STUART, Fla. — Residents and motorists in a South Florida city can be forgiven for feeling a little crabby this week.
It's mating season for blue land crabs, and, coupled with the rainy season, it is not unusual to see the crustaceans around town. But they seemingly came out of the woodwork in Stuart, skittering along the sidewalks and streets. Not only were they a nuisance for pedestrians, but they also were a pest for motorists who risked flat tires by driving over the crabs.
Abriel Arnel posted a video Monday night showing hundreds of crabs wandering the streets.
"There were all the crabs. It was like a plague or a stampede of crabs getting ready to leave my neighborhood," Arnel told WPTV.
Arnel said the crabs, whose mating season runs from the end of June through November, were at her door Tuesday, the television station reported.
Arnel said she was surprised by their numbers, and posted a video on Facebook showing the crabs wandering through the city. She told WPTV she had never seen so many crabs.
“Not like this," Arnel told the television station. "I heard rumor of them but yesterday made all those rumors come true.”
"This time of year they are migrating in huge numbers out to the water areas," Mark Perry, of the Florida Oceanographic Society, told WPTV. He said crabs burrow into the ground and normally feed at night. However, this year's heavy rains in South Florida have forced the crabs out of their homes.
“They’re actually pretty harmless, but they do look ominous," Perry told the television station
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