crayfish, crawfish, crawdads, mudbugs or yabbies???

(didn't include "lobsters" as an option because a.) i don't know anyone who calls them that, and b.) it seems silly. "mud lobsters" or something, i could see.)

i grew up calling them crayfish -- probably because i grew up in the northeastern u.s. -- then at some point starting calling them crawfish or crawdaddies. now i have no idea what to call them.

"yabbies" is an aussie thing, apparently.

They're called crawdads where I grew up (rural Indiana).

i always thought that the "crayfish" up north were a lot smaller than the "crawdads" down south. and i kinda thought they might be two different (or more) varieties. cuz the ones up north can be really tiny. i mean, you wouldn't eat them.

I honestly can't remember whether I grew up hearing "crayfish" or "crawfish," I think "crayfish" sounds more familiar but I didn't even know what they WERE until I was a teenager. I thought they were actual fish.

I don't think I made the connection that crawdads were the same thing as crawfish (and could be eaten!) until I went to New Orleans for the first time (in my 30s). Up to then, they were just these weird creek critters that made houses out of little piles of balled up mud.

i always thought that the "crayfish" up north were a lot smaller than the "crawdads" down south.

i think there are a lot of different species, and i'm sure there's regional variation in size and color and whatnot. the ones i always found in western new york streams were pretty small, for sure. but i don't think the different words really have much to do with different species, because it's just a sort of generic name. like, i don't think one size is a crayfish and one size is a crawfish.

Crawdads here in southern Ohio

crawfish here

Crayfish are a bit different in Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiny_lobster

Crawfish or crawdads, but voted "crawdads" due to it being the first thing I heard these beings called (while fishing them out of a creek in Tremont, GSM)

"lobster"

if you mention these to me now, i'm thinking "crawfish" maybe because that's the name of the thing in Jersey every year where you pretend you're in LA, or maybe because of etoufee, but i probably heard "crayfish" growing up

http://www.thecrawdaddies.com/

Crawfish if they're for eating. Crayfish if you're in science class.

^this

i call 'em crawfish. i would not call them mudbugs because that reminds me of tom petty's band called mudcrutch.

"Crawfish if they're for eating. Crayfish if you're in science class."

this for me too. that's how i describe the difference. mostly cuz what we have around here are more the specimen type. the east coast/new england just makes do with lobsters and crabs.

wait, this is for the little guys you find in creeks right? cuz otherwise it's lobsters, innit?

creek dwellers are "crawfish" 'round here

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Crayfish. New England represent!

the yabbies

I call em...GOOOOOOOD EATIN'!

and crawdads

Yeah yabbies ain't nothing like crayfish where I'm from.

i did a little reading on yabbies and mostly got confused. how are they different?

Its crayfish thatre different as Sasha pointed out upthread. Theyre like small lobsters, orange and spiny.

Yabbies are little brown things in muddy ponds.

Crayfish in northern Ohio!

Grew up with "crawdads". Voted accordingly.

Yabbies are little brown things in muddy ponds.

ah. well that's what we call crayfish/crawfish. there might not be a north american equivalent to what you call crayfish, i don't know.

(oh ok, now i read the spiny lobster link. intersting.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS5JqAJUk5c

"Hello my baby, hello my darlin', hello my ragtime galllll...."
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21/amdraheim/P1060589.jpg

Just took this this past Saturday at the Buffalo River in Arkansas. We referred to it as a "crawdad'. Would not eat it.

"Crayfish" in Ontario.
they're small - but got nuthin on that guy!

so i see the scientific name for the "common yabby" is cherax destructor. now i wish i'd made that a poll option.

Grew up next to a creek in Minnesota, called these CRAYFISH both in and out of the frying pan. Did not eat creek crayfish, too small/fast.

http://davidruppert.com/misc/crawfish.jpg

In Louisiana they have "crawfish boils"

Crayfish in northern Ohio!

― kate78, Tuesday, June 9, 2009 8:08 PM (13 hours ago) Bookmark

same

When I was a kid we called them crawdads.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'd never heard them called anything except "crayfish" in the UK until last night, when I was watching a TV programme about seafood chef Rick Stein, and another Britisher chef said "crawfish". Which is not so interesting, but it was odd timing given this poll.