I have been told you can spray the tops of lilly pads with roundup and that will kill them. I have to reserve because I don't want to introduce a chemical that harm the ecosystem and fish in the pond. What is the best way to rid my pond of them or is the above application fine. If roundup is fine, what is the method and mixture to deliver this chemical?

Round up is pretty serious stuff!

bldean,

NO you cannot use roundup in your pond to control any plant. It is not labeled for aquatic usage. However, there are aquatic approved herbicides which utilize glyphosate as an active ingredient. They are sold under the trade names rodeo, eraser AQ, shoreklear plus and others. Glyphosate herbicides can be a good herbicide to control water lilies. They should be applied directly to the leaf of the plant. Glyphosate herbicides are systemic and act by moving through the plant and killing the root or in this case rhizome.

I personally prefer to use a 2,4-D aquatic herbicide for control of water lilies. The one I use is navigate.

For mixing just follow the label of the herbicide and add a aquatic approved surfactant if needed (rodeo).

Here is a link to aqua plant for more information on herbicide control: http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/management-options/white-water-lily/

I think another way to control them is to start to like them. Then the turtles, geese, muskrats, etc. will eat them clean off.

It takes a lot to kill large lily plants as the rhizomes can be rather large. You may need to apply more than once before the problem is solved.

I would like to thank you for the quick response to my post and helping me evade a potintial mistake by adding roundup to my echo system.

I was going to suggest introducing muskrats but LS already brought it up.

bldean, could you post some pics of the lilly's with the flower petals? There are several invasive variety's, including American Lotus, but the good part is you treat them all basically the same.

Navigate is great, and I've also had good luck with Rodeo, but it often takes several applications of that. One other thing I might also do is cut the petals off before they drop more seeds.

Welcome aboard.

I think I remember reading that if the leafs didn't reach the surface then the plant would die off. Could you reach where you want with one of those lake razors? Probably be a regular thing till ya got em to stop growin.

I tried out my new lake razer last week.
Yes it works ok, but it sure gives you a workout.
I'm not sure how much use mine will get.
BTW...be careful those things are VERY sharp.


http://www.weedrazers.com/



Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCdkvDPDYU0

Thanks Zep, that will give him a good visual of what I was talkin about.
As to how sharp they are, ask Cecil.

I used my new weedrazor twice. Still have it, just waiting for conditions that will allow for its optimum use.

And they are wickedly sharp.

Ok, here is the latest. I came home yesterday to find my Dad had gone out and sprayed Roundup on one patch of pads before I could tell him what we all have discussed. It wasn't much, but what is the implications for this event? I was so mad, but it was Dad, what can you do! I have read where you would like for me to post a picture. Not sure how just yet, but they are medium sized with white flowers. I live in Southeast Texas. I was thinking about Shoreklein. What kind of luck has anyone had with it? I will probably use it on cattails and bull rush as well. I have been pulling the cattails up by the roots by hand and burning them. I have two large patches left and they will be gone. What about pond weed, will it work on it also?

If your dad used less than a pint of mixed round-up, did not mix it real strong (>3%) and he was pretty careful not to do a lot of over spraying of the pads you will not see dead fish. Some other small invertebrates could be affected with a small dosage.

ShoreKlear works pretty good. If you go that method I highly suggest that you use ShoreKlear Plus which includes the surfactant (adjuvant). Regular ShoreKlear has no surfactant. With the SK Plus you will not need to buy an extra bottle of chemical as surfactant. Timing can often be an important factor in how well the SK Plus kills weeds. Often it is best to spray the emergent weeds when plants are mature, flowering, or in later summer. At these times the plant is sending a lot of leaf fluids to the roots and the systemic chemical moves well into the roots for an effective kill. A respray may be necessary for those plants that did not get an effective dosage due to plant density or conditions.

OK, guess I've been a bad boy, but I've used RoundUp/similar on Lilly Pads with excellent results for 10 years now and have never had a die off of any fish.

Of all the spray out there RoundUp is the most harmless. I think I would try to stay away from the quick burn stuff that has allot of salt in it.

I think you would have to dose the pond enough to change the PH before it would do any damage and that would be allot of round up.

Cheers Don.

There are formulation components in RoundUp that can harm aquatic animals. There are glyphosate formulations available specifically for aquatic environments.

Like RAH said, it's not the glyphosate itself but the "inert ingredients" that cause the problem. Since they are not listed, there is no way that I know of to ID them.