Can’t Find Crawfish In Texas? Mud Bugs Might Be Rare In 2024

Mmm, crawfish. Crab's meatier, more flavorful cousin and the star of the best cajun dishes and backyard boils.

In my house crawfish are controversial, as they are the buggiest-looking edible crustacean that I'm aware of, and my significant other simply can't stand it. As for me, they could look like an Eldririch horror and I'd still happily slurp them down.

However, crawfish may be hard to find in Texas this year, and when you do find them, they are likely to be pricey. So what gives? Why are mud bugs rare this year? 

Texas grows a very modest "crop" of crawfish each year, the majority of what we eat in the Lone Star State comes from Louisiana. And it's been a bad weather year for crawfish there.

The rice fields that are used to harvest crawfish did not get an adequate amount of rainfall because of the drought. The triple-degree temperatures also created problems as crawfish burrowed deep into the ground to escape the heat with many of them unable to emerge afterwards.

Too dry and too hot might have done a lot of crawfish in, before they had a chance to fulfill their destiny in my etouffee. And because of subsequent freezing temperatures in January, "some farmers still have not put out traps mainly because test traps show no sign of crawfish."

However, it's not quite time to call it quits for crawfish this year, as the crawfish population could rebound later in the season, although experts don't seem very optimistic about it. And less crawfish this year means less brood stock next year, so we may have a couple of lean years for our favorite crustacean.