The availability of shells has been shown to limit populations of adul
t hermit crabs and alter the outcome of interspecific interactions. Ho
wever, few studies have addressed such issues in newly settled crabs.
A major impediment has been the absence of techniques to quantify the
use of shells by settling crabs. Here we present a simple technique fo
r assessing hermit crab recruitment in rocky habitats. The method appe
ars to measure differences in settlement rates among sites without sub
stantial bias. By offering several different species of microgastropod
shells, we also found that settling Pagurus hirsutiusculus have disti
nct shell preferences. Such shell preferences may lead to resource lim
itation at the juvenile stage which may have cascading effects on the
distribution, abundance, or shell use patterns of adult hermit crabs.