{"id":15067,"date":"2014-03-01T06:57:23","date_gmt":"2014-03-01T11:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=15067"},"modified":"2014-03-01T08:32:37","modified_gmt":"2014-03-01T13:32:37","slug":"new-prospect-of-controlling-zebra-mussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2014\/03\/01\/new-prospect-of-controlling-zebra-mussels\/","title":{"rendered":"New prospect of controlling zebra mussels?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zebra<\/a>

Zebra Mussels. Photo: GeraldM<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved<\/p><\/div>\n

Area boaters and swimmers have been dealing with zebra mussels and their spread for the past 25 years, more or less.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Geological Survey has a useful information page on those invasive mussels<\/a>, including maps of their known distribution to date for zebra<\/a> and quagga<\/a> types.\u00a0Researching this post I learned that zebra mussels are native to the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas.\u00a0Here’s the USGS summary of the creature’s spread:<\/p>\n

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, zebra mussels had spread to most all major drainages of Europe because of widespread construction of canal systems. They first appeared in Great Britain in 1824 where they are now well established. Since then, zebra mussels have expanded their range into Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Italy, and the rest of western Europe. Zebra mussels were first discovered in North America in 1988 in the Great Lakes. The first account of an established population came from Canadian waters of Lake St. Clair, a water body connecting Lake Huron and Lake Erie. By 1990, zebra mussels had been found in all the Great Lakes. The following year, zebra mussels escaped the Great Lakes basin and found their way into the Illinois and Hudson rivers. The Illinois River was the key to their introduction into the Mississippi River drainage which covers over 1.2 million square miles. By 1992, the following rivers had established populations of zebra mussels: Arkansas, Cumberland, Hudson, Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee. By 1994, the following states had reported records of zebra mussels within their borders or in water bodies adjacent to their borders:Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah,\u00a0Vermont, West Virginia,\u00a0and\u00a0Wisconsin\u00a0(Benson 2012). More recently,\u00a0Connecticut\u00a0has been added to the list of states where zebra mussels have been found.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It reads like like some inexorable march, doesn’t it? Daunting enough to think shoot, that’s that – they are here to stay.\u00a0Well, maybe, maybe not. Reporting for the New York Times on Feb 24th, Robert H. Boyle<\/a> details a promising development:<\/p>\n

\n

Now the mussels may have met their match: Daniel P. Molloy, an\u00a0emeritus biologist<\/a>\u00a0at the New York State Museum in Albany and a self-described \u201cBronx boy who became fascinated by things living in water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by Rachel Carson\u2019s\u00a0\u201cSilent Spring\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in high school, Dr. Molloy, now 66, has long been a pioneer in the development of environmentally safe control agents to replace broad-spectrum chemical pesticides.<\/p>\n

Leading a team at the museum\u2019s Cambridge Field Research Laboratory in upstate New York, he discovered a bacterium,\u00a0Pseudomonas fluorescens strain CL145A<\/a>, that kills the mussels but appears to have\u00a0little or no effect on other organisms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article says New York State has licensed a California-based company, Marrone Bio Innovations<\/a>\u00a0to produce a commercial product “Zequanox<\/a>” with impressive test results thus far. (According to the manufacturer, Zequanox has been approved in California for \u00a0control<\/a> of zebra and quagga mussels in pipe systems since November of last year.)<\/p>\n

As recounted in the same Times article, Molloy has an inspiring life story. Earlier in his career he\u00a0was part of an international effort that established the potential of Bacillus thuringienis israelensis, or Bti, as an\u00a0environmentally benign way to control for black fly larvae.<\/p>\n

It may be wishful thinking to expect a magic wand that produces exactly the results wanted – with no down-side or unintended side effects. But this is an interesting development, with appealing results to date.<\/p>\n

I’m just coming to the topic as a lay person who cites articles of interest. Undoubtedly many In Box readers have first-hand experience with invasive mussels and some also have expertise on the subject of wildlife management, control efforts, etc. I’m interested in hearing \u00a0more thoughts on this issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Area boaters and swimmers have been dealing with zebra mussels and their spread for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[14434,14435,884,5669,14433,5670,6197,14436],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15067"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15122,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15067\/revisions\/15122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}