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Many Missourians are planning trips to the lake this weekend to camp or fish. But they may not realize that they could unknowingly cause problems for some of state’s native species. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more…
The invasive species that’s one of the most often spread in Missouri these days is the zebra mussel. They can be spread either as adults attached to boats, boat lifts or equipment or in water in their larval stage. Tim Banek is invasive species coordinator with the Missouri Department of Conservation…
"They're microscopic, so people, if they exchange their bait bucket water in a lake that's infested, they can be picking up zebra mussel villagers and don't even know it."
When the boat or equipment is taken to another lake or the bait bucket is dumped in another lake, the zebra mussels can be spread to another body of water.Several lakes in Missouri now have zebra mussels including Lake of the Ozarks, Bull Shoals, Pomme de Terre and Lake Taneycomo.The mussels are on a prohibited species list—they can’t legally be transported, possessed or sold in Missouri. According to Banek, one female zebra mussel can lay over a million eggs in a season, and he says that’s bad news for some of our native species…
"They filter water--that's how they eat is filtering the...plankton from the water--the same...plankton that our native need, especially the smaller things and the larval sport fish use to complete part of their life cycle, so they're actually competing with our native species, and since they're so abundant, they can actually clear the water like they did in Lake Erie and significantly change the aquatic communities affecting the sport fish. And, of course, when you do that, in Missouri especially, you're affecting local economy and state economy."
Zebra mussels have been in Missouri for only four years, so the long-term effects of their presence here is still unknown.If you move your boat from one lake to another, make sure it’s clean and dry. Take it to a car wash or use a pressure washer on it. And don’t dump bait. Not only can that spread zebra mussel larvae, Banek says it can spread other non-native species and diseases as well. He says it’s illegal to dump bait into a waterway in Missouri unless it originated in that water…
"Some of the harmful effects that dumping bait can have is we have several non-native crayfish that can become very aggressive and outcompete native crayfish, and we've seen those in the bait supply purchased from bait dealers, so if you get crayfish in there and you dump them in the lake, you can be starting a crayfish population of non-native species. One would be the rusty crayfish, which is a very aggressive crayfish and is known to outcompete many of our native species."
Another non-native species that people unknowingly help spread is the emerald ash borer, an insect that can kill ash trees. One of the ways they move around is by campers who take firewood from one campsite to another.The walnut twig beetle, which can harm black walnut trees, is another concern. While it hasn’t made it to Missouri yet, Banek says it has been found in Colorado…Tim4 :23Banek says you shouldn’t get any black walnut wood from the Western United States to use for any reason. He says even on E-Bay, black walnut wood is sold with the bark still on it.To learn more about invasive species in Missouri, visit www.missouriconservation.org.
