How to Remove Cattails – What Are The Basics?

Cattails are a common occurrence in several North American environments, particularly occurring near ponds, and at first appearing fairly innocuous. At first you might notice one of these plants and dismiss it. You may even think that same thing the next day, and the day after that, and maybe many days following that, until that one day that you peer outside, and your entire pond is taken over to the point where you require an air-boat to get through it as if you were situated in the everglades.

Now that you’ve been invaded by the evil army of the cattail, what sort of offensive will you do? Would you organize your troops and go in with guns (or pesticides) blazing? Or will you opt guerrilla tactics? That is totally for you to decide, since no matter what method you decide on, the plants aren’t sentient, therefore they will not see you coming, meaning that you’ll always possess the element of surprise. That also means that you could probably get rid of the camouflage and remove the paint from your face.  Those binoculars and gas mask likely won’t be required either.

The options available to you are not few for cattail removal, and naturally, since that pond belongs to you (unless for some reason you have set out to do battle with the next door neighbor’s pond), you’re welcome to choose any of these methods:

Physical Removal – You’re naturally, welcome to try pulling the cattails yourself. If you do that, try to pull them when they’re young, lest they gain strong root and become very difficult to pull. This would also turn into a huge chore, because around the time that you start pulling them, chances are they have now taken over your pond, and there’ll be a lot of them.

Cutting – You may chop down those cattails, but keeping mind that it’s smart to chop them about one inch below the water line so as to starve them of oxygen and kill them.

Lowering the Water Line – Cattails, like anything else, need water in order to survive. Through lowering the water line, and ensuring that the plants don’t get everything they require, you’ll find that they expire pretty fast, that is unless they’ve already spread seeds, meaning you will have to do it all over again the next year. If you’ve no issue with manipulating the water line of your pond every single year, then this would be a viable option for you.

Pesticides – A final decision, since pesticides can hurt any organic life in your pond, which sort of defeats the reason for having the pond. Regardless, you can still buy any herbicides which you need from both stores, or from online. Simply remember the dangers.

Keep another thing in mind, you may think cattails are a major issue and you have to destroy all of them, however take note that cattails serve to prevent erosion, and that is a very good thing. Therefore leave at the very least a few of them standing, because all plants and animals (wasps excluded) has a reason for living, even though that purpose is as yet unknown.