OHIO – It’s springtime in Ohio and that brings out animals for mating season, with this warm wet weather people are seeing a rare sight of a crawdad on their lawns, and wondering how they got there.
The reality is that these specialized lobsters live in holes and not in lakes and streams. As long as you are close to a water source with a water table underground that’s where this particular species of crayfish “crawdad” live. The Burrowing Crayfish is most often active on the surface of the ground during the spring and with this warm wet weather it’s perfect for them to get out and spawn
Burrowing crayfish in Ohio belong to one of two genera in the family Cambaridae: Cambarus and Fallicambarus
Mudbugs (another name they are called) live where they can dig down and access the water table, that’s how they survive. The digging action pushes mud to the surface and creates a mud chimney or volcano.
These land-lobsters like their aquatic cousins still need water to survive and have gills, but invertebrates simply don’t need as much oxygen as other creatures. That’s why you see crabs on land at beaches often washed up after the tide goes out, inverts can live a lot longer out of the water than fish, and that’s what gives this creature the ability to become land bound.
