ND zebra mussels

[johnr]

Can these mussels live out of the water for extended periods of time?

 

[svnmag]

One would assume such per the policies of WY

 

[svnmag]

While not 1000% true, it is EXTREMELY rare for a bird to be able to transport zebra mussels from one body of water to another based on the training I attended. Frist, adult mussels need a solid substrate to attach to. Second, the immature mussels (veligers) are found in water and though they could be on a birds feathers or feet they likely don't survive most trips. And even after they get there must survive and reproduce.

Humans are the number one cause of zebra mussel transport from one body of water to the next. Any water left in a boat can have veligers in it and transfer to the next body of water. Adults attached to the boat are the other way. Fisherman with livewells are a big concern (those that don't completely drain) or water that is sitting in hoses. As others have said, ski and wakeboard boats with ballast tanks are another huge source of possible transport. Anything that can hold water is suspect.

Only way to kill them is a decontamination wash of super hot water. WY has one at each check station and at several major lakes along with multiple movable units. If there is even a question, you get decontaminated. Not that painful of a process with an average fishing boat.

Each state should be doing this IMO.

Do you think with the current intent of the liberal govt to curtail mankind from prospering by blaming us for destroying the Earth may have skewed your training a bit? In this case I believe "man" is the main culprit and not the only one. Conversely, I find the insect photos insulting.

 

[Traxion]

Do you think with the current intent of the liberal govt to curtail mankind from prospering by blaming us for destroying the Earth may have skewed your training a bit? In this case I believe "man" is the main culprit and not the only one. Conversely, I find the insect photos insulting.

I'm not into the liberal government debate. What I will say is that the training was very down to earth and reasonable and WY has good intentions. I truly believe from the information presented (biased or not) that WE AS HUMANS are the number one way these creatures are moved from one body of water to the next. Sure, there are chances that they naturally can make it from one body of water to the next by way or birds, etc. But the odds are very, very low of a heron crapping out a couple ZM and contaminating a lake versus a fisherman with tons of water in his boat (filled with velligers, the immature ZM) or a wakeboard boat with ballast tanks full or water or a sailboat with it's keelbox filled with adult mussels. The odds of us transporting them are astronomically higher than it happening naturally. Or at least in my simple mind they are.

 

[svnmag]

I agree with the boat problem. Do you concede the threat of feathers instead of excrement? I mean, birds stock ponds,,,

 

[Enslow]

Can these mussels live out of the water for extended periods of time?

Yes only boiling holy water works on em.

 

[You]

There are lakes in MN that are clean that are surrounded by invested lakes. Despite that fact, they have remained clean by prevention. Devils is a long ways away from any infested waters so I think natural contamination would be almost impossible. The only major factor would be human. Spending some money on human transfer prevention will be a lot less expensive than trying to get rid of the things once they are established. It's kind of like changing the oil on your car. You can spend a little every few thousand miles to prevent engine failure or just say the hell with it and replace the engine in short order.

'Clean' exists somewhere no doubt but I wonder what percentage of near-to-an-infested-lake lakes have them but haven't been formally discovered as having them yet? For all we know they're already in DL. We can delay them, not stop. Science needs to hurry up, and looking at the infestation map, yea, that's a lot of money from a lot of states if they start working together. (Maybe they already are?)