Curious about quagga mussels

Quagga mussels , zebra mussels - Dreissena , these critters are a comparitive recent invasive to the west . I have been doing some study on these things recently and what I am reading does not make for good reading .Through my work I have become mildly acquanted with them on a shaking hands -first person acquaintence . Have any of you here knowledge or had any dealings with them ?

There seems to be some experiments with a bio-control ;

http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=quagga+mussel+electric+control&y=Search&fr=ush1-mail&u=www.fs.fed.us/r4/resources/aquatic/breaking_news/bio_tech_dreissena_control_082407.pdf&w=quagga+mussel+electric+control&d=WTiao_ReRVPG&icp=1&.intl=us

and a host of other controls including electrical and or audio grids , copper based paint and other measures .

What input does anyone else here have ?

I fish Lake Michigan for salmon and trout. Zebra mussels weren't too bad. They only live down to 30 feet, or so. Still a LOT of Great Lakes boaters introduced them into inland waters. The native mussels are killed because the zebra mussels grow on them until they cannot open their shell to feed. The native fish adapt to the gin clear water that is created by millions of filter feeding mussels. Quagga mussels will live as deep as Lake Michigan gets. They are close to, if not already, the majority of the biomass of Lake Michigan. The young sport fish and bait fish have little zooplankton to feed on and the predator fish are getting smaller because of reduced bait fish biomass. I don't like either type, but if you have to choose take the zebras.

We also spend recreational time on Lake Michigan. Swimming, boating and fishing.

Here are some links about the mussels, but there's lots more info out there.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/quaggamussel/

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/greatlakes/work/invasives.html

http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/main.php?content=research_invasive_zebramussel&title=Invasive%20Invertebrates0&menu=research_invasive_invertebrates

http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/invasive/#Related

Hi Stelco , Chatnoir ,

I have very recently spent numerous hours going over links on the subject of Dreissena - mussels . I was hoping to find someone that has had some dealings with them first hand . The background stuff of them coming over in ballast water on a freighter , dumped into the great lakes , down the Mississippi . All the reading I have done seems to confirm as you say Stelco is that the quaggas are zebras on steroids . Will live in more temperature extremes , greater range of depths more prolific breeding cycles .

I was wondering more like you mentioned Stelco is how rapidly does it seem to be spreading into smaller inland bodies of water . Some here in wildlife gardening have ponds , small lakes , creeks on thier properties . The upper midwest where these first occured , are any of you finding it on your properties yet ?

Reports I am reading on them coming to the southwest is that they seem to love our harder and warmer waters . Our large Colorado river lakes are already said to be infested with them and into one of our large irragation water canal sources bringing them into the center of the state . It is claimed that fisherman can tranfer these on thier fishing gear , scuba divers on thier equipment , swimmers and dogs . While not proven it is said that wildlife even ducks can move the small clams , etc in thier feathers

I was wondering at what has been done in possibly smaller scale to control thier numbers at lakes , small facilities there in your neck of the woods . Anything practical without breaking the bank so to speak . I ask this because most of what I have seen on the net seems to be on the pricey side .

I live on a small inland lake in Michigan. We do not have any exotic mussels, but friends who live on larger lakes have had zebra mussels for years. They seem to "starve" themselves in inland lakes here. They never go away, but the balance in the system, as corrupt as it may be, seems to self regulate the number of mussels in an inland lake. The water stays gin clear and the fish species adapt. In our Great Lakes the constant influx of river water, full of nutrients, allows for a seemingly unending reproduction of exotic mussels.

The mussels are easily transported. The larval stage can hitch a ride on just about anything. They tried to get boaters to flush engines and bilges after boating in the Great Lakes, but they tried to stop people from transporting fire wood with emerald ash borer, too. If people can do stupid things they will find a way to do them.

We now spend millions of dollars sending divers down to scrape water inlets free of mussels. They build up enough to shut down a water inlet.

Being a Great Lakes salmon and trout fisherman I fear that the mussel biomass will become so great that it will comprise 100% of life in our Great Lakes soon. I hope that we find a way to delay this until I'm too old to tackle a 25# Chinook!

Hi Stelco ,

Something I had found on the internet was a map showing the spread of these things ;

http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/mollusks/zebramussel/maps/current_zm_quag_map.jpg

It shows the zebra still predominating in your neck of the woods . You can see that the quagga seems to be what is getting a foothold here in arizona and california . The Arizona game and fish has set up a site and programs for people to as you described there flushing engines and all that . California has apparently trained a small number of dogs to sniff them out on boats on trailers .

I think all that is only going to slow down the inevitable here .

( By the way , I was born in Mich . my parents had a place on higgins lake in Roscommon county . I was too young to remember it when they left but the pictures that I have seen tells me it was pretty there . )

Now your area of the country has a lot more natural lakes , waterways than us in the southwest . You say you live on a lake without any invasives ( yet )

Is there fear that they will eventually take over everywhere ?

The reading I have done indicates that the caspian sea area/Ukraine where these originated from , there is supposed to be some natural enemies for these though I have yet to see these named that we do not have here .

I have also seen/read that origanally some of our native species such as perch, various diving ducks would not eat them . But over time have taken a taste of them with acquired taste . Which in the end could be bad because I am also reading that these mussels can harbor some pollutants with little effect to themselves but over time will do species higher up the food chain in .

So at this point the invasion in your area is still limited in your estimation ? Have you read anything to indicate that birds can spread it ?

The quagga are quickly out competing the zebra mussels here. They will eventually win.

I wonder what would happen if they got in my lake. It is an old lake, with a very soft bottom. My wood duck house is on a 40’ pole in 2’ of water! I thought that I could get by with a 10’ fence post. I added 10’ that year, 10’ more in a couple of years and again this past winter.

It’s just a matter of time before they get everywhere. I’ll probably be long gone by the time they get into this lake, but somebody could have some in a bait bucket and bring them in tomorrow. Transfer by birds isn’t proven and the problem would be minimal compared to what man can do!

The problem is so bad that we blame mussels for the five year long crash in the salmon fishery on Lake Huron. The invasive alewife became so abundant that they died by the millions and littered Great Lakes beaches. We planted salmon. Salmon ate alewife. All was well. Mussels filtered zooplankton. No food for young alewife. No food for salmon. Walleye and lake trout have adapted by eating non-native, invasive round gobies. Round gobies eat mussels. There is a problem. The mussels get botulism and so do the gobies. Birds eat the gobies and the birds die – thousands! We have done a dandy job of screwing things up as much as we possibly could. We wonder what will happen in Lake Michigan. We still have some alewife. We don’t know for how long. I may take up sailing.

I think that there is no doubt that mankind has not done good stewardship of planet earth . I think that we should back off on space exploration until we do better here or perish . To expose mankind to another planet will simply screw up yet another environment .

Your older lake may not fare too badly , my understanding at present is that the quagga requires a firmer substrate to adhere itself to with its bysal thread . In my reading I have come to understand that it does not like bonding itself to copper surfaces . And they are not supposed to like water on the acid side as far as Ph goes .

We have extensive irrigation canal systems here that are concrete/gunite lined . Our CAP canal is something like 350 miles long by itself .

I read something on the botulism association with quaggas , that is scary .

Oh well , I guess when it is all said and done it will be survival of the fittest .

HOSPS and quaggas and thier like .