HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have had three escapees, one escaped twice. The first was a small E. The second, a then-medium (now large) PP. Third, a small-medium E. The first time I found him right outside the back door, just sitting there. My dog must have carried him outside during a potty break. The second time I found him crinkling around in a plant I have outside the 'tat.

I've only ever had one escape, my pp Eugene, although i haven't had my crabs that long. I came home and found the lid to the tank pushed to the side a little and i was missing Eugene. I started looking all over for him. I have the tank set up on a shelving unit that has my tv and some other stuff on it. The tank is above the tv on its own shelf. So i started looking on the floor for him thinking he fell and probably didn't make it. I didn't find him anywhere. Then i looked behind the tv. He had crawled down some RCA wires that were left up on the shelf when i moved my dvd player next to my tv. He was sitting on the RCA wire where they connect on the tv. They really do like to climb. I'm surprised he was able to climb down the wires like that.

If you have floor length curtains, and a Hermie goes missing...check the curtains. They love climbing curtains, especially lace ones

About two years back my baseball-sized PP Tiny (RIP ) was found scaling the wires behind our entertainment center

Some of my escapees died... Geez ants were eating them! Ants=a pest you won't be able to ignore...(or get rid of)
Once I got lucky though, my mum found one outside the house, it was about to fall into the sewer. Couldn't think of how it got there. any ideas?

I had my two year old get into my tank when I had my 10 gallon upstairs. (all tanks are now safely in my room in the basement with heaters when needed of course) He tore the whole tank apart, it took a couple hours to just get it back together properly. He took 2 out of 3 crabs out of the tank. I was so upset. I ended up finding one under the couch and the other one in one of his buckets sitting in the middle of the room. I never thought I was going to see them again and I was so glad when I found them safe and sound.

Can I add something? When I lost mine, she went down the stairs exploring, and she found the dryer. It is very hot, and that's why she wanted to go there. She was found dead...

Our first crab was one that I bought for my daughter in Myrtle Beach. A few weeks later we were going camping and she was bringing it with us. She must have been holding it and set it down and forgot. We found the cage empty and had to leave for camping. I gave it up as a lost cause. We couldn't find Bubbles anywhere. I couldn't imagine that it would have lived long outside it's cage. Well, one day, six weeks later, I went down in the basement for something and there was Bubbles! Sitting at the bottom of the stairs. No idea how she got there or what she was eating but she was alive and kickin'.
So, just wanted to let those of you with crabs missing for a while not to give up home. They are survivers.

My escapee experiences have not been so lucky. :crybaby:
Luckily, its been a rare occurance. When I was a kid in the early 90s, proper care of caged critters wasn't as widely known. (We lost quite a few due to escaping, or due to our murderous kitties following their instincts and killing anything small and moving.) We had one hermit crab that escaped and was never found. We'd occasionally find a hollow molted limb... Little guy must have somehow survived for several months AT LEAST because we'd find them in places that had been cleaned, sometimes months in between. We never found him or even his shell, even after we packed up and moved.

When I was in fourth grade, my class studied/ kept fiddler crabs. At the end of the lesson we were allowed to adopt them. I took home three fiddler crabs in a crappy plastic container, only like 3 inches deep with an unsecured lid. Inevitably they escaped one day while I was at school, beyond my closed bedroom door. One was found 3 rooms away, and another in a closet. The third wasn't found... until like a year later. I picked up my boom box (those old school stereos) and heard a weird rattling. The boom box plastic was see-through purple, so I lifted it over my head and looked inside... Low and behold, the third crab had crawled inside and died there. The worst part is, he crawled in through a small hole and I couldn't get him out. I kept that boom box until I was 13 or 14... with the crabs dead body inside, always visible and sometimes audible if the boom box was moved.

Mine escaped only once so far. He managed to get out, down my 4 foot tall dresser and did who knows what all day. But I found him in my suede high heel, I guess he missed me...or my feet?

When ever mine get out they seem to go right for the vents from my computer, either there or I find them climbing the power cables for the printer and internet stuff.

Years ago, I had a pair of PP named Speedy and Sparky (shut up, I was, like, eleven) that basically were in a contest to see who could escape the most and the longest.

I noticed their favorite spots to escape to were behind the couches and under the oven. The oven, I assume, because it was warm down there (my dwarf hamster Hamtaro had an obsession with the stupid thing, as well), but the couch, I have no idea. Maybe because of the large area they could climb, or maybe because the backs faced a huge window?

Speedy, somehow, had the ability to get from his cage, out the room, all the way across the house, into the living room, and up the couch in about five minutes flat (hence the name). Seriously, we timed him once.

So, my two cents: Check behind the couches and chairs and underneath the oven.

Sooooo, basically, 1) anywhere warm and 2) anything climbable are your best bets.

I haven't had any escapes yet!!! That being said... I am going to check the tat right now... LOL!!!

A VERY active PP, joe, escaped when I first got him. He decided to run away from the other crabs during a deep clean. Back then, I didn't do prison style head counts. Anyway, the next morning, I was woken by a strange scratching noise. I watched Insidious the night before, so I was freaked out. I was terrified, but I HAD to see what the noise was. Behind the tank, there was a piece of cardboard. The noise was coming from there! I picked it up, and joe was sitting there, wondering where the heck he was. He had been out of the tank the entire night!

Bluebug escaped once. My mom found him watching TV in the middle of the livingroom not far from the tank