Crayfish Chimney

Description:

Crayfish – also called crawfish or crawdads – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters. They breathe through feather-like gills and are found in bodies of water that do not freeze to the bottom. They are mostly found in brooks and streams where there is fresh water running, and which have shelter against predators. Most crayfish cannot tolerate polluted water.

Habitat:

Drainage ditch on Jefferson Island Road.

Notes:

Crawfish chimneys are those “smokestack”-looking things that appear in ditches, fields, and our yards each spring. Everywhere you see one (sometimes a crawfish will make two), there is a crawfish living in a burrow underneath. Their tunnels may extend down into the earth 3 ft or more, sometimes being a single burrow going straight down, but more often being a main tunnel with a couple of side tunnels, each with a room at the end. They are normally full of water. Sometimes one sees that the color and texture of the chimney mud is different at different levels of the chimney. This is a sign that there are different types of soil layers below the surface. As the crawfish burrows down, it brings up soil from different layers and deposits the pellets of mud at the top of the chimney.