Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Weed Razors for Elodia ???

I live in Oregon and have a small pond (.5 acre) I love it but I am fighting a battle with the Elodia.(similar to Hydrilla) I am barely keeping it in check chemically but very expensive. I think the local geese are bringing it in.
Has any one tried a weed razor that you throw out and pull it in to cut them off? I know its a band aid but it might be easier to kill them if they were smaller plants.
Thanks, Chuck Creswell Oregon

Hey Chuck, glad you came back! Only 7 posts in 6+ years, don't be such a stranger...

Elodea has a habit of forming whole new plants from tiny fragments. The weed razor in my opinion would in the long term probably make things worse. Are grass carp an option in OR? One member JeffHasAPond or JHAP has experience with elodea, maybe he can chime in with his experiences.

Ugggg, Elodea! Hate the stuff.

Elodea spreads thorough fragmentation. So if you try to mechanically remove it and leave any fragments in the water it can drift around your pond and begin to grow somewhere else. I used the vary same process that you are describing - using a weed razor and then raking it out and it was a HUGE mistake (at least in my pond). The Elodea came back with a vengeance and had spread to areas of my pond that it had not been before. I am no expert but I DO NOT recommend mechanical removal of Elodea.

I had the best results using a reward/cutrine mixture to control Elodea. I treated about 20% of the pond at a time (so as not to cause a massive oxygen crash) and worked my way around the pond. The reward/cutrine mixture worked wonderfully for me.

I still use it to spot treat the pond.

Here is a good thread regarding Elodea...

Elodea overgrowth in trout pond

I'll tell you this, if you wanna use a weed razor, you'd better have arms like Popeye. The only good thing about mechanical removal goes inline with how you think its coming in with the geese. Elodea grows best in high light, high nutrient waters so removing the plant (as much as you can) will bit by bit remove nutrients from the lake. I agree with JHAP, knocking it down 20% at a time with cutrine/reward will kill it but the nutrients will stay in the water providing food for the next batch when the geese bring it in. Also, if it has grown uncontrolled for even one season, you're gonna have buds and seeds resting on the bottom. Best case scenario, combine the two methods like we do here with Lake Mowers. Cut it to remove the bulk of the mass, then treat the remaining to knock out any cuttings or immature plants. Floating seine nets work at controlling the spreading of cuttings so you can work on an area with out it spreading to finished areas.
Sorry about being so long winded. Down here in Texas many of the agencies would rather 'maintain' the weed problem rather than 'fix' the problem (cough lake austin cough). It becomes a wonderful source of continued incom...i mean drain on taxpayer money. :P