A foreign species of mussel also known as “Dreissena rostriformis bugensis, or Quagga Mussel” have been found in the Wraysbury river near London’s Heathrow Airport. It has occupied rivers and lakes alongside Europe over the past 20 to 30 years and now progressing towards U.S. But, we still unsure that how it got to the UK.
David Aldridge of the University of Cambridge stated that, “It’s the only place thus far, but we still need to check the river Thames and all its connected reservoirs.”
Aldridge stated five major reasons why it creates disaster wherever it invades.
It’s Largely Invasive
Quagga Mussel actually originated from the Caspian and Black sea regions of Europe and feed on various kinds of algae. This is what that makes them great symbiotic organisms for the boaters. But, Quagga Mussel is much more aggressive than Zebra Mussel (near-indistinguishable cousin) that’s why they seems to be more dangerous and now displacing the Zebras from the Great Lake strongholds too.
It Keeps Bad Company
Actually, the Quagga Mussel wastes is a major source of food for other invasive organisms from its native lakes and rivers of eastern Europe, and the Black, Caspian and Azov seas. These organisms include killer shrimp also named as the “pink peril” as they kill and eat most native shrimp wherever they attack. These killer shrimps co-evolved with the Quagga and often co-invade with them. They have spread across mainland Europe and have already reached the UK, Aldridge stated.
It Shows No Mercy
Quagga Mussels are so invasive that they literally suffocate other mussel species. They sit on their shells and physically push them into underlying silt or sediment. Native UK mussel species that could be at risk include depressed river mussel, Pseudanodonta complanata.
It Gets Very Busy
Quagga Mussels are almost 5 cms long, and breed extremely fast, and can rapidly block pipes and other water inlets and outlets, costing the water industry millions to manage, usually by having to physically displace them.
It Messes up the Neighborhood
Moreover, the Quagga Mussels offsets ecosystems by filtering and cleaning water, allowing light to penetrate to the riverbed and nuisance weeds to grow and flourish in lakes and rivers.
——but we may have a secret weapon
Though, there seems to be no way to entirely eradicate the Quagga Mussels once they settled into the river or lake, but Aldridge and his colleagues have successfully developed a “poison pill”, a capsule made from the same material that the mussels eat. Once inside the mussel’s stomach, the outer layers dissolve away, releasing salts that kill the crustaceans.
Aldridge told that, “Once they swallow this poison pill, called a BioBullet, and that kills them straight away. It contains a salt, and as Quaggas mussels have dilute body fluids, it comes as an osmotic shock that kills them.”
He further stated that Biobullet is harmless for the other aquatic species, and that that the native mussel species appear to be more discerning and reject the pill. Biobullets have been successfully tested against zebra mussels in the UK and the Netherlands.