Zebra Mussels: A Pest That’s Not So Black and White

Produced by Harsimran Kaur & Mya MitchellThe zebra mussel is an aquatic mollusk species native to the Ural basin of western Europe. First discovered in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, they have since been causing immense havoc in native ecosystems, recreational water areas, and municipal water infrastructure in North American fresh waterways, despite being no larger than the size of a thumbnail. They caught the public by surprise by quickly invading multiple bodies across the world. Due to their unique reproductive biology that allows them to reproduce quickly and their role as filter feeders allowing them to outcompete other species, they can be thought of as a prolific, possibly unstoppable pest. Our podcast explores zebra mussel physiology, ecological impacts, and community management methods in the face of a seemingly unstoppable pest. Pests and Prejudice is a podcast series created by UCLA undergraduates in the spring of 2026.  Each episode is a story of a messy relationship, one in which people seduced pests, and then decided to break up with them... and it usually goes about as well as you would expect...