Crawdads Invading Malibu Creek May Reduce Dragonflies, Increase Mosquitos
Written by 991KBU 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.
