We have a spring fed pond with wonderful tasting fish, there is no farming around it so we don't have the chemicals running into it and figure our fish are pretty healthy. But the cattails have taken all the fun out of fishing, they encompass the pond, and we have no idea what to do with them. We've burnt them which doesn't do much. I've heard there is something you can put in the pond that will kill them, but it seems to me that if it can do that it would also contaminate the fish. Am I wrong? Does anyone know of an effective AND safe way of dealing with this problem or do I just have to wade through cattails in order to preserve the health of my fish? Thanks, Lenore

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), July 02, 2000

Answers

Eat it (they tell me). Or feed it to the animals and the compost heap.

The incredible cattail - The super Wal-Mart of the swamp

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), July 03, 2000.

About the only effective control is to have the pond dug deeper with a trackhoe. Have the cattails and mud hauled and dumped someplace. Expect to pay about $100 an hour of work. There is also a product named Pondmaster, produced by Monsanto. It is an aquatic herbicide which will not harm fish or any other aquatic life when used as directed. Another similar product is named DIQUAT produced by Valent U.S.A. Both of these will also help to get rid of other aquatic weeds. However, usage is pretty expensive. Your local farmers' co-op may have them.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 03, 2000.

Cattails are edible and useful -- check out a book (or web site) on foraging! My husband planted some down at the back of our property, by the creek, and I think they have finally started to spread a little. Be a while before we have enough to harvest, though.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), July 03, 2000.

I battled cattails for years. Every spring I would wade out into the pond and pull them and they came back thicker than ever I think. (Don't remember the name) but we sprayed once too and it just killed that years shoots, didn't get the roots.

Eventually we drained the pond and put the fish into a neighbors pond. Like Ken said, we had a backhoe re-dig the pond and we used the roots and muck as fill in another place where it was needed. Let the pond fill back up and started over.

-- Marci (ajourend@libby.org), July 03, 2000.

It's very hard to remove cattails w/o digging them up all the way, or using some of the new products. If you want them to be useful, though, I can e-mail you some receipes, and also note that cattails, like potatoes are very starchy, and excellent for swine and human alike. If you want to eat them, pull them up totally while they are the thickness at the water level of about 1/2" to 3/4", peel the outer membrane off, remove the green stalk, and bake or boil. I suggest adding salt. For animals, pull them in mid July, (their bigger, but not to tough yet) and allow them to dry, then remove (scissors work) everything from 4" above the bulbs up, and feed'em. The green can cause gatro-intestianl problems in animals unfamiliar with them as a diet. If you want, slowly feed the swine more and more green (an extra couple of inches at a time every other week) and they will adjust o.k. Sometimes cattails get an odd, yet distinct, bluish hue, and if they have that DO NOT EAT, DO NOT FEED, for they'll make you sick sick sick.

-- Marty P. (Mrs.Puck@excite.com), July 03, 2000.

Thanks everyone for your answers, not sure what we'll decide, cost is a big issue. Marty, I'd welcome any recipes, we have boiled them and eaten them with butter, but if you have more ideas please let me know. The problem is that we have soooo many that I think our whole neighborhood could eat on them and we'd still have a pond full. We have enough for eating with just what is growing down behind the dam. Thanks, Lenore

-- Lenore (archambo@winco.net), July 03, 2000.

If they are the narrow kind about 6-7' tall, learn to process them for real rush woven seats. In the right areas, you can make a fortune if your hands hold out, replacing rush seats in antique chairs. I don't have access to them and can't afford to buy them for what my seat weaving market is willing to pay so I use a product called paper rush. It looks similar but doesn't wear as well unless special care is taken. Processing the rush is a bit time consuming but there are short cuts and it's pretty simple. There are a couple of books out there that describe the process but I can't remember the titles off the top of my head.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), July 04, 2000.

If cost is a matter, consider just living with them. Try to keep an area clean enough to be able to launch a small alum. boat and fish from there rather than the bank. Interestingly, about four years ago I have an area dug/bulldozed out for about a one-acre pond. To this day I have yet to get the first cattail in it.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 04, 2000.

Oh Lenore, we know just what you are up against. Our pond is about 14 years old and the cattails were getting worse every year. Yes, we do have a boat that we could launch but it took all the fun out of the "quick" fishing trip to get enough for supper. We found a place to order spray from that does not hurt the fish. Last year we sprayed and got about 3/4 of them killed. We need more spray and just the other day, my husband ordered some more. If you would be interested, e-mail me and I will give you the 800 # for the company and tell you what product we ordered. There are several products and I suppose all of them are good but I can tell you first hand experience about what we did use. Hang in there. Things get better.

-- Jean Utterback (kjean@I-rule.net), July 04, 2000.

I too have cattails overtaking my pond. I know that they make stuff to kill the plants and "not harm the animals" but I wonder about the truth of that. I have thought about using heavy black plastic in the spring before they get too high. I'm thinking that if you left it on for 1-2 months and then move it to the next spot, eventually you would get rid of them. I have never tried this and don't know if this would really work, but that is what I will try to do sometime. Has anyone tried this method and does it work?

-- Michael W. Smith (kirklbb@penn.com), July 09, 2000.

Is it possible for you to drain down the pond so the roots don't get any moisture? That might kill them out.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), July 09, 2000.

I don't know where you live but I live in the northern piedmont of NC and here we have a fish called several differant names. The most common name is the Red Horse Sucker. Other names are Sucker, roundfish and May Mullet. They are easily recognized by their mouth that hangs down beneath the head that enables them to feed off the botton rather well. Anyway back in the 70's a pond near me was overran with cattails. In the spring my brother and I were walking along a creek and discovered a fairly deep hole that was full of these suckers. We went back to the house and got several burlap sacks, took them back to the creek, soaked them in water and caught several of the suckers and put them in the bags. (about 11 or 12 of them)Just for fun of it we placed the fish in this pond. In less than 3 years there was not a cattail to be found in the pond. We surmised that the suckers were eating the tender new underwater shoots and over time killed off the cattails. I don't know if it this is the reason they dissapeared but I have a feeling that the fish did do it being bottom feeders. I have a pond in my backyard that is overran with them and I am going to get a few grass carp and see what happens. If they work I will let you know in time. Ray Scott

-- Ray Scott (rayscott@starband.net), April 23, 2001.

Lenore, I don't know how big your pond is, or how deep. The variety of cattail that grows around here (coastal B.C.) wont grow in water deeper than four feet. Your fish probably would appreciate deeper water anyway, so why not hire a machine to dig out a section where it is convienient for your quick fishing trip. It doesn't have to be a huge expensive project. I'm glad to hear all the folks advising you of the other uses for cattail.

-- roberto pokachinni (pokachinni@yahoo.com), December 29, 2001.