Cleaning Cattails

[Buck]

Anybody have a clever way of removing cattail plants from ponds?

Thanks,

Buck

 

[Dozernut]

Roundup herbicide works real well. Spray the exposed green stems and it will kill out the roots. I was directed to it by a USDA agent. The herbicide will not harm your fish and I was told it becomes inert when it contacts the water. It sure did work on my cattails.

 

[Buck]

Dozernut,

That answer was not expected! Sounds like a very simple and cost effective method.

Thank you,

Buck

 

[ByuBill]

There is a discussion going on about this very topic on another forum. Lots of answers to your question <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ttalk&th=308783> HERE </A>.

 

[Egon]

Import some Muskrats as they like the roots. Then you will have a tunnel problem we can work on!

Egon

 

[gmason]

i use a commercial weed eater with a saw blade to lop them off at the waterline, after a couple of times over a 2 week period, they died out completely.

gary

 

[fishman]

Reward will also work, but I would try Roundup first. Use a non-ionic surfactant for best coverage.

 

[Dozernut]

Fishman

Could you please define, a non-ionic surfactant, for me?/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif Do you mean something like, putting a few drops of dish washing liquid in the spray mix for adhesion? Thanks, that one threw me from the horse!/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

 

[DocHeb]

<font color=blue>putting a few drops of dish washing liquid in the spray mix for adhesion?</font color=blue>

That's what its for, and Jerry Baker recommends dishsoap for his lawn and garden care mixtures. You could also use something like Bonide's "Turbo-Horticultural Spreader-Sticker" that works to wet the leaf's surface, despite some leaf's ability to shed water (I think cattails would fall into that category). I bought 2 oz at the local garden center for $4. That amount will treat 30 gallons of spray for "Very Hard to Wet Plants", up to 240 gallons of spray for "Moderately Hard to Wet Plants". I use it for my fungicide since it seems to be difficult to get to stick to the leaves, but the bottle says it can "improve performance of insecticides, miticides, fungicides and weed killers".

 

[JJT]

I don't like to use chemicals around my kids or animals, so I thin the cattails by pulling them out, roots and all. I keep my quarter acre pond down to 2 10x10 patches of cattails. Less than an hour/year of maintanance.

 

[fishman]

Dozernut,

You got it!/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[oombala]

round up! an in the winter ive done the cleanup 2 ways. 1 if you have access to a gas powered hedge trimmer, ive cut em flush with the ice, pile em and burn em or, soak with alcohol and lite one end, let a very light breeze move the flame.

 

[Buck]

oombala,

My pond is relatively small. Decided last weeked to get some waders and pull 'em by hand.

Thanks all for the great information.

Buck