New Zealand mud snails have been discovered in the Platte River (a tributary of the Missouri) in the US state of Michigan. According to local conservation organizations, these invasive mollusks, no larger than a pea, have been collected from several locations within the waterway.
The snails pose a significant threat to the river's ecological balance. They reproduce rapidly through asexual cloning and can displace native species. Additionally, they feed on macroinvertebrates, which are the foundation of the local food chain.
Experts say that these snails can survive out of water for up to six weeks. There have been instances of fish consuming these snails and passing them through their digestive tracts unharmed. Furthermore, fish that feed on these snails may become satiated but receive no nutritional value. Ecologists are sounding the alarm and calling for measures to reduce the snail population.
According to the Department of Natural Resources, the New Zealand mud snail was inadvertently introduced to the US with imported rainbow trout in Idaho in the 1980s, and also into the Great Lakes through the release of contaminated ballast water from cargo ships.
As early as 2006, large populations of these small, spiral-shelled snails were discovered in Minnesota's waterways.Producing hundreds of thousands of "clones" per year, the snails have already disrupted the biological balance in some western states, displacing native insects, snails, and other invertebrates that serve as food for fish.
The New Zealand mud snail was first discovered in the United States in the Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, in 1987, and soon spread to the mountain streams of the Rockies. In 1991, they were identified in the Great Lakes,particularly Lake Ontario. Later, the snails reached Minnesota and Wisconsin waters. And now they have been found in Michigan.
The consequences of New Zealand mud snail activity, as in all similar cases, become apparent years later, but they are usually dire. While in New Zealand, the snail population is regulated by parasites, in the US it has no natural enemies, and controlling its rapid reproduction is virtually impossible.
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