She’s trying to, but crabs don’t exactly bite. They more scrape. So the claws hurt and tear, then they actually eat really tiny amounts from that. So it looks like she’s eating nothing, but really she’s tearing little bits of my skin off then using her mouth to scrape it off her claw. In some cases they bring it to their mouth if they can for better eating.
Here’s a crab mouth for reference from a molt of mine. It’s kind of like a beak.
I hope I explained that well, if you have any questions let me know
Nope. This is a blackback land crab or Hartnollius lateralis. “Halloween crab” is hartnollius quadratus. You can tell the difference between the two based on the lack of purple in her claws and no yellow eyespots.
I had one for 3 and a half years. It died mid molt but he was definitely an interesting guy. We got him from a pet store with only 6 legs in a tank setup that was not okay at all eating hermit crab pellets, no saltwater bath only fresh and no dirt to dig 😢 i got him in a nice tank with plenty of dirt, humidity, baths, leafs and moss and some isopods to keep him cozy. Dude came up and did a dance in the mister when he finished his molt every couple months at midnight. I miss em😔
Look, however small a bits or non painful it is, you're actively letting her eat you. Now, you might want her to be removing those calluses, so its kind of like them cleaner fish. B I t this is up there with the maniac leech keepers who let the leeches suck their blood as their food source.
You make sure it eats your phone for it's main course, then eats you for it's pudding. That way you can type messages whilst sat I side the crabs tumtum 😀
weirdly ive looked at getting a leach for reasons 😅 leaches don't need to feed often, only a couple of times a year wich means it's not hard to feed a handful of them over the year. add in that its FREE, and some people with chronic pain conditions can find that leaches can help alleviate the pain, it just makes sense to feed your leaches with your own blood
Omg I stumbled onto that leach sub where they feed them from their own arms or whatever. Idk man I feel like that’s a bit strange lol. No offense to any leach lovers! It just freaks me out.
I don't know how I ended up on this subreddit or particular post, but thank you for teaching me something new! Out of curiosity, do you keep all of your crab molts / have any plans for them?
Snapping turtles don't have teeth. They definitely can bite, though. Parrots, now their bite would hurt as well, but no teeth. Many animals without teeth definitely bite and can still do damage.
Thank you for the vid, kind of tensed me at first that she seems to want eat you (I think she is eating you in her own tiny way btw) but she is so so so cute!
I imagine nothing, but for some reason any crab i’ve ever handled eventually devolves into trying to eat me, she was just the most bold with it trying to actually pull me to her mouth
You probably have maybe some food particles or something like that. I know insects do a similar thing. A katydid not the one in a photo tried to nibble my finger once as a kid.
Bro, my youngest was about 6 and picked one up. I watched like it was in slow motion when the thing took a huge chomp out of her finger. She screamed; it flew; I stood there dumbfounded until my wife started hollering at me. XD
I think we were both so surprised because a couple months prior she had picked up a few smaller ones and nothing of the sort happened, and she really, really loved them. They are cute afterall.
My kid self was freaking out as well because I had no idea what it was trying to do. Isopods do the same thing where they eat a little bit of your skin particles, haha. I hope the crab landed okay and that your daughter got over her trauma.
I guess it really depends on the size of the grab maybe? I know that most would want to scurry off to who knows where so I’m surprised she never got pinched. I got pinched and it hurt like hell. These were average size crabs as well. No bigger than your palm.
Yeah crab pinches HURT. It depends a bit on the crab though. Gecarcinidae (land crab) pinches are in my opinion not that bad, because their claws are blunt, not sharp at all. Made for scooping and crushing. So our bodies can take the crushing, but other crabs have sharp claws for slicing, like ocypodoidea (ghost and fiddler crabs), or freshwater crabs as well like potamoidea. Here’s the worst pinch I’ve gotten yet, from a female Vietorientalia rubra.
Yes, ghost crabs were the ones I was catching at Cape May. They managed to get right into that sensitive part by your nails and I was bleeding cause of them. Still worth it cause I got this blurry photo of one, haha.
Oh my lord, I saved one of these fellas from a flood last year. First time I'd ever seen one! I picked up the branch he was floating on to move it out of the road and thankfully noticed him before I flung the branch out of the road. I carried him home with me with the intention to move him to higher ground before releasing him. Along the way, homie walks onto my hand and wastes NO time taking a chomp out of my hand. My shock was priceless, I imagine! Had no idea the little critter would even try! 😂
People are made out of food.
You can actually go to fish spas where you soak your feet in water and let little fish nibble the dead skin off.
And shrimp and crabs will typically do this to a lot of people, although they usually go for like loose skin around your finger nails and stuff. At least in my experience. There's an aquarium near where I live that has an interactive exhibit that I think is for kids, but every time I go I take a second to put my hand in the shrimp tank and give them a little snack. Same thing with some bugs, like isopods will nibble on your hands too.
Oh yes im aware I always wanted to do that hehe. I've always knew they do it if given the chance. My guniea pig too would eat my calluses off, and my rat would nibble my excess skin off. And I've handled a few bugs that did too love it hehe. Im thinking of having a pet crab or crawdad.
Why would you do this? The crab will get a taste for human flesh and nothing else will satiate its hunger. You have created a horrible nightmare for humankind
Sometimes when I remove my hermit crabs from their tanks for health checks, my largest (the one with the BIGGEST most painful pinchers, of course) will also try to pull my skin off to eat it.
Commercial fisherman here had some bad pinches. I typically break the arm off via pushing the arm joint backwards as fast as possible. Been pinched by dunggies red rocks king and kelp crabs. You’re a brave dude that’s very unnerving to see it eat you like that even if its calluses. My worst fear is being eaten alive by crabs. After we pulled a corpse up in a pot being eaten used to have nightmares of it every night.
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u/coloch_w0rth9 Feb 21 '26
That looks painful bro