LAKE TEXOMA – Lake Texoma is now going on two years of being infested with zebra mussels, and they won’t be going anywhere any time soon. They can clog up pipelines and attach to water vessels as well as affect the eco system. But biologists said they won't ruin the lake and are currently working on ways to actually stop the invasive species.

"Lake Texoma, right now, is infective," said Bruce Hysmith, a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says the spread of zebra mussels from the Great Lakes down to southern waters was almost inevitable.

"I don't see the infestation that I've seen in some other lakes, but we're still in the early stages of this," Hysmith said.

Today you can find the small mussels attached to rocks in shallow waters, and a diver found this bottle at 30 feet, completely covered in zebra mussels.

"Big cruisers and yachts that stay in the water, the bottoms of their boats are going to have to be cleaned on a regular basis otherwise those zebra mussels are going to stick to it because they stick to pretty much in the water," said striper guide Brian Prichard.

Hysmith says the main concern is keeping the mussels from spreading to other lakes in the area. The North Texas Water Municipal has already stopped pumping out of lake Texoma.

"So right now we're trying to formulate a treatment protocal to go in there and kill these guys out and we've got samplers set out in lake lavon and to date we've not found any evidence of any infestation," Hysmith said.

If you have a boat in Lake Texoma and plan to take it to another body of water, you must completely drain the boat, wash it with a sanitizing compound and let it completely dry first.

As far as fears of the mussels killing the lake--Hysmith says that's just not the case--although they do compete with other animals for the plankton food source.

"If they out compete for that plankton and other small food items then that's where it could impact our fisheries," Hysmith says.

But fishing guides that haven't seen that problem yet, and the mussels are actually a food source for some animals like catfish.

"The threadfin shed population was already compromised from the tough winter last year and the striper are doing great, we had one of the best July's on record," Pritchard said.

And biologists are working on ways to stop the zebra mussels.

"We're still working, we're still trying to gain approval of whatever we use and well what we do up here is we simply do bio-essays, how much does it take to kill them in how long a time," said Hysmith.

Hysmith says they do have a few compounds that are safe for the environment and are effective in killing the mussels.