Few studies have looked at the direct impacts of mechanical beach cleaning on ghost crab densities.
However, the process of mechanical cleaning has been likened to found that despite heavy restrictions and regulations for vehicular traffic on South African beaches, burrow density and size were still impacted by the activity.
They found burrow density at impacted sites to be less than a third of that at non-impacted sites, and found burrow size to be reduced by up to 50% at impacted sites.
Similar results were found on North Stradbroke Island in Australia where found fewer crab burrows on sections of the beach which were subject to vehicle use.
These reductions in population size are thought to be the result of crushing from the use of heavy vehicles on the sand, either at night when the crabs move down to the intertidal zone to feed or whilst they shelter in shallow burrows.