Cattail control

No offense meant, Sceadwian. I am talking about the plant.

For the past two years, I have been trying to control cattails and sedges around and in my pond. First I turned to Wikipedia,

Control is difficult. The most successful strategy appears to be mowing or burning (to remove the aerenchymous stalks) followed by prolonged flooding. [8] However, it may be more important to be preemptive by maintaining wide water level fluctuations (including periods of drought) along with infertile conditions to prevent invasion in the first place.[5]

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So, last week I was in the local farmers supply to get aquatic glyphosate (aka generic Rodeo). The owner was quite knowledgeable about control of cattails and undesirable sedges. She mentioned White Amur, a fish that is also known as Grass Carp. It comes from China, is a triploid mutant, and is sterile. BTW, triploidy is induced by thermal shock to the fertilized eggs, not radiation.

My neighbor's pond is beautiful, so I asked him how he did it. Answer, about 20 years ago he added a couple of the White Amur, then added a couple later. Everyone seemed to know the answer, except me and Wikipedia. They grow to 50# and can eat 3X their body weight in a day. They are strict vegetarians and will not harm farmed species, such as bass, but they can be eaten too. They are so voracious that they will even climb up the banks next to the pond to eat grass.

My babies are coming September 4th. I have dinner ready for them.

John

nice easy nontoxic control, just fish em out, I know cat tails are pretty but they sure can take over. The roots are edible and taste quite good, If I had em I might just do some hot weather root digging now and then.

The problem is in maintaining a balance between an artificial pond with some good fish (bass) and and a marsh. I have ducks, geese, wild turkey, some other transient water fowl, and birds of prey that I have not completely identified -- at least one owl and falcon. Eagles are within 20 miles. The pond is not used for swimming, but I am getting a small jon boat for the grandkids.

I would like to keep a few cattails and sedges, but right now, the place is overgrown. In my wildest dreams, I can't imagine being able to get rid of all the cattails, even if i wanted to. I don't think even a nuclear blast would do that.

John