How to Get Rid of Cattails – What Are The Basics?
Cattails are a everyday occurrence within many North American settings, most especially occurring near ponds, and initially appearing fairly innocent. Initially you may see such a plant and dismiss it. You might just think the same thing the following day, and the day after that, and perhaps several days after that, till that one day that you look out the window, and the entire pond has been overgrown to a point in which you need an air-boat to navigate it like you’re living in the everglades.
So, now that you have been overrun by the evil army of the cattail, what sort of offensive can you mount? Would you organize the troops and go in with guns (or pesticides) blazing? Or will you opt guerrilla tactics? That is totally up to you, since no matter which method you choose, those cattails aren’t sentient, therefore they will not notice your approach, meaning that you’ll always have the element of surprise. This additionally entails that you can likely take off that camouflage and remove the paint from your face. The binoculars and the gas mask likely won’t be needed either.
The options at your disposal are not few in the area of cattail removal, and naturally, since the pond is yours (unless for an unknown purpose you’ve set out to attack the next door neighbor’s pond), you are free to pick any of these methods:
Physical Removal – You are naturally, free to try pulling the cattails yourself. If you do that, attempt to get to them when they’re very young, lest they take sturdy root and end up extremely hard to pull. This will additionally become a huge chore, because around the time you start pulling them, odds are they have already overrun your pond, and there’ll be a lot of them.
Cutting – You may chop down the cattails, but keeping mind that it’s wise to cut them somewhere around an inch below the water line so as to starve them of oxygen and kill them.
Lowering the Water Line – Cattails, just like anything else, need water in order to survive. By reducing the pond’s water line, and making sure that the plants do not get all the things that they need, you will discover that they expire rather quickly, unless of course they’ve actually spread their seed, meaning you will need to do this again the following year. If you have no problem with lowering and raising the water line of your pond every year, then that would be a viable choice.
Pesticides – This should be a final decision, since pesticides may damage the organic life in the pond, which would cancel out the purpose of having a pond. However, you may continue purchase any herbicides which you need from both stores, or the Internet. Only remember the dangers.
Remember this, you may believe these cattails are a serious issue and you have to destroy each and every of them, but know that cattails serve to prevent erosion, and that is definitely a good thing. So try to leave at the very least a couple of them standing, since all plants and animals (wasps not included) serve a purpose, even though that purpose is unknown.