Cattail Killer, or how to clean up around the pond?

[dave1949]

At risk of posting the most simplistic comment in this thread....we pull cattails by hand and it works well.

Simple is good JimmyJ. Cattails are certainly more tenacious in some areas than others. In my area, it can take a long time for them to become well established and the plants are not so robust. Maybe your place is like that too.

Where I grew up in NW Ohio, it was a different story. Agriculture in that area depends on man-made drainage and tile installations under fields. Cattails in ditches were like Public Enemy #1. They would spread quickly and grow vigorously. I could argue they were well fed by farm runoff.
Dave.

 

[Mace Canute]

o2batsea, I found a SITE that has a little information about the management and control of cattails. There might be somethings in there that gives you an idea or two of what might work. Good luck with them!

 

[20 20]

1 gal Vinegar
1 Lb. Salt
2 Tablespoons liquid Dish Soap

Mix all this together and dislove salt in warm vinegar to be sure it disolves and then add the dish soap and use a hand sprayer..good luck.

Another thankyou

 

[eastexan]

I'm not condoning the use of DDT by any means, but from what I've heard all my life is that DDT wiped out the widespread bed bug population. The old timers were grateful for it.
Bed bugs were so widespread that if you managed to get rid of them in your house, it would only be a matter of time before they would be back. Bed bugs are voracious blood suckers and always looking for a meal.

When I was a kid, my folks and other older people used to tell the stories about how horrible bed bugs were. They said when the bed bugs bit you it would be a sharp pain and would draw blood. They would hide in the walls and crevices during the day and would come out at night.

They would tell about having to set the bed legs in a cup partially filled with kerosene to keep them from crawling into bed and biting them at night. And even after doing that, they would sometimes still get in the bed and bite you in the middle of the night.

Now, apparently from news reports, bed bugs are beginning to make a comeback in areas of the US.

 

[tugboat-2]

BRIN :Thanks for the vinegar recipe. I too will try it next summer. I have had a terrible problem with cattails. I enjoyed them at first, then as they increased I went in and pulled many by hand, but they soon took over my pond and in a few short years had completely,..."completely" packed it, overrun every square inch,...deep, thick and 12 feet high.

Summer of 2007, during the drought in southern Ontario, Canada,..my pond, for the most part, dried up. I was able to get in with my tractor and although they were the worst things to get out,...(almost gave up and switched to chemicals), "almost" but continued withOUT chemicals,...(till much later).

My JD-3520-Cab with 73" HD bucket and tooth-bar and box-blade with scarifiers I eventually "dug" them out with their black "stinkin" muck. Never fought anything as tough as well rooted cattails!!!!

Got 'em out, dug deeper and wider and considerably enlarged my lake,(pond),..THEN did what I should have done years ago,..... I plastered my pond walls with thick wet CLAY and waterproofed my original "topsoil-etc-walls, levee etc" and in the following spring of 2008 when it filled up to the "full" mark, it was beautiful.
However as summer wore on, the darn things began to poke up through the surface again.

A local pond-supply guy who has gorgeous ponds, suggested spraying a little round-up carefully from my boat, just on whatever is above the surface. I did that everytime I noticed one and was extremely careful with it. Never saw another cattail,...... . . . till late in the summer last past to wit: 2009,...and by late fall there was quite a growth around the main inlet,..field run-off which I'll take care of in the spring. I hate to say it as much as use it,..but if Brin's Vinegar Recipe fails me,... I will use Round-up,..(carefully) (if that is possible?) but the water is deep at that point and I'm past the point (age) to get in and pull 'em by hand and can't get near 'em with the tractor. (Unless I build a "Long-Reach" bucket affair)?

WHOOOOOPS !! ...didn't mean to ramble,...just wanted to say thanks to Brin for the recipe and let you know I'll try it and try to remember to do a follow-up report on the results. Thanks again Brin.

CHEERS! ...Merry Christmas all !!
. . tug

 

[brin]

tug.

You are quite welcome, good luck killing those cattails and any other pond weeds and grasses you do not want. The thing about this mixture is it is cheap so make as many applications as you find necessary without having to worry about harming your fish. Like with any application, you have to stay after it ..the soap in the mixture causes the salt and vinegar to adhere to the plant and it dies....please do report back..
Cheers and Merry Christmas to you and all

 

[forester2]

For further illumination, the EPA has label guidelines that establish a hierarchey to the relative hazards of products. In order of severity from lowest to highest: Caution, Warning, Danger. CAUTION-41% glysophate(Roundup including surfactants) & 5% acetic acid(vinegar)
DANGER- Sodium chloride
WARNING- gasoline
In regards to cost, I pay $67 for 2 1/2 gallons of 41% glysophate. At 2 oz/gal. of water my cost is 42 cents per gallon of spray mixture. I doubt the spray mixture of soap, salt and vinegar is any cheaper. By the way, acetic acid & sodium chloride are chemicals.

 

[dave1949]

For further illumination, the EPA has label guidelines that establish a hierarchey to the relative hazards of products. In order of severity from lowest to highest: Caution, Warning, Danger. CAUTION-41% glysophate(Roundup including surfactants) & 5% acetic acid(vinegar)
DANGER- Sodium chloride
WARNING- gasoline
In regards to cost, I pay $67 for 2 1/2 gallons of 41% glysophate. At 2 oz/gal. of water my cost is 42 cents per gallon of spray mixture. I doubt the spray mixture of soap, salt and vinegar is any cheaper. By the way, acetic acid & sodium chloride are chemicals.

I think the issue may be people would probably not care for glysophate pickles. On the other hand, most like dill pickles - which are soaked/cured in vinegar and salt solutions. I wouldn't care for a glysophate-based BBQ sauce either, but plenty have vinegar in them. I know acetic acid and salt can kill things in high enough concentrations, so can oxygen. But there is a perspective to keep.

I see your point Forrester2. But I would still prefer to try something with known 'friendlier' chemicals before reaching for the Roundup. Without a good reason, such as raising fish for commercial purposes or the like and cattails are costing you income, I would tolerate quite a few cattails in any case.
Dave.

 

[forester2]

Friendlier?? Vinegar has a ph of 2.2. Salt water incursion threatens western aquifiers. Roundup has been studied to death for years looking for a way to vilify it.

It's not made to produce pickles, so your point is ludicrous Dave; neither is soap or cheese or cardboard for that matter.

My point is study the relative toxicity of natural and other common day to day products you use before condemning the usage of a pesticide or herbicide that does a far superior job.

 

[steveoutdoorrec]

We have a growing (sorry) problem with cattails spreading into the waterfront area of the Girl Scout camp where I'm the Ranger.

One of the old camp rangers visited last summer and he told me that he was able to control them and other aquatic weeds by using a trash pump to suck the soil out from around the roots and let them float free. Most of the "soil" around the roots is what I consider as muck and not what I want where the girls swim. I'm going to give this a try next spring by building a barge to hold the pump and control the depth of the inlet using a winch I took off an old boat trailer. Then use a long pole to stir the muck up so it can be sucked up out of the lake.