Crawdads Invading Malibu Creek May Reduce Dragonflies, Increase Mosquitos

Written by on August 16, 2018

A new biological study on Malibu Creek shows that red crawfish living int he watershed may indirectly lead to mosquitos … and mosquiot borne disease.

The new study is to be published in the scientific journal “Conservation Biology” …

The crawfish are from the American south … used for bait commionly … someone introduced them into the local creek years ago.

The crawfish edge out dragonflies in the creeks … the dragonflies are voracious mosquito larvae eaters.

Fewer dragonflies equals more mosquitos … and more mosquitos equals more vectors for zika disease …. or west Nile virus.

Sometimes … malaria.

Thus …the presence of invasive crayfish could contribute to the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in the Malibu Creek watershed and also reduce its biological diversity.

Native frogs have already mad a small recovery … in Trancas Creek … where the invading crawdads have been poisoned off.

The research was conducted by the water agencies over the hill … which operate the Tapia sewage plant.

Researchers from UCLA, the U.S. Geological Survey and Pepperdine University worked on the study…. first reported in the Acorn newspaper.


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