OT: Cattail Control

[Chad OH]

Hi all,
I have a half acre pond with all kinds of fish, frogs, crawdads, etc.

I like to keep the pond environment natural, but the cattails have had a population explosion over the last 3 years.
They are fine in small numbers and I understand the benefits of having them but I don"t want to trade my little boat for an airboat in a few years to get across the water.
Earlier this spring I got the machete out and cut about 80% of them below the water line and sprayed some of that sheet from TSC but 95% of those are back and are laughing at me.
(I did use my 8N to pull the trailer load of cuttings to the fire ring.)

Thanks,
Chad

 

[Anonymous-0]

Chad,
I have been dealing with cattails in my pond for a couple of years and say they can be hard to get rid of them. I do use roundup but don't like it much becauce of the over spray can kill the plants I want. When the water is warm enouh to swim I go around and pull them out by hand and try too get as much of the roots as I can, this isn't too hard if they are small. Hope this helps. Ron

 

[dont_know_a_thing]

Dad use to use copper sulfate to control algae. I think it worked on the cattails too... Don't know if that is environmentally correct or not anymore.

Also I remember a couple years he took an old bed springs, set it on the boat, took it out a ways and dropped it and pulled it out with the 8n. It pulled a lot of them out....

 

[Dell (WA)]

Chad......round-up, the hard way. NO SPRAY, PAINT!!! Seriously. Cut the cattail just above the water and PAINT the fresh cut with sponge paintbrush and ROUND-UP. This will KILL the root too.

Altho in Boy Scouts, cattails were prized for "flour" in pancakes and biscuits. The roasted roots were hot-potatoes fer supper. 'nutter' merit badge, eh? ......Dell

 

[Dennisinponca]

Get a few beavers and a muskrat.

I found that the third time I cut the cat tails, they tend to stay down.

Try pondboss.com for expert advice on sprays for all pond problems.

 

[Woodchuck]

I had cattails starting to come into my half acre pond several years ago.
Then one morning I saw a muskrat in the pond. By the end of the summer the cattails were almost gone, BUT there were holes several feet away from the enge of the pond where their burrows caved in. One colapsed under the Kubota while I was mowing and I thought It was going to swallow the tractor. Another collapsed under the wood pile and dumped the stack on the ground. Now I use a sickle bar mower that will cut below horozontal and just keep mowing them off.

 

[Devious]

I guess I missed the reason that cattails should be removed from ??? I just never saw them doing anything bad but then I have missed a lot of bad stuff in my life. Can some one educate me on the get the cattail craze we are in ? Maybe I should get in the war on cattails. Devious (Tongue in cheek folks)

 

[Anonymous-0]

Cattails are both dessication machines and siltation machines. In North America (here) cattail sloughs that should be lakes are a serious part of our dustbowl phenomenon. In Northern Africa, the huge cattail infestation in the Lake Chad basin is the driving force in the expansion of the desert. The silt raises stream and lake beds out of contact with the ground water, killing both. There is enough cattail growing wild over there to supply most of their fuel needs. With some serious inspection, the cattails could eat their famines raw. So there are lunatics like me, out to save the world from and with (with and from) cattails.
Picture Lake Chad alive again, the Sahel green, the desert shrinking, "lake effect" rains. IT CAN BE! All that is in the way is a few million hectares of weeds and silt.