They might have found a way to fight zebra and quagga mussels...:)

[Capt Juls]

Never mind...I'm told that the amount that they would need to clean the Great Lakes would be such an outrageous price tag, that it would never be used.

Oh well....the thought of them disappearing from the lakes was a nice one...even for a moment.

[trapperjon]

imagine if they were gone. say... overnight. I wonder what the lake would look like in 5yrs, or even 1yr ,

[West Basin]

Read the article. I hadn't heard this, but I've been out of the loop with OSU and ODNR for a few years so my knowledge is not updated.

Article said the bacteria killed "over 90%" of the zebra mussels. That sounds good but maybe not so good. The surviving mussels apparently have an immunity. It is possible all you'd manage to do is kill out the less hardy mussels from the population and that might eventually lead to the same population we have now but more resistant.

It is very hard to predict what an organism will do out in the open environment vs. a laboratory. Quite risky.

Besides, the mussels did not have some of the terrible consequences that were predicted. They have benefited the Lake in some ways, such as increasing the water clarity which has allowed aquatic vegetation to come back in many areas, which increases habitat. I think they are here to stay for the foreseeable future and their population dynamics will vary over time as all species do.