HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I was wondering if any of the US members have any experience importing crabs from overseas. From what I am reading, there doesn't appear to be any permits required from the importers end, as long as they aren't listed species...

Yep, there are import permits required by the US, as well as paying to have them air freighted into certain international airports for inspection. I believe live animals that are not listed are handled by the USDA, but all live animals require paperwork and inspection even if not listed.

They cannot be mailed as customs will destroy (kill) them if found and the extra time of getting through customs even if not inspected runs a week or two so they will arrive dead. It's called brown-boxing to attempt it and it is illegal and people have gone to jail for it.

They can be driven across borders, however.

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hopefullcrabber wrote:I was wondering if any of the US members have any experience importing crabs from overseas. From what I am reading, there doesn't appear to be any permits required from the importers end, as long as they aren't listed species...

Is there a specific reason you're asking this or just basic curiosity?

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soilentgringa wrote:

hopefullcrabber wrote:I was wondering if any of the US members have any experience importing crabs from overseas. From what I am reading, there doesn't appear to be any permits required from the importers end, as long as they aren't listed species...

Is there a specific reason you're asking this or just basic curiosity?

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Partly out of curiosity a partly because I was thinking about one day potentially importing. But while I was researching it, I noticed that the permitting regulations seemed shockingly lax compared to importing plants.

Not really. I went back and looked for an old post where I covered this before. It does require permits from Fish and Wildlife, and they have to be sent by air frieght or sea to a designated port for inspection. Last time I looked (and that was a while ago) it was $100 for the permit, $55 in fees, $300+ for the shipping and then of course no guarantees they arrive alive. When LHC.com was still up and running she got several shipments of dead exotics, and it's not like the wholesalers will replace those for free or that any of the fees get waved just because they are dead.

This is several years old but it outlines what needs to be done to import live tarantulas, which is the closest thing worth big bucks to hermits out there.

http://atshq.org/boards/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28758


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So sad to think about all of the needless deaths.