This dataset supports an investigation of an unusual natural ecological trap whereby social juvenile Caribbean spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) are drawn to solution hole dens by the scent of larger conspecifics dwelling there, but where predatory red grouper (Epinephelus morio) also lurk. Although lobsters are sensitive to odors from food, healthy and diseased conspecifics, and other predators such as octopus, our experiments revealed that lobsters cannot detect the scent of groupers. As a consequence, the mortality of small juvenile lobsters was 30% higher near solution holes occupied by grouper, as compared to larger lobsters that are invulnerable to the gape-limited grouper predator. By preying on small lobsters, grouper negatively skewed lobster size distributions up to 16m away from the solution hole liar that they patrol. Our results provide one of the clearest examples of a natural ecological trap, in which the normally advantageous social cue of large conspecifics lures young lobsters to what is a predatory death trap.