We called them “sand fleas,” though. The largest one I ever saw was only about as big as the first joint of my thumb. Very cute.