How to Remove Cattails – What Are The Basics?
Cattails are a familiar phenomenon within several North American settings, most especially happening near ponds, and initially seeming fairly harmless. Initially you might see such a plant and dismiss it. You might even believe the same thing the following day, and the next day, and perhaps many days following that, until that definitive day that you peer out the window, and your entire pond has been taken over to the point in which you need an air-boat to get through it as if you were living in the everglades.
Now that you have been invaded by the evil army of the cattail, what sort of offensive can you mount? Would you organize your army and go in with guns (or pesticides) firing at will? Or will you opt guerrilla warfare? That is totally for you to decide, since regardless of what technique you choose, the plants are not sentient, so they won’t notice you coming, indicating that you will always have the element of surprise. That additionally entails that you could likely get rid of that camouflage and remove the paint from your face. Those binoculars and gas mask likely won’t be required either.
The options at your disposal are many in the area of cattail destruction, and naturally, since the pond is yours (unless for some reason you have decided to do battle with your next door neighbor’s pond), you are welcome to choose any of the following techniques:
Physical Removal – You’re naturally, welcome to try pulling the cattails yourself. But if you do this, attempt to get to them when they are very young, lest they take sturdy roots and become very difficult to pull. That will also turn into a all order, since by the time you get around to eliminating them, chances are they’ve already taken over your pond, and there’ll be a ton of them.
Cutting – You can chop down those cattails, but remember that it’s wise to chop them about an inch under the water line so as to starve them of oxygen and kill them.
Lowering the Water Line – Cattails, like anything else, require water to survive. Through reducing the pond’s water line, and making sure those plants do not receive all the things they require, you’ll discover that they die out rather quickly, that is unless they have already spread seeds, in which case you will need to do it again the following year. If you have no problem with manipulating the water level in the pond every single year, then this will be a viable option for you.
Pesticides – This should be a final decision, since pesticides can hurt any organic life within the pond, which sort of defeats the reason for having the pond. Regardless, you can continue purchase any pesticides that you require from both stores, or online. Just remember the risks.
Remember this, you may think these cattails are a serious problem and you need to eradicate each and every of them, however take note that cattails help stop erosion, and that is definitely a good thing. So try to leave at least a few of them alive, because every creature (wasps excluded) has a purpose, even though that purpose is unknown.
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 at 5:06 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.