Winter pond crawfish control

Pond owned called me yesterday to reinspect a pond I did a muskrat job on a month or so ago and apparently over the last couple days with the warm-up the crawfish have went nuts burrowing all over the place along the pond. The good thing for the pond, its basically a 30yd diameter hole in the ground so there isnt a dam to collapse but he doesnt want den holes collapsing all over the place.

Any suggestions on this? I've never messed with these things much, other than the usual catch crawfish in the streams as a kid and the occasional ones in minnow traps, before.

Stock some bass in the pond come spring

Love the bass idea.

Chuck

I did suggest that to him and he will do that this spring though I believe he is looking for something more immediate.

Crawdads make a hole that's, what, the size of your thumb? and he's worrying about bank collapse?

The holes only go down to the water table, not horizontally. With no dam, there's really nothing to be damaged. Everything will be frozen in a little while anyway.

Do you happen to have some good pictures of the damage? Posting some would make our suggestions more meaningful.

There are many species of crawfish in the U.S. (Google it). A few of these are dry land burrowing crawfish (Google this too). These make burrows above the pond level at certain times of the year. Some dig vertically, some dig more horizontally. Holes can be two inches or more in diameter.
If the tunnel is vertical, you should be able to see the water level below. Teach a few local kids to “fish” for crawfish in tunnels. A good bait is liver wrapped in a fine mesh. Maybe, offer to pay them a quarter for each crawdad caught. As a youngster (1950s), I spent quite a bit of time “fishing” for burrowing crawfish in Kansas. I would set four or five “lines”, wait several minutes, then check them. If there was resistance when I tugged on the line, I knew that a crawfish was eating on the bait and would gently pull it out.

If you cannot see the water level while using a strong flashlight, the quick, temporary solution may be to dig them out.

How to catch a burrowing crayfish- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=665N7MKI5mM

Crawfish trap with bacon. Return in a day and eat them.... Repeat until desired effect.