Researchers most often focus on individual toxicants when identifying effective chemical control agents for aquatic invasive species; however, toxicant mixtures may elicit synergistic effects. Synergistic effects may decrease required concentrations and shorten exposure durations for treatments. We investigated four toxicants (EarthTec QZ, Clam-Trol CT-2, niclosamide, and potassium chloride) that have been considered to control invasive zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha Pallas, 1771). We determined the toxicity of binary mixtures for five different mixture ratios to adult mussels. We compared our observations to predictions made with concentration addition and independent action paradigms, as based on the dose-response relationships of each individual toxicant. We calculated the model deviation ratio for each combination at the LC₅₀ and LC₉₀ and identified three possible interactions: synergy, antagonism, and additivity. We found that mixtures of niclosamide and Clam-Trol CT-2 were the most synergistic while mixtures that included potassium chloride were largely additive to antagonistic. The use of synergistic combinations has potential to decrease the overall volume and concentration of individual toxicants required for dreissenid mussel treatments, thereby decreasing cost.

研究人员在确定水生入侵物种的有效化学控制剂时通常关注单个毒物；然而，有毒混合物可能会产生协同效应。协同效应可能会降低所需的浓度并缩短治疗的暴露时间。我们研究了四种被认为可以控制入侵斑马贻贝的有毒物质（EarthTec QZ、Clam-Trol CT-2、氯硝柳胺和氯化钾）（ Dreissena polymorpha Pallas，1771）。我们确定了五种不同混合比例的二元混合物对成年贻贝的毒性。我们将我们的观察结果与基于每种毒物的剂量反应关系的浓度添加和独立作用范例进行的预测进行了比较。我们计算了每种组合在 LC ₅₀和 LC ₉₀时的模型偏差比，并确定了三种可能的相互作用：协同作用、拮抗作用和加和作用。我们发现氯硝柳胺和 Clam-Trol CT-2 的混合物具有最强的协同作用，而包含氯化钾的混合物主要是拮抗作用的附加作用。使用协同组合有可能减少德莱森贻贝处理所需的单个毒物的总量和浓度，从而降低成本。