Cattails are a everyday occurrence within many North American settings, particularly happening near ponds, and initially appearing fairly innocuous. At first you might see one of these plants and think nothing of it. You might just believe that same thing the following day, and the next day, and maybe many days following that, until that definitive day you peer out the window, and your entire pond has been taken over to a point where you need an air-boat to get through it like you’re situated in the everglades.

Now that you’ve been overrun by the evil army of the cattail, what kind of offensive can you mount? Would you organize the troops and go in with guns (or pesticides) blazing? Or will you opt guerrilla warfare? The methods are totally for you to decide, since no matter which method you choose, those cattails aren’t sentient, so they will not notice your approach, meaning that you will constantly possess the element of surprise. This additionally entails that you can likely take off that camouflage and take the paint off of your face.  Those binoculars and the gas mask probably will not be needed either.

The choices available to you are not few in the area of cattail removal, and of course, since the pond is yours (unless for some reason you have set out to attack the next door neighbor’s pond), you are welcome to pick any of these methods:

Physical Removal – You are of course, welcome to attempt pulling the cattails up by yourself. If you do this, attempt to get to them when they are very young, otherwise they will gain strong roots and become very hard to pull. This would also turn into a all order, because around the time you get around to pulling them, chances are they’ve already taken over your pond, and there’ll be a ton of them.

Cutting – You can chop down those cattails, though remember that it’s smart to cut them about one inch under the water line so as to starve them of oxygen and kill them.

Lowering the Water Line – Cattails, like anything else, need water to survive. Through lowering the water line, and ensuring that the plants do not receive all the things that they need, you will find they die out rather quickly, unless of course they have already broadcast their seed, meaning you’ll have to do this all over again the following year. If you’ve no problem with lowering and raising the water level of your pond every single year, then this will be a realistic choice.

Pesticides – A final decision, since pesticides may hurt the organic life within the pond, which would cancel out the purpose of owning a pond. Regardless, you can continue purchase any pesticides which you require from stores, or the Internet. Only don’t forget the risks.

Remember this, you might believe these cattails are a major problem 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. Therefore remember to leave at the very least a few cattails alive, since all plants and animals (wasps excluded) serve a purpose, even though the reason is not known.