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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Hundreds of thousands of red baby crabs are invading the CaymanIslands in a seasonal migration that residents say is unusuallyheavy this year. The crabs are blanketing roads, scurrying across yards andscratching their way up homes and buildings in a process thatscientists say will last about a month. "People living in the coast will have them everywhere," said TimAustin, deputy director of the Cayman Islands' EnvironmentDepartment, on Wednesday. "They get in houses, into your AC system.Anywhere there's a gap, they'll find it. They're trying to getsomewhere where they'll live happily." The baby crabs, which are smaller than a thumbnail, were born inthe ocean a few weeks ago and are emerging along rocky shores,seeking forests and wetlands near the coast where they will remainuntil they reproduce and head back to sea to deposit their eggs,Austin said. While the babies are red, the species is known as theblack land crab because of the dark purple color it takes on as itages. It is likely that the recent "supermoon" and low tides have made iteasier for the baby crabs to reach land, which could help explainthe increase this year, he said. Most of them are overrunningCayman Brac and Little Cayman, two of three islands that make upthe archipelago. The baby crabs do not migrate every year, in part because of oceancurrents, tides and wind conditions, but adult crabs migrate everyyear to the ocean during the start of the rainy season, usually inMay. Their migration has already occurred. The government urges people to try to avoid the crabs as theydrive, but it is nearly impossible not to hit them. "It's a minefield of flattened crabs. You'll just see hundreds ofsplats," said Jim Andrews, 48, who lives with his family in thesoutheast end of Grand Cayman. His house has been invaded by crabs as well. "This year, we just saw tons of the tiny little newborns," he said."You can hear them crawling on the windowsills." Andrews said his two young boys know better than to play with theadult crabs. His dog, not as much. "The dog likes to grab them and twirl them around and throw themaround," he said. "She knows she might get bit. Not bit, clawed." The migration of the adult crabs occurs at night, and the crabs,which grow up to 1 foot (0.3 meters) long, have been blamed forcausing flat tires. "Crabs will see the cars coming. They'll hunker down and put theirclaws up," said James Gibb, research officer with the EnvironmentDepartment. "A colleague of mine went through four tires five yearsago." Adult crabs also can move up to six feet (two meters) per second,Austin said. "This is why they are hard to miss on the roads," he said. "Youline your car up to miss them, and then they suddenly dart backinto your path." The adult crabs also lead to another yearly problem: the theft ofgarbage bins. People will hunt the crabs at night with flashlights and place themin stolen garbage bins where they'll feed them mangos andvegetables to clean their system before cooking them, Gibb said. "My dad will get upset," he said, referring to the yearly theft. "Ihave to go to the hardware store and buy new garbage bins." But Gibb said he doesn't mind living in the middle of what he callsthe "red tide". "You're closer to nature," he said. "When stuff like this happensit's interesting. I feel bad for living in a house that's in theirway.". We are high quality suppliers, our products such as 808nm Diode Laser Hair Removal Manufacturer , Lipo Controller for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Laser Diode Controllers.
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