Beside stopping the spread how can we get rid of Zebra mussels

[tfin]

Can these things be erradicated? If Any DNR people who read this, it would be nice to have a discussion on it rather than reading about it as it seams there are a lot people who read posts and have inventive minds.

[Jameson]

nuclear bomb. two things survive. cockroaches and zebra mussels.

[CaptainMusky]

I'm interested to learn more about the "dead algae" they did a story on last year. I'm certainly not a proponent for introducing something else new to any lake but if its dead I would fail to see the harm. Unless of course if it kills native mussels as well as zebras.

[pushbutton]

Let Mille Lacs be the test case for putting in millions and millions of pumpkin seeds. They eat zebras. This will also provide another food source for the families of starving fisherman after the slots get further tightened. Also, if Mille Lacs does get fished out like the Red, the Pumpkin Seed Boom will already be in place

[tfin]

pumpkin seeds might also increase the size of the musky population too. This is the first I've heard of anything eating the zebras.

[pushbutton]

Sheepshead do also, even though they are a good tasting flaky whitefish.....that might be a tougher sell

[tfin]

would pumpkin seeds be walleye food or would they just be a more preferable menace than zebras. Both sunnies and sheephead might do more damage to the lake than the mussels as far as keeping plankton in the water for baitfish.

I suppose traps of any kind would be tough to use with everyone fishing bottom all the time.

[pushbutton]

Usually anytime man tries to affect nature unintended consequence arise. My pumpkin idea for Mille Lacs was just tongue in cheek, do not think it has enough suitable spawning habitat for sustaining a population. Might be worth a try in a smaller and more suitable system though. Utltimately we will have to wait and see which nematodes and other small aquatic micro organisms will learn to eat the decaying zebs and their waste....then which forage species learns to adapt to eat them.....then which predators will thrive on them. The system will adapt regardless, its just wether we will be able to learn to eat bass

[Riverratpete]

I know this goes agaisnt conventional wisdom but would if we don't do anything and let nature take its course? Not everything in nature has to be "solved" by man..just a thought..please don't shoot!