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One of the ways zebra mussels can be spread around
from one body of water to another is through recreational boating.
This is purely unintentional on the boater's part,
but the zebra mussel veligers or the larva
are very small and microscopic and they can survive
for several days in a very small amount of water.
I'd like to go through the boat and show some of the areas
where boaters need to disinfect the boat and flush it out
and dry it before they move from one body of water to another.
The first one is the live well in a boat
where an angler would normally keep his fish.
Just draining these live wells after use
is typically not sufficient
because most of these plastic live wells have little pockets
in the bottom that'll hold water.
And it takes a very small volume of water
to keep a larval zebra mussel alive for several days,
particularly if the weather is fairly cool.
And when you disinfect your boat for zebra mussels
there's really no need to use any type of harsh chemicals
which could possibly be harmful to the environment.
Water of a temperature of 104 degrees or higher
is sufficient to kill both the larval veliger zebra mussels
and the adults.
The bilge area of a boat is another area
that can hold water
and support young zebra mussels for a period of time.
Water splashed over the back of the boat
or sides of the boat could contain these larva
and end up down in the bilge.
In summary, when you pull your boat out of a body of water
it's important to drain the live well, drain the bilge,
empty any bait that you might have up on the shore
or give it to another angler that can use it
on that same body of water.
When you get to a spot where you have hot water available
go ahead and rinse that bilge, bait bucket, and live well out
with hot water and that's water over 104 degrees.
If you don't have hot water available
you can rinse these areas with a solution of 10 percent bleach.
For boats that have been moored in the water for any amount of time,
there's always the potential
that there's adult zebra mussels attached to them.
Now they could be on the main part of the hull
underneath the boat, but if the boat's used any all
it's more than likely that you'll find any zebra mussels
that are attached on the transom of the boat in protected areas.
Some of these areas include
these pockets around the transducers
and any type of trim tab that's on the back of the boat,
around any type of live well drains,
in or around the fins and recesses on the motor.
And for boats that have a plastic water intake cover,
it's important to take that off on fairly regular intervals
and make sure there's not zebra mussels growing inside the motor.
If you get a lot of zebra mussels growing inside there
they could actually restrict the flow of water in the motor
and cause it to overheat.
When you pull your boat out of the lake
it's important to inspect the trailer
because that's another area that zebra mussels can be transferred.
Important areas to check are
the cross members under the trailer, the axles,
underneath the wheel wells,
the guide bars on the back of the trailer,
the rear running lights, and the license plate.
Another area to inspect are the carpeted bunks
underneath the boat because
vegetation can get trapped between the boat and the bunks.
If you think you've found a zebra mussel
or other invasive species please contact
our Invasive Species Coordinator at our central office.