• AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    We always called those “sand crabs” and these sand fleas image

    Those are also called “sand flies,” and they actually bite and suck blood and stuff. The things linked really are little crabs - we used to fish with them.

    • Xanthrax@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 months ago

      Hated those in Virginia. We’d call them horse flies, but we just called any fly that bites a horse fly.

    • Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 months ago

      Totally harmless, if a bit ugly. Not sure why we called them sand crabs when I was a kid and would catch them in a bucket. All they do is try to burrow and hide under wet sand, so when you hold them they try to crawl into your hand. It tickles a little.

  • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    42·
    3 months ago

    You can eat them. Boil them like shrimp.

    Source: Jon C., a friend from work who used to dig them up and sell them.

    • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
      5·
      3 months ago

      In some cultures, sand crabs are eaten as a popular snack, such as in Thailand. They are often prepared via shallow frying in a pan or deep frying in batter. The taste is often described as falling somewhere between that of shrimp and crab. Eating sand crabs presents a risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning and/or infection with Profilicollis parasites.

      !!

  • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@lemmy.ca
    2·
    3 months ago

    We always called them sand fleas within our family. Never really knew what their real name was and hadn’t realized others called them sand fleas as well. We often used them as bait for fishing.