out for the snails, and bleach or heat any gear which may contain mudsnails. Rivers have also been temporarily closed to fishing to avoid anglers spreading the snails. The snails grow to a smaller size in the U.S. than in their native habitat, reaching 6 mm (¼ in) at most in parts of Idaho, but can be much smaller making them easy to overlook when cleaning fishing gear. Clonal species like the New Zealand mudsnail can often develop clonal lines with quite diverse appearances, called morphs. Until 2005, all the snails found in the western states of the U.S. were believed to be from a single line. However a second morph has been identified in Idaho's Snake River. It grows to a similar size but has a distinctive appearance. (It has been nicknamed the salt-and-pepper mudsnail due to the final whorl being lighter than the rest of the shell.) This morph has apparently been present in the area for several years before being identified correctly as a distinct morph of Potamopyrgus antipodarum. It dominates the typical morph where they overlap, and has a much higher prevalence of males. In 1991, the New Zealand mudsnail was discovered in Lake Ontario, and has now been found in four of the five Great Lakes. In 2005 and 2006, it was found to be widespread in Lake Erie. By 2006 it had spread to Duluth-Superior Harbour and the freshwater estuary of the Saint Louis River. It was found to be inhabiting Lake Michigan, after scientists took water samples in early summer of 2008. The snails in the Great Lakes represent a different line from those found in western states, and were probably introduced indirectly through Europe. In 2002, the New Zealand mudsnail was discovered in the Columbia River Estuary. In 2009, the species was discovered in Capitol Lake in Olympia, Washington. The lake has been closed to all public use, including boating and other recreation, since 2009. A heavy cold snap in 2013, combined with a drawdown in water level in preparation, was roughly estimated to have killed 40–60% of the mudsnail population. Other known locations include the Long Beach peninsula, Kelsey Creek (King County), Thornton Creek (King County), and Lake Washington. In 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that the New Zealand mudsnail had infested watersheds in the Santa Monica Mountains, posing serious threats to native species and complicating efforts to improve stream-water