Hairy crabs have invaded the UK and locals are too scared to touch them

The haze of the bed bug outbreak in Paris, France, remains.Britain has recently encountered another "invader" - hairy crabs from China.Sightings of crabs have been confirmed across the UK, including Newcastle, Manchester, Swansea, Glasgow and Brighton.

Hairy crabs, whose scientific name is Chinese mitten crab, are native to the provinces along the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea in China.It is abundant in the Yangtze River Basin from Chongming to eastern Hubei along the river. In China, Shengfang produced in Hebei, Taihu District in Jiangsu and Yangcheng Lake in Kunshan are the most famous. It is also distributed in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.

It is one of the precious aquatic delicacies loved by Chinese people. The poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty once praised that "crab claws are gold liquid". But in the UK, it is an invasive species and is disliked by everyone.

Because they will burrow into river banks, causing erosion, they will also feed on fish, damage fishing nets, and have an impact on fisheries.Coupled with the invasiveness of hairy crabs and their ability to take root in many European countries, relevant departments in the UK are very wary of them and have listed them as one of the 30 non-native species of concern.

British media said that the hairy crabs may have traveled all the way from eastern China to Europe and North America, hiding in the mud stuck to the bottom of the ship. Since 2016, hairy crabs have been widely distributed in the UK and can even grow to the size of a dinner plate.

The locals weren't too impressed with the guy with the fuzzy pincers. "It was alive and had pretty big pincers and I'd never seen anything like it before. I took pictures but I didn't want to touch it," said Findlayton resident Simon Pasey.

A local spokesman said: "They do not pose any threat to people or dogs, but if anything comes too close a bite is possible, so visitors are advised to keep their distance. "

Faced with the proliferation of hairy crabs, some netizens said,It’s not just that: “Catch them, cook them, eat them.”Some netizens said: Put them on the menu,Problem solved ""Ship them to China. They're worth about $40 each there. "

However, it is not easy to control the continued spread of hairy crabs. There is no legal fishing for hairy crabs in the UK. Even if some are accidentally caught while fishing, live hairy crabs are not allowed to be sold directly for human consumption.