HORDES of menace mussels which are clogging up the Farmoor water treatment works near Oxford could be targeted with “biobullets”.

Thames Water is spending £1m a year to clear zebra mussels from its treatment works along the River Thames.

The mussels, which come from the Black Sea, are thought to have hitched rides in the ballast water of ships travelling to the UK.

With no natural predators in Britain, the molluscs have spread rapidly along waterways.

Nearly 800 tonnes of zebra mussels recently had to be removed from pipes in London.

Thames Water is now carrying out trials of tiny fat-coated pellets, known as biobullets.

The fatty coating is irresistible to the mussels, but the pellet is toxic to them, although harmless to other creatures.

Manufacturer BioBullets said the product, which is being tested at Walthamstow and another Thames Water plant at Kempton Park, was environmentally-friendly. If successful, the system could be extended to other sites, including Farmoor.