Wednesday April 15, 2026
USGS —
They arrived unnoticed, hitching rides on ships and boats. Today, zebra and quagga mussels have transformed North American waterways—clearer water, clogged pipes, and over 100 million dollars annually in damages. How did two tiny shellfish become such a colossal threat?
These razor-sharp, fingernail-sized invaders, originally from Eastern Europe, slipped into the Great Lakes in the late 1980s and spread with astonishing speed. Their ability to filter vast amounts of water may seem like nature’s cleanup crew, but the reality is far more destructive: native species are starved, food webs are disrupted, and infrastructure is choked.