Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations should I spray my cattails.

my pond is being overtaken by cattails. Should I spray all of them , and what should I use?

Cattails aren't all bad - they are pretty good at controlling shoreline erosion. IMHO killing all of them at once does not greatly impact water quality (like wiping out a pond full of FA can). But, you may get better contrary info on that from others.

Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) will kill cattails. There is an aquatic formulation which has been mentioned here, but the time I used it I used plain old Roundup. It is reported to be hard on amphibians. I sprayed from my jon boat so that the overspray was on shore, not in the pond. I still had four million (estimated) bullfrogs and tadpoles in the pond afterwards, so that may have been a good approach.

When I have only had a few cattails, I pull them, which decreased their numbers enough that other shoreline vegetation took over and has prevented their recurrence.

I basically agree with Mr.Gallus. Cattails are best killed with chemical after the brown heads form and chemical is moved to the roots. Maybe keep the patch controlled to a smaller group using the chemical and pulling?

Ditto

I keep reeds and waterleaf around my shallow water. Both plants have strong roots that help keep the silt and erosion intact.

Cattails aren't 100% bad, but if you leave them at the pond they become a yearly management headache, and if you forget to work on them one year they start trying to take over the pond. The catkins have to be cut off and thrown out in the trash or burned in a HOT fire.

In my personal pond, I take the stance that they ALL must die, along with any reeds, phragmites or canary grass that wants to grow. You MUST add a surfactant to the herbicide and I like to use a bit of pond dye to show where I sprayed.

I had a cattail issue in the shallow feeder end of our 1AC pond and rented a mini excavator and dug them out in an afternoon. You become pretty brave with the excavator after a half hour or so. Drove it into the water up to the top of the tracks with no problem. If it gets a little slippy, use the bucket to pull yourself out. Haven't seen a cattail in there in close to 10 yrs or more now.