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Frank A. Douglass Insurance Agency

Aquarium owners should be on the lookout for zebra mussels

Store employees in Washington State at a Petco identified zebra mussels while breaking down moss balls for sale. Since that initial discovery, several other states have found the invasive species in packaging and its contents for the common aquarium product. That includes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Joanne Foreman from the Department of Natural Resources says the zebra mussels have already taken root in our busiest waterways, but it remains important to try and halt their spread to other bodies of water. They are incredibly resilient, making the task tougher.

They can survive outside of the water for up to two weeks.

Foreman says the contamination could go back months, officials are not quite sure on the timeline. If you find zebra mussels, they must be reported. Proper disposal is paramount.

The moss balls themselves and any packaging, if you still have it, should be frozen for 24 hours or boiled for one full minute, or submerged in bleach or vinegar for 20 minutes. Once that has been done then the product can be double bagged, sealed, and disposed of in the trash.

To clean your aquarium, add a tenth of a cup of bleach for every gallon of water. Leave plastic scenery in so that even the young mussels, which are nearly microscopic, are killed. The process needs to last for at least ten minutes.

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