The work could eventually help clean up water treatment and industrial intake pipes across the Great Lakes, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said.

It also could mean fewer zebra mussels or mollusks slowing down commercial and naval ships, saving millions of dollars, said researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Pennsylvania State University.

Experiments using electricity to discourage hitchhiking critters, reducing the buildup of organisms by about 50 percent, the team reported in a recent issue of the journal Biofouling. The small-scale experiment targeted bacteria.

But it indicated the researchers had the right concept -- "that no one would want to be electrocuted," said Rodolfo Perez, a UW engineering graduate student and lead author.

The next step will be to figure out ways to rig ship hulls and other objects with electrodes. Perez said he envisions a paint or an applique of thousands of microscopic -- possibly nano-scale -- electrodes that shock organisms before they have a chance to settle on a surface.