Quagga mussels

Oregon wildlife officials detect invasive Quagga mussels at Ashland Inspection Station

Oregon wildlife officials say they detected invasive Quagga mussels on a boat traveling from Arizona over the weekend, but were able to remove them before they entered Oregon’s waterways.

A tiny zebra mussel is tweezed out of an aquarium moss ball

Environment

Invasive mussels hitch rides to Pacific Northwest via aquarium moss balls

April Ehrlich

Washington and Oregon state regulators are recommending people with moss balls take extra precautions to prevent the invasive mollusks from infesting waterways.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sampled for mussels and other invasive species on the Columbia River in 2022. No invasive quagga or zebra mussels have been found in Washington or Oregon waters. But Idaho did find quagga larvae in September 2023 in the Snake River near Twin Falls.

Environment

Oregon Fish & Wildlife expert says quagga mussels will be catastrophic for fish and water systems

Allison Frost

The effects of the invasive quagga mussel, which only grows to the size of a thumbnail, extend beyond the natural ecology and into the built environment. Removing and keeping clusters of the mussels out of pipes could cost the state billions.