Some of the Duckweed has turned green, and I was going to reapply the Diquat before it got out of hand, again, but I have 9 ducks that appear to be eating the duckweed around the ponds edges?
I hadn't noticed them eating the Duckweed before, nor them even being around last time I sprayed.
I don't want to poison the ducks. If I sprayed the Duckweed and the ducks ate it, it certainly couldn't be good for them, no?
If the Ducks are really eating it might I let them do the DW control, for now?
Also, I'd swear I saw a duck eating a leech. It certainly looked like a leech. Do ducks eat leeches, anyone know?
That is a great after photo, surface looks great. Problem with ducks/geese is they tend to bring stuff like duckweed and worse watermeal in. Only ducks I like are Daffy and Donald. If the rest got a case of fast acting lead poisoning would not hurt my feelings. Will they eat leeches? I don't think that is up there and thier food preference chart. They prefer seeds and millet. Depending on what type they are, daubers especially. Diquat can be harmful to birds. I try to avoid collateral damage when spraying if you must ask. But I would not want my pond to be a haven for waterfowl either.
Hope I don't sound like some sort of PETA freak, here, but......
Currently, I like the idea of having the ducks around.
If I didn't, though, I'd still not want to poison them without knowing that the poison would work as intended. Would never want to see ducks, or any animal, suffer needlessly, if I can help it.(which I believe you also hinted at)
Shooting them I'd have no issue's with. That's fast, and IMO, humane.
i used reward on my duckweed and it was gone with in a few days, i did not have much on the pond. My mix ratio was 12 oz reward to 2 gal h20. Worked very well also took care of some milfoil looking weeds. I scooped it out with a pool skimmer tool. Here is a photo 2 weeks after the fist treatment. (ignore the mess on the edges, pond was dredged this spring and continuing work on it)
Thanks for clarifying. After re-reading your other post, I remembered that Reward is diquat based and, from what Greg Grimes told me, diquat is a contact herbicide, so pouring it into the water would have been a waste! Again, congrats on getting the problem under control.
if you would pour 12-14 oz per 2 gal of water in your pond, 1st you would go broke and 2nd i think you would kill everything in your neighbors pond 10 miles away.....
Makes sense! Again, I was thinking it was a water column based herbicide then realized it was diquat, which is contact based. Definitely a big difference and at the prices I've seen for Reward (even with Greg's generous discounts for PB members), you'd better have a fat wallet to just pour it in!
Gentlemen, after much thought, I added sonar to my one acre pond in an effort to get rid ofthat awful duckweed. Does anyone know how long it will take to see some improvement?
Thanks for the info, its been about 9 days now and the only difference I see is that it looks like there are swirls in it, it does look thinner but its not white....
Sonar (Fluridone) is notorious slow acting. You are not going to see fast results like a contact herbicide like reward. It does not work that way. You are better off remaining patient and thinking 45-90 horizon. Keep the ppm in specs and it will kill it all.
To be clear "start the process " means first seeing any change in the DW (white/gray edges to the plant). I have never seen DW initially killed off (surface cleared) in less than 30 days. That does not mean it is dead as its seeds will float up and start over. That is why , as PF says , you need to keep the ppm up to get those floating seeds. That can easily take another 30 -60 days. Even after that you should be ready to spot treat with contact herbicide to get any residual DW.
Duckweed chokes out everything including underwater plants that create oxygen. All the oxygen the duckweed gives off during photosynthesis just goes right up into the air.
I had duckweed. I aerated, I added pond dye, I added muck-eating enzymes to cut down on the nutrients the duckweed was feeding on. VERY LIMITED success.
I ended up killing the duckweed by adding whitecap/sonar in the early spring before it started to bloom. Very good success--hardly any duckweed anywhere. My 2nd year I hit it again with another application--this time the watermeal is zapped too.
Controlling algae without duckweed starts with pond dye. Keep the sunlight out by filtering out the wavelengths of light algae use to photosynthesize.
Other than that, if you hit it with sonar once and then let it die and get out of your way, a big fountain or bubbling aerator might agitate the water enough to keep it from growing back but it will still grow at the edges.
I hate to use chemicals too but duckweed produces so much volume of weed that it's really annoying. i could scoop out wheelbarrows of it EVERY DAY and not keep up. The stuff multiplies amazingly fast.
I have an update question--yes, I successfully zapped my duckweed and watermeal, but I'm getting algae around the outskirts. In my opinion, it's a lot easier to mechanically remove and compost since it's pretty manageable.
My question is to you experienced pond owners--is algae floating on the surface cumulative year over year? Will the surface algae expand without treament or removal? I can stand a little around the perimeter but don't want it taking over.
Thanks!
Bennie LMB, HBG, YP, CC, FHM, located SE Michigan 1/3 acre 8-9' deep, aerated 24/7 1/4 hp rocking piston
Had lots of watermeal and now.....*** What happens when it turns water grey/white film?
Watermeal needs a higher dose of sonar/whitecap than duckweed. More like 90 parts/billion. Mine went away on my 2nd annual application of duckweed-strength sonar, around 40-50 ppb.
translated: my pond is 1/3 acre and I only use 8 oz per year. (which I think is enough to treat 1/4 acre but I err on the side of caution).
Bennie LMB, HBG, YP, CC, FHM, located SE Michigan 1/3 acre 8-9' deep, aerated 24/7 1/4 hp rocking piston
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