Alright, I know this topic is covered pretty thoroughly on here and I've been able to learn a great deal reading old posts and such. But, I'm unclear about something.

My situation in my two ponds is that instead of about 20% of the bank covered, I'm sitting close to 75% on one and 50% on the other. My goal is to regain control and try to do proactive maintenance once I have a select few stands of them in areas I want. Obviously I'm in for some work each year to control them but I do like small stands and like the cover they provide not just for fish but my birds.

Funds are limited and so is space to get a excavator around the entire pond so as much as I don't want to, I will be spraying them. This is where I start to probably over think this.

OK, let's say I spray these things, get them killed off. Now I have dead vegetation around alot of my pond. I could burn the stuff above the water off or resort to alot of manual labor removing it with a rake or by hand. Thats fine, I'm up for the challenge.

Now, what about all the stubble under the water? Anyone know how long it would take for that stuff to break down and disappear? Or, am I gonna be pulling it up by hand or spending the money on an excavator bill anyway? The goal is to provide that area back to my fish. From what I'm learning, the guy that built the pond made a shelf around 3ft wide around the pond in about 2ft of water. Good intentions but the cattails sure love it.

Thanks again for everyone's help and input. You guys are great.

Well I will tell you it isn't easy work getting rid of them. I moved into my house and I had about three nice size patches, then with in two years they almost surrounded my pond. I did a combination of things Round up and the next year I took a weed razor to them. If you keep up on them you will be amazed how much difference you can make in one year. The weed razor is great but if you have fully grown cattails it can be some work. I was sore for several days after. LOL

Thanks Frzgator, they are well established. They were already like this when I bought the place 2yrs ago. I've seen the weed razor. So you actually used it to cut them down! WOW, that's always an option.

I suppose I could always spray them then wait for the stuff to die then use a weed razor on the stubble, wonder if it would make it easier that way or if it would be easier to cut them as is. I've read alot about keeping them cut below water level will eventually kill them off without chemicals.

I know all about being sore, I pulled hundreds by hand from around one of my docks last year. That's when I stopped and said there has to be a better way LOL!

I sprayed mine, then burned them at low water level. I still had stubs under water 2 years later. They went bye-bye when I renovated the pond and had an excavator there.

I use a combination of spray and weed razer. I spray them. Then, when they are dead, I burn the tops and razer the under water stalks. Leaving stalks is not always a bad thing as they do provide some cover for YOY.

I am pretty sure Round Up is not made to spray around your pond (or even close to it)..... Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Go take your bottle of cattail killer and flip it to ingredients and do the same with the round up. Same thing but your paying twice as much for the cattail killer. I don't use round up anymore either I get the generic glyphosate from the big R store. And I am really carfull with it. I don't do the whole pond I do it in areas in serveral weeks. I learned this from someone that does it for a living. Round up is way over priced too. I am not saying go dump a gallon of glyposate in your pond. I think it is 3 1/2 ounces per gallon of water in a sprayer. I even add a couple drops of dove soap to help see where I hit. And I try to get it on the cattials only. So what hits the water is very minimum.

I use round up on my cattails. I then have hit them with a weed wacker. Less come back up each time, but it is a battle. I try not to hit the water, but I have not seen any ill effects on the pond. I go around once a week and spray anything that does not seem to be wilting.

The problem is reaching the deepest cattails. I am not comfortable spraying them because most of the spray will go into the water. As soon as it gets warmer I will go out in my kayak and "glove of death" them.

I had them bad in my pond at one time. I sprayed them and then put in a copper ground wire where they were growing. They have not come back.

Tranquility if you start cutting now and get on them when they are young it makes a lot of difference too.

CoachB, I think if you tried the weed razor you'd never pull again. IMO it save a lot of work.

I hit the pond about 2 times in the spring and do it about 2 more times through the year. I do want to order the extention for it so I can cut the closer ones to save my back.

I burn them off in the fall, than come spring when they are young I hit the unwanted ones with roundup, it works for me.

About once a month I'll walk the shoreline and look for volunteers. If I find one, I'll pull it out. I figure that if I stay ahead of them, they won't get to be a problem. Closest cattails are 1/2 mile away. I don't know if it's just seeds that were in the ground from 2008, or if new seeds are floating in on the wind.

It's not the glyphosate that is bad for the pond, it's the surfactant, and it's not "bad" for the pond per se, it's just that it hasn't been tested and approved for use around bodies of water.

We decided to get creative. I love scuba diving and have buddies that love diving. We wait till its really hot and rent several scuba tanks each. We go down with scuba on, take machettes, clippers and cut away. We have another buddy in a boat to drag them out. Kind of a fun way to combine activities and it saves my back BIG TIME!!! Besides, how many posts have you seen on this site where we develop ponds for scuba diving.... welcome to california!

Cattails are tubers, just cutting them won't work, you have to dig the roots out of the mud.

It's a lot easier to spray them. Rodeo is the "approved" glyphosate for use around ponds but can be bought under the generic name "Aquastar" much cheaper.

http://www.cdms.net/LDat/ld5FH003.pdf

http://www.cygnetenterprises.com/Product.aspx?id=831&pid=0&mid=&cid=

Well, I learned from other's bad experiences. After building our onds and wetlands, I pulled seedlings whenever I went for a walk, and so far have none. An ounce of prevention... Not an option if they are already established.

I too pull every new sprout of cattail and have managed to keep all of them OUT. If you want some plants similar to cattails and not as invasive plant water iris.
Two native species:
Iris versicolor - blueflag
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=IRVE2
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=irve2
Iris fulva - copper iris
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/iris/louisiana/iris_fulva.shtml

Other Aquatic Iris Examples:
http://www.rivergategardens.com/wateriris.html

Iris pseudacorus yellow flag
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/205
NEW LINK with better info:
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/forb/iripse/all.html

I.pseudacorus is a fast grower and spreader getting pretty tall. Spreads by seeds that float to many areas of the pond. This one can in smaller ponds be a nuisance but IMO not as bad as cattails.

Bill:

The last link says "no data found".

I use giant burreed as a replacement for cattail. I can tell the difference between the two when pulling because burred has a visible midrib. Burreed also has seeds that ducks eat and is less invasive compared with cattail.

Thanks for all the ideas guys! I guess where I was getting hung up was even if I make all the stuff above the water disappear, I'm still going to have the stubble below the water unless I either dig, pull, or cut it out. OH THE HORROR!

Problem is that the way the ponds were built the top of the levees are not very wide and they slope at a pretty good angle down to the bottom. Basically they were built into the side of a slope. So, an excavator would be a dangerous thing to say the least. On the one pond I can make one pass with my riding mower. A foot either direction would put me in the pond or rolling down about 12 feet off the back of the pond...

The weedrazor and some spray is sounding like the safest and cheapest option. Not the easiest or most efficient but considering the way the ponds are set up it may be the only way.

Anyone ever tried a gas hedge trimmer or like a pole saw?

barry, I can just imagine you cattail warriors under water fighting anything and everything with machettes. I bet your buddy in the boat ran out of bandages.... JK barry....Just a funny image that popped into my imagination. Good luck on getting rid of those nasty tubers.

I guess we're fortunate. Ours don't tend to spread here. Maybe it is a combination of "preventive maintenance" measures and shoreline spraying. I did cut mine back once to keep them confined to a specific area. Basically I killed them with chemicals. Once they were dead (after several weeks of patience) I burned them off. Not one has come back.

Just my different opinion about cattails. They work for me since I don't fish my pond but observe it. The cattails growing out from the shore and thicken don't allow FA to grow. Run off into the pond is filtered. The dead leaves laying in the water provide bedding for ducks, birds, frogs and turtles lay on it and fish nibble on it and it provides structure for them. I did spray them in front of my deck using cheap Walmart Eliminator herbicide and dish washer surfactant and it flattened the Cattails in about 6 weeks.

Clayton - Invasiveness also depends on the species of cattail:

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/cattail.htm

RAH, thanks for that link! I never really thought much about what type of cattail I had, I just knew I had cattails. After reading that link I actually have the invasive species or narrow leaved cattail as well as the native species. What's interesting is that the native species is in one stand that actually seems to stay in check. The narrow leaved cattails are the issue. They seem to spread rapidly and grow aggressively. They have surrounded 3/4 of one of my ponds already. Very interesting information!

I went on to read what they had to say about management of cattails. Some food for thought...

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/cattail_M_C.htm

It appears that they can be controlled by cutting below water level without the use of chemicals or machinery. From what I read on the above link, there have been several studies done to prove that control can be achieved thru water level manipulation as well.

It also seems that muskrats can assist in control... I think I will pass on this idea! Once again, for every positive there's bound to be a negative haha!

I'm going to try the cutting method below water level and post results and observations over the coming months.