How to Remove Cattails – What Are The Basics?
Cattails are a normal occurrence in several North American environments, most especially occurring near bodies of water, and at first seeming rather innocent. At first you might notice such a plant and dismiss it. You might even believe the same thing the following day, and the day after that, and perhaps many days after that, till that definitive day that you look out the window, and the entire pond is taken over to a point in which you require an air-boat to navigate it like you’re living in the everglades.
So, now that you’ve been overrun by the evil army of the cattail, what sort of offensive will you mount? Will you rally your army and run in with guns (or pesticides) blazing? Or will you choose guerrilla tactics? The methods are completely for you to decide, because regardless of what technique you decide on, those plants aren’t sentient, therefore they won’t notice your approach, meaning that you will constantly have the element of surprise. This additionally entails that you can probably get rid of the camouflage and remove the paint from your face. Those binoculars and gas mask likely will not be needed either.
The options at your disposal are many for cattail removal, and of course, since that pond belongs to you (unless for an unknown purpose you have decided to do battle with your next door neighbor’s pond), you are free to pick any of these techniques:
Physical Removal – You are of course, welcome to attempt pulling the cattails up by yourself. If you do that, attempt to pull them when they’re very young, lest they gain strong root and end up extremely hard to pull. That would also become a all order, because by the time that you start pulling them, chances are they’ve already overrun your pond, and there’ll be a ton of them.
Cutting – You may cut the cattails, but remember that it’s smart to cut them about one inch below the water line so as to starve them of oxygen and they will die.
Lowering the Water Line – Cattails, just like anything else, require water in order to live. By reducing the pond’s water line, and ensuring those plants don’t receive everything that they need, you will discover that they expire rather quickly, that is unless they’ve already broadcast their seed, in which case you’ll have to do this all over again the following year. If you’ve no issue with lowering and raising the water in the pond every single year, then that will be a realistic choice.
Pesticides – This should be a final decision, since pesticides can hurt any organic life in the pond, which would cancel out the purpose of owning a pond. However, you may still purchase any herbicides that you require from stores, or from online. Just remember the hazards.
Keep another thing in mind, you may believe these cattails are a major problem and you need to eradicate each and every of them, however take note that cattails serve to prevent erosion, and that’s definitely a good thing. So try to leave at the very least a few of them standing, since all plants and animals (wasps not included) serve a purpose, even though that purpose is obscure.