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Beginning of End for Invasive Mussels?

Looks like scientists from the New York State Museum, of all places, have come up with a way to kill zebra and quagga mussels without harming anything else. From the Tahoe Daily Tribune:

> Researchers Daniel Molloy and Denise Mayer discovered a bacteria strain — Pseudomonas fluorescens — that can kill zebra and quagga mussels without killing native species.

> “The eureka moment did not come when we discovered the bacteria could kill zebra and quagga mussels, but came when we discovered the lack of sensitivity among non-target species,” researcher Denise Mayer said. Scientists have found plenty of agents capable of killing the mussels, but in most instances they’ve also killed everything else in an ecosystem.

> P. fluorescens infiltrates and destroys the mussels’ digestive system. Mayer and Daniel Molloy exposed fish, native mussels, waterfowl and other species to the bacteria and found they were unaffected. “Our tests show the bacteria kills 100 percent of the target specimens when exposed,” Mayer said.

> Dead cells of the strain are equally as lethal. “This is very significant because it means future commercial formulations will contain dead cells, further reducing environmental concerns,” Mayer said.

> Marrone Bio Innovations, based in Davis, Calif., is in the process of getting federal approval of first commercial formula using the bacteria discovered by Mayer and Molloy.

> Zequanox — the name of the product that combines P. fluorescens with other naturally occurring ingredients such as sugar — could be approved in the first quarter of 2011, with sales commencing later in the year, said CEO Pam Marrone. “We’ve been working on Zequanox for the past five years,” Marrone said. “We’ve had to find a way to grow it large-scale, commercial size, so customers could use it.”

> Marrone tested the formula with Power Generation, a Canadian power supply company, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The tests determined Zequanox can kill mussel populations attached to pipes and other industrial material.

> Marrone has begun testing if the product could be used in open-water scenarios. In a quarry infested with zebra mussels, Zequanox showed “some effect,” Marrone said.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Jacob Robinson

    February 2, 2011 at 9:11 am

    Wouldnt a major die off like they are wanting have some sort of negative impact on the water quality? Like nitrates and ammonia levels, which can kill fish……..

  2. Shaggybass

    February 2, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    My guess looking at Minnesota is there’s to much money in Goverment programs to let a chemical that works be used! I mean they would loose all that money from the green and red stickers!

  3. Alex Voog

    February 3, 2011 at 9:25 am

    SAVE THE ZEBRAS!! GIVE ME QUAGGA OR GIVE ME DEATH!! The new cries from kommiefornia envirokneejerkoffs. in an effort to prevent this from coming to market. “We’ve made such great strides in getting bass boats banned, and restricting access, by utilizing these mussels as an excuse. It would be counterproductive to our efforts, just like we put spikes in trees to “save” them, we shall fight this if we have to hammer a hole in every boat’s hull we will !! We’ll make sure our insiders at the EPA ban this product”……

  4. Pat Campbell

    February 6, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    It seems to me the Zebra mussels at least on the Mississippi have realy cleaned the water up!! Now that may account for the weeds being worse, but the river water is alot clearer!! Pat C

    • bassman

      February 22, 2011 at 6:45 pm

      Ignorance only shows thru when ZM “cleans” the water – they eat the zooplankton – that means food for fish – if you want the fish population to go away – leave the zebra mussels along – otherwise don’t spread the nasty creatures and for sure hope for a bacteria to treat the already ZM infested waters!!

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