So we will be house boating for the week I will have my ski boat in the water all week. After reading some threads do I assume I will have mussels on my boat in the form of larvae that give a sandpaper feel. Would it help to wipe the boat down everyday below the water line? Where do can I go and have them removed? Is there a car wash I can remove them myself order I need to make an appointment to have boat cleaned. Is there a place in Big Water I can go to? How far can I transport the mussel in the state? There is no inspection on the way out correct? It will be more than 30 days before I would launch my boat any where else. Thanks in advance.
Mussel Accumulation
- Thread starter joeboozer
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I can't comment on all of your good questions, but as far as I know, you can't 'feel' the larvae on the boat surface as if they were sandpaper.
I just hauled my ski boat after it being in the lake for 3 1/2 weeks and saw no visual signs of mussels or larvae anywhere on the boat, motor, outdrive, zincs, etc. although I'm 100% sure they were there. I think that after only one week in the lake and with no plans to launch in any other lake for at least 30 days, just wipe your boat down, make sure anchor locker and lines are dry before storing, drain the bilge, drain the motor, and you will be good to go (as far as Utah law is concerned anyway - I'm sure I'll be corrected if I"m wrong as WW site members are pretty knowledgeable). -Doug
I just hauled my ski boat after it being in the lake for 3 1/2 weeks and saw no visual signs of mussels or larvae anywhere on the boat, motor, outdrive, zincs, etc. although I'm 100% sure they were there. I think that after only one week in the lake and with no plans to launch in any other lake for at least 30 days, just wipe your boat down, make sure anchor locker and lines are dry before storing, drain the bilge, drain the motor, and you will be good to go (as far as Utah law is concerned anyway - I'm sure I'll be corrected if I"m wrong as WW site members are pretty knowledgeable). -Doug
Gem Morris
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Your post make it sounds like you're planning to pull your boat every night (since you were wondering about wiping it down below the waterline). Just pulling it every night and letting it dry out will help. But the water in your ballast bags and bilge and other places like that are what you really need to worry about.
Lake Bum
Escalante-Class Member
You'll be inspected when you leave, it's the "clean,drain,dry" and "don't move a mussel" concept. They just look for obvious things, like mud, crap on anchor lines, etc. It's really just going through the motions of government red tape. The cat was let outta the bag years ago......when they SHOULD have done all of these inspections upon ARRIVAL 
We were near Stanton Creek but not quite to Moki for 4 days. We had one mussel on the boat that we found. We had put floaties to play with in the water but attached to a line so they would not blow away and when we started packing to put them away we found at least 12 or more on the floatie bottoms. They were the size of a very small snail. We picked them off and crunched them between our fingers and threw them in the water. So how long does it take to go from a larvae once it attaches and grows a shell.... my guess would be 2-4 days. I never saw any floating in the water except on a stick that was floating by.
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