I saw this on an online news service and thought I would send it along . .

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Zapping zebra mussels with radio waves might control
the pesky invader that clogs water intake pipes and threatens native
mussels and fish in the Great Lakes region, scientists said on Tuesday.

Exposing fish tanks containing zebra mussels to low-energy radio waves
emitted by a generator killed the lima bean-sized mussels within 40
days, apparently by causing the mussels to surrender needed calcium,
Purdue University Calumet chemist Matthew Ryan said.

The radio waves did significantly less harm to other exposed organisms
such as crabs, crayfish and other freshwater mussels -- and had no
effect on fish, according to the research presented at a meeting of the
American Chemical Society.

Since arriving in the mid-1980s in the ballast water of cargo ships,
zebra mussels have proliferated in the Great Lakes and spread to other
Midwest lakes and river systems including the Mississippi River. The
mussels filter vast amounts of lake and river water, absorbing nutrients
needed by native species.

Some hatch and grow atop the shells of native mussels, killing them.
Clogging water intake pipes of water purification and electric power
plants, the mussels are a costly nuisance requiring the use of chlorine
and other chemicals to clear them away. Overuse of the chemicals could
pose a hazard to other aquatic life.

In the fish tank experiment, in which the radio wave generator was put
within a meter of the zebra mussels, the water was found to be rich with
calcium released by the dying mussels.

"We can't get the zebra mussels out of the Great Lakes, but we can
certainly prevent them from settling into intake pipes" by using radio
waves, Ryan said.