Livewell flushing to remove zebra mussel (Driessena polymorpha) veligers

The prevention of the spread of the zebra mussel is of great concern in many places in North America. The cost of constructing wash stations that provide hot water at high pressure precludes their application as an easy decontamination method. Therefore, the ability to use a garden hose to flush veligers remaining in residual water from the livewell of a boat was examined. Although flushing was not found to be completely effective, more than 90% of veligers were removed after 150 s of flushing.