New Zealand mud snails are a pest

Why? They can spread at incredible speeds (due to the fact that they spread parthenogenetically), and are extremely resilient. Our own Capitol Lake is infested with them, as many already know, and caused the closure of the lake. They are an invasive species here, because there are no natural predators, and consume a great portion of the food that native species rely on.

They should be eliminated as soon as possible. Having an infestation of anything is very irritating, not to mention harmful. I myself have had an infestation of bladder snails in my aquarium, and they were near impossible to get rid of. Now shift from an aquarium to a lake that could already be home to millions of snails. If a mere aquarium is hard to cleanse out, then a lake is unimaginable. The only currently known solution is reopening the estuary, but that would throw off the food chain in Capitol Lake.

New Zealand mud snails are tiny. Many people can mistake them for mere specks of mud, and they are easily transported. They can also survive without water for 24 hours, which also helps them spread. Unfortunately, this works against us. Hopefully, we will soon be able to come up with a solution to this issue that will not change Capitol Lake's organisms.

This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 1:48 PM with the headline "New Zealand mud snails are a pest."