Zebra Mussel removal?

[Lakebum431]

Zebra mussels have started to become more of a problem in my lake (Norris in TN). I'm keep my boat on a lift so it is not in the water, but they are starting to build up on my personal dock quite a bit. I have to imagine that over time this is going to add quite a bit of weight to the dock (we all have floating docks because of the variability of the water level). For some of you that have dealt with this pesky creature over many years, how have you/your marinas handled the removal of these things? Obviously you can scrape them off by hand, but I can't reach all of the middle sections of the dock. Thanks!

 

[Island Time Buffalo]

Lake Erie (eastern end) and the Niagara River have had zebra mussels for longer than just about anybody. For the most part, we don't do anything with them in this area. You do have to me mindful of keeping dock ladders clear and the like, because they can be sharp, but otherwise they are ignored. They don't weigh very much and we have floaters all over the area that are, of course, loaded with them.

Actually, the waterways have dramatically improved in clarity and appearance after a couple decades of them. Erie/Niagara are beautiful now, and in the 80's I wouldn't dare swim in the murk that was the Niagara.

 

[Lakebum431]

Interesting that you say they don't weigh very much. I scraped off one small portion of a float and it was a full bucket which I estimate weighed ~10 lbs. Sure, that isn't much, but when you add up the weight on a private 1200 sq ft dock and much larger commercial docks and consider that this is a pretty new issue here I have to think that it will add up over time. My understanding is that they essentially continue to build on each other year after year (which is why the pipes at the dams are starting to have issues with them blocking or reducing water flow).

 

[sbw1]

We have had them for years and don't do anything. The population crashes after a few years because they run out of organisms to filter and stabilize in numbers. We used to see a few on our trim tabs when our boat was pulled in the fall, and the concrete area below the Travel Hoist would have them from all the boats that had been power washed. We have not had any on our boat in recent years and few if any at the haul out area. We do get a very small number that attach to the well point at the end of our dock that is the source of our irrigation water for our landscaping. Those do not interfere with water flow and are easily managed by anti fouling paint on the point. Even the ladder on our dock is mussel free. Years ago there was concern about their introduction into our lake. Turned out to be much ado about nothing.

 

[Lakebum431]

Interesting. Thanks.

 

[Gofirstclass]

sbw, your comments are interesting and nice to hear after all the years of hearing how they were going to destroy the world. We don't have any mussels in the Columbia or Snake Rivers but I suspect they will eventually get here.

I was just reading something the other day in one of my boat mags about a new chemical called Zequanox that is supposedly very effective on killing the invasive mussels. This environmentally safe product looks to be the silver bullet to get rid of them.

Here's an article that explains the process... https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/03/19/invasive-zebra-mussels-may-have-finally-met-their-match/

 

[dvx216]

When I bought my boat it PO had injured himself and his family decided after the season the boat would be sold.My future boat sat all season without moving with no bottom paint tied to a dock in Erie Pa..Needless to say the zebra snails on the bottom of the boat looked more like yellow jackets nest. The marina that stored the boat scraped the bottom of the boat.When I bought the boat in the spring the bottom was stain brown. I tried ever thing to remove the stain muratic acid soften it but still required a lot of elbow grease to clean nothing acid based did any good .The next thing I tried was a caustic base (oven cleaner)which melted it away the minute I applied it and a cheap pressure washer sprayed it right off.The only down was the marina only scraped boat bottom where they could reach between the bunks I had to scraped and clean .Where I parked my boat from all those Z snails my parking space smell like a dumpster behind a sea food restaurant for the summer.