CRAWDADS VISIT SIOUX NARROWS
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Thank you "The Cottager" Magazine for publishing this in 2015 as "Bait Becomes Bully"
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“You get a line … I’ll get a pole … we’ll go down to the crawdad hole …”
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Maybe Northwestern Ontario isn’t your first thought as you’re humming this tune, but you can find crawdads and crayfish boils happening on the shores of Sioux Narrows just the same.
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Looking and tasting like mini-lobsters with black-tipped claws and a splash of rust on their upper shells, rusty crayfish have become very well-established in many of Ontario’s lakes and waterways.
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Native to the Ohio River, they’ve taken to travelling. Causing all kinds of trouble along the way, they were first spotted in Lake of the Woods in 1960.
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As tasty as they are, they bring enormous ecological problems with them. Rusty crayfish are among the most invasive of their species and once an invasion begins, their numbers are virtually impossible to control.
That’s because they’re quirky little creatures with tricks that give them all kinds of advantages.
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Females, for instance, have the ability to store sperm until conditions are perfect. So they can reproduce with or without a male present.
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And they will have anywhere from 80 to 200 babies at a time, sometimes up to 500. Just one female crayfish can populate an area very quickly.
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They also will never back down from a fight. Rusties very much prefer “fight” to “flight” and will stand their ground, winning pretty much always, against any would-be predators.
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With huge powerful claws raised overhead in defensive stance it’s easy to imagine they’re quite intimidating in the aquatic world.
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And while this may save rusty crayfish from being devoured it sadly makes their more passive cousins much more tempting prey.
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Another trait that makes them virtually unstoppable is their bad personalities. They’re extremely aggressive creatures who find no shame in bullying.
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Rusty crayfish are the biggest species of crayfish, growing to 5”, sometimes even 8” in length and tend to dominate the scene quickly.
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In many areas rusty crayfish have either completely replaced native species or left numbers severely depleted.
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The rapid disappearance of other species of crayfish isn’t the only consequence of a rusty crayfish invasion, though.
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They have a real taste for underwater plants, snails, leeches, clams, fish eggs and insects.
With an appetite that sees them wolfing down more than double what their smaller relatives will eat, their decimation of aquatic areas has been equated with that of clear-cutting forests.
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Although they move slower in winter months, they don’t hibernate, so there's never a time when a habitat they've taken a liking to gets a break to replenish itself. And they’re just as happy in fast-flowing water as they are in stagnant ponds. As well, rusty crayfish have surprisingly long lifespans, living 2-3 years on average.
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The overall environmental effect is huge. When plants, insects and aquatic life needed to sustain the Eco-system of a lake change, everything changes.
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The trouble is, it’s hard to find environmentally friendly methods of controlling these destructive crustaceans without affecting other aquatic life. Introducing bass and sunfish as natural predators to a lake or region taken over by these undesirables may help to a degree.
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Trapping has proven to be one of the most effective means of control.
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So, a crawdad boil just may be a deliciously fun way to help heal the environment a little, while enjoying the sunshine and relaxing on the lake shore!
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You might even find yourself humming a few Louisiana Bayou tunes before the day's done.
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