01/29/2025
Good news! 👏🏼🦞😋
Consider us for your company crawfish boil!
337-658-8712 for booking/pricing
LSU AgCenter crawfish agent Todd Fontenot said that despite the historic freezing conditions and snowfall in many crawfish-producing parishes, producers and consumers can expect a quick rebound.
“We don’t foresee it being more than a temporary slowdown,” he said. “Since crawfish are cold blooded, their bodies slow down and they burrow as low as they can get in the mud and vegetation and stay there to protect themselves from the elements and predators because they are most vulnerable at that stage.”
When crawfish are facing these conditions, they’re not foraging and eating, so it does tend to set production back a bit as long as the weather remains frigid, Fontenot said.
During longer, sustained periods of freezing, production could be adversely affected. But the deeper the water in the pond, the more insulated the crawfish are when burrowing down, Fontenot said.
While Fontenot said there was some ice on his pond north of Eunice, it wasn’t significant, with the deeper water measuring above freezing at 36 degrees near the bottom.
With temperatures expected to rise into the 70s next week, Fontenot expects the mudbugs to start looking for food again and production to ramp up shortly thereafter.
“I think we’re going to rebound faster than previous years where it might have stayed in the 40s the week following a hard freeze,” he said. “With the positive upcoming forecast, I think it will take about a week, so folks should feel optimistic about getting their crawfish for the Super Bowl.”
