Using the Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) in an Integrated Pest Management Approach to Asian Carp Control

Asian carp continue to spread into waterways across the United States and threaten to move into the Great Lakes Basin. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is developing control technologies and strategies to reduce existing populations and slow the spread into new areas. One USGS strategy is combining individual technologies into an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to Asian carp control with the goal of increasing removal efficiency.  Part of this IPM approach depends on targeting fish at specific locations in a river or at particular life stages.  The Fluvial Egg Drift Simulator (FluEgg) was developed at the University of Illinois, in collaboration with USGS, to predict egg transport and dispersion downstream from a spawning location.  The model predicts where hatching will occur and where eggs could settle to the river bottom, likely leading to mortality. FluEgg can be used to screen rivers without Asian carp for egg-hatching risk or to predict spawning locations from egg sampling and evaluate control strategies in rivers with Asian carp.  Being able to visualize how the eggs will disperse in a river and where to locate barriers or deterrents to disrupt spawning will help managers more effectively use the developed control technologies.