(gentle guitar music) - Zebra mussels in and of themselves aren't bad, but the way that they change our native ecosystems can be rapid and it can be something that our native species never recover from.

So there are a number of different strategies with potential for controlling zebra mussels.

We are investigating copper because it's one of the more promising methods.

When copper is in the water, it can be in particulate form or dissolved form.

It acts on the gill of a gilled organism.

At the gill, there are different ion receptors and copper will compete with sodium to bind to those receptors and basically, to distill it down, it will prevent the uptake of enough sodium for the organism.

And so death by copper isn't direct.

It's the effect of all of these impacts from a shortage of different ions.

I've been involved in this research since about 2019.

This research is funded by the ENRTF, lake associations, and other donations.

We've done work in Lake Minnetonka in Hennepin County and in Pelican Lake in Crow Wing County.

Every lake, every body of water is going to have different water chemistry and the unique water chemistry will affect the bioavailability of copper.

What we've been doing is measuring the water chemistries of both of those lakes using an EPA model and predicting what the appropriate dose would be for zebra mussel veligers, that's the young stage of them.

And then testing that concentration as well as some higher and lower concentrations.

And we've been doing that both in the lake and in a mobile laboratory.

We did an in-lake copper treatment in 2019 that I was involved with down in St. Albans Bay in Lake Minnetonka.

And the target concentration there was 60 parts per billion of copper, which is a very low, low concentration.

We saw very little survival and very little recruitment of young after that treatment.

And sometimes this type of treatment, the effects of this treatment will result in a net positive for the lake and sometimes they might not.

And it's important to look at what those benefits and costs are and probably make a case by case decision.

So if you have copper in the water, it can also affect native species, it can affect fish, different plants, mussels, snails.

The concentration is key for that though, it seems like zebra mussels are among the more sensitive of organisms.

Zebra mussels are much more sensitive than fish.

So it all kind of gets down to, it's like a medication, what's the appropriate dose and what are the potential side effects?

Copper-based pesticides are available on the market right now.

The challenge with this type of treatment might be getting permission.

You need to obtain permits for a copper pesticide type application.

A lot of people will buy copper sulfate and sprinkle it off the end of the dock to kill the snails, to help prevent swimmer's itch.

Some of those just off the end of the dock things would not be permitted and, you know, it's hard to control.

You can buy it at your local hardware store.

You know it is a chemical.

It affects all aquatic organisms.

And if you just have everyone dumping copper in off the end of their dock, it might not be a big deal this month or this year, but if everyone does it every month, every year, we should probably look into that and talk about it and figure out how to take better care of our lakes.

(light instrumental music) We've been doing copper-based control in aquatic systems for about a hundred years and we've started using copper with zebra mussels.

Zebra mussels directly compete with our native mussels.

Zebra mussels, unlike our natives, attach to hard surfaces including the shells of native mussels.

They will out-compete them for food, for space, and then they can encrust them so completely that they either can't burrow, they can't feed, usually they kill them.

They also directly compete with other filter feeders.

They can change the amount of particulate matter in the water column, which changes how much light filters through the water.

And so that changes the temperature of the water.

It changes where plants can grow.

It changes habitat for fish, for other species.

(dramatic instrumental music) I am not sure if this is the end all for zebra mussels.

I think it's a great potential tool.

There are negative impacts or negative effects from zebra mussels and there are negative effects from this type of treatment.

We have a lot more to learn but we know that it works.

We're just sort of refining how to do it and understand some of the potential challenges of an application.

The method seems promising.

(dramatic instrumental music) - [Narrator] Stories about research into invasive aquatic algae, plants, and animals are sponsored in part by the aquatic invasive species task forces of Wright, Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac Qui Parle, Swift, and Big Stone counties.

We can stop aquatic hitchhikers from infesting more lakes and streams by cleaning up everything we pull out of the water.

It's a simple drill - clean in, clean out Before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment, remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash.

Drain water from your boat, ballast tanks, motor, live well, and bait container.

Remove drain plugs and keep drain plugs out while transporting equipment.

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

To keep live bait, drain the water and refill the bait container with bottled or tap water.

And if you have been in infested waters, also spray your boat with high pressure water, rinse with very hot water, dry for at least five days.

Stop the spread of AIS.