MOUNTAIN HOME - Zebra mussels recently were found in Bull Shoals Lake and Missouri’s Lake Taneycomo.

Gerald Walsh, a retired marine biologist, and Kirk Wright, a retired professional invertebrate collector, found two mature zebra mussels near Lead Hill Marina on Bull Shoals Lake Sept. 13. The specimens were taken to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission office in Fayetteville. Mike Bivin of the AGFC Fisheries Division verified the species and the specimens were photographed.

The same day, the Missouri Department of Conservation told the AGFC that zebra mussels had been collected from Lake Taneycomo, which drains into Bull Shoals.

The AGFC hasn’t found other zebra mussels in the lake. Zebra mussels cause damage by forming thick mats that clog municipal water, industrial and power-plant inlets. Masses of mussels can sink boats in marina stalls. They have wiped out native mussels in some infested waters.

Zebra mussels were known in the Mississippi, Arkansas and lower White rivers of Arkansas, but had not been collected in Arkansas’s mountain reservoirs.

To prevent the spread of zebra mussels, boaters should wash boat hulls, trailers and live wells with either a 10 percent bleach solution or high-pressure hot water. Live wells and bait buckets with Bull Shoals water should be dumped before they leave the lake.

Learn more about zebra mussels at http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/exotic/zebra.