Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011 January 29

= January 29 =

How to control land crabs?
I grow vegetables and plants in a piece of land attached to my home. Whenever I make a bed for seedlings land crabs sink holes in it. If I fill up the hole from outside, they will open it by the next morning, and if I fill it up thoroughly they will sink a well in another place close to it. Sometimes in this process they destroy the seedlings. The main worry about these holes is that when I water the plants or seedlings all the water drains through these holes and washes away the manure along with it. The land is exposed to heavy sun and I have to water these plants everyday. The drain of water through these holes means the seedling beds will remain dry. The holes are several meters deep and there is no chance of catching these pests. What can I possibly do to curb this menace? --117.204.86.223 (talk) 05:12, 29 January 2011 (UTC)


 * A quick google search for "land crab pest control"/"getting rid of land crab" yielded some interesting results. The U.S department of agriculture recommend 5 to 10 drops of carbon bisulphide each hole (drop and then close the hole) in this 1922 (!) pdf. This site claimed "No chemicals are registered for control of land crabs because of the possible negative effects on groundwater quality.", and this site agree ("no pesticides are currently recommended for their control"). University of Florida IFAS extension recommend "go out with a flashlight at night, net in hand and scoop them up!". This is a study of crab eradication using baited earthen jars. Royor (talk) 06:42, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the reply. In my case, the land crabs are small and their burrows are just two or three centimeters wide. They dig up up to the wet soil close to the ground water several meters deep. They roll up the wet mud in balls around the mouth of their burrows. They don't come out of their burrows. So, no chance of scooping them up with a net. I would like to try fumigation with Carbon disulfide but it looks like it may not be easy to get. --117.201.246.241 (talk) 08:25, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
 * In Australia we would call them yabbies, catch them, boil them, and eat them. Yum. HiLo48 (talk) 10:33, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
 * In Melbourne, as I'm sure you're aware HiLo, there's a yabby that's so huge, they've turned it into a railway station - see Southern Crustacean. :)  --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]
 * We've got those in London too: Kings Crustacean, Charing Crustacean and Suntpan Crustacean ;-) AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:47, 31 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Apparently not original in either case -, . Damn.  --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  19:22, 31 January 2011 (UTC)


 * If the land crabs are roughly the size of two to three centimeters I think it would be very cheap to adopt the baited earthen jars method using glass jars and maybe even metal cans. Royor (talk) 02:47, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
 * If the plot of land is not too large, you could get chicken wire or similar metal mesh with about 1 cm diameter holes and bury a horizontally-laid layer of it a few centimeters below the surface, with topsoil on top. Or even just spread it out flat on top and peg it down.  The seedlings will grow right through it, but the crabs won't be able to dig through it.  WikiDao    &#9775;  17:39, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

NRI'S from Tamilnadu and kerala
I would like to get address, phone nos , and e-mail id's of non resident indians — Preceding unsigned comment added by Madathil shaji (talk • contribs) 10:46, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is not going to help you invade the privacy of other people. Astronaut (talk) 11:05, 29 January 2011 (UTC)