BACKGROUNDCorbicula fluminea is an invasive freshwater clam with strong environmental and economic impact. Management of this pest should include its application, thus biofiltration by C. fluminea was successfully tested for the treatment of winery wastewater. Fenton's process was used in order to reduce the initial effluent toxicity. RESULTSClam mortality was observed to significantly decrease when exposed to Fenton-treated samples compared with untreated wastewater. Although COD depletion by oxidation was strongly affected by the reactant concentration applied, the toxicity of the output effluent did not change markedly even when higher iron and hydrogen peroxide loads were used. Biofiltration led to COD abatements near 100% both when applied to raw and Fenton-treated effluents. However, for the raw effluent significant COD removal occurred only after an initial period where the organic load remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONIt seems advisable to integrate biofiltration with Fenton's peroxidation as a pre-treatment. The results discussed here support the integration of C. fluminea in wastewater treatment as a potential contribution to pest management. (c) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry