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  • Mature mussels produce several hundred thousand offspring
  • Cling to any hard surface fouling boats, intakes
  • Filter one liter water per day stripping lake of plankton needed by young sportfish
  • Litter beaches with razor sharp windrows of dead shells
  • Free swimming veligers can be transported in boat water
  • Some lakes have over 30,000 mussels per square meter

Zebra Mussels

First discovered in the Great Lakes in 1988.  Within one year, zebra mussels colonized every firm object in Lake Erie.  Zebra mussels have quickly spread to all the Great Lakes.  Expansion into Midwest inland lakes has continued at an alarming rate.  100 lakes in Wisconsin are now infested.   Much of the Mississippi River, Ossawinnemakee, and Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota have been identified with zebra mussels. 

 

 

Click on image to go to current Map of Zebra Mussel Distribution