Watercraft inspectors Ron Lang, left, and Fabian Rendon, clean and dry a kayak at Centennial Waterfront Park in Twin Falls on Aug. 8, 2024. (Clark Corbin/Idaho Capital Sun)
State officials have not detected viable quagga mussels since resuming water sampling this spring, Idaho State Department of Agriculture Director Chanel Tewalt said.
On Sept. 19, 2023, the Idaho State Department of Agriculture announced it discovered invasive, nonnative quagga mussel larvae in water samples taken from the Snake River near Shoshone Falls and Centennial Waterfront Park in Twin Falls.
State officials administered a copper-based chemical called Natrix to kill the mussels along a 16-mile stretch of the Snake River from Oct. 3 to Oct. 13, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported .
But state officials had to wait through winter and spring for water temperatures to warm up enough to resume sampling and learn if they killed the mussels and stopped the outbreak.