Procambarus crayfish control: Draining the waterway

Overall effectiveness category No evidence found (no assessment)
Number of studies: 0
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not assessed
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Background information and definitions

Draining a water body offers a potential control of invasive crayfish by making the location uninhabitable. While some individuals may die as a result of such management, many species are able to tolerate exposure to the air and can walk to adjacent water bodies. A trial in the Czech Republic found that three successive drawdowns of a 0.16 ha pond, followed by hand removal, was not able to remove all signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus(Zozak & Policar 2002). In addition, a review reported that draining habitat can have a significant, short-term impact, reducing populations of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkia (Stebbing et al. 2012). However, it also reported that this approach causes significant impacts on natural habitats, is expensive, and does not lead to eradication.

Zozak P. & Policar, T. (2002) Practical elimination of signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana), from a pond. Pages 200-208 In: D.M. Holdich & P.J. Sibley (Eds.) Management and Conservation of Crayfish Proceedings of a conference held on 7th November 2002 at the Nottingham Forest Football Club, Nottingham, UK.

Stebbing P.D., Longshaw M., Taylor N., Norman R., Lintott R., Pearce F. & Scott A. (2012) Review of methods for the control of invasive crayfish in Great Britain. CEFAS. Contract C5471 final report. pp 105.

Key messages

No evidence was captured on the effect of draining the waterway as a control tool for Procambarus crayfish.

'No evidence' for an action means we have not yet found any studies that directly and quantitatively tested this action during our systematic journal and report searches. Therefore we have been unable to assess whether or not the action is effective or has any harmful impacts. Please get in touch if you know of such a study for this action.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Please cite as:

Aldridge, D., Ockendon, N., Rocha, R., Smith, R.K. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Some Aspects of Control of Freshwater Invasive Species. Pages 555-87 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

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This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Control of Freshwater Invasive Species

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Procambarus crayfish control: Encouraging predators Action Link	Unlikely to be beneficial	3	Synopsis Link
Procambarus crayfish control: Relocate vulnerable crayfish Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link
Procambarus crayfish control: Create barriers Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link