LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Quagga Sticker is required in addition to your DMV sticker for all lake county vessels.

Remember to check in with a participating screener when you return from an out-of-county trip with your boat.

Screeners stay up–to-date with those counties in the western United States that are infested. The re-screening, inspection or decontamination if needed is free.

Clean, drained, dry boats are safe boats. Display your sticker, protect your lake.

A few facts:

Quagga mussels can colonize hard and soft surfaces, mud, plants, docks, boat engine cooling systems, water pipes.

They potentially produce millions of offspring in a season.

Densities in Lake Mead since the first introduction in 2005 have grown to less then 10,000 m2; 40 percent of the animal population in Lake Mead is now quagga mussels.

Common densities in the Great Lakes are 700,000 m2.

Beaches become littered with piles of glass-sharp shells.

They alter the chemistry and biology of the water ecosystem.

The basis of the aquatic food chain, plankton, is removed by these voracious feeders.

For the latest list of screeners see www.nomussels.com or call Lake County Water Resources at 707-263-2344.