Spraying duck marsh
 

Does anyone know what is the best time of the year to spray and what to use I need to kill sawgrass and cattail and cane

I think its spring... We have some spraying in our marsh scheduled. Have no idea what poison they are using though.

Can try and find out though.

sawgrass is a pain to kill. we sprayed one of our ponds that is getting closed in 3 times last summer. it killed the grass but the roots stayed alive on the ones that was submerged. we even burned the dead portion. i cant remember what we sprayed i can find out tomorrow for you. the chemical we used didn't kill the vegetation in the pond.

Thanks for the posts that is the problem I have it kills it then it comes back stronger by the fall I have tried 24d , roundup and aquacide pellets I ordered off the Internet but every year I lose more pond

2-4-d an round up is the best

pm duckbutter. He has knowledge in the world of aquatic plants

I think it would take a nuclear war to kill cat tail !

PM Smalls:grinpimp:

I don't want to give out information on how to kill native plants. Smalls works on trying to establish these plants in the marsh, it would kill him:work:

All those plants have extensive root systems, and they have evolved with fire, so fire would just make em happy. Most of the chemicals that you would use to actually kill the plants would need you to be a certified pesticide applicator to buy. Maybe just wait until duck season gets a little closer and use a weedeater with a brush attachment to knock down an area for the ducks to land.

2-4 d and roundup. We normally spray multiple times a year if we can. Late april through may is a good time to start. And one more time around teal season. Sometimes its a loosing battle. Makes rice field hunting more and more appealing. Each year the cattails are worse, along with everything else that grows out there. The only thing that can clean out a marsh is a hurricane.

Best to fly application on and it isn't cheap, I think it's $350/gal. I can put in touch with someone that can do it, pm me and I'll forward his #. Ask Casey what kind of damage it did to the cats in that marsh.

X2, expensive but it works.

Have you looked at the marsh this year? Curious as to if it killed them completely or just 'topkilled' them

I have not been back there since duck season but I will be going soon.

It kills the veg down to roots, and should last 3-4 yrs. aquatic spec in Abbéville said best to spray late spring to kill first blooms.

Thanks I might be interested but I hunt on Miami property and will have to check with them first

Sounds like Triclopyr (Arsenal). That has a good bit of soil activity and a long half-life so it stays in the soil a good while. It will kill for sure:grinpimp: But, it keeps on killing and kills the desirables plants also. If you want a hole, that will sure open up a hole:rotfl: Not against herbicides by any means, I try and kill every tallowtree there is.

BigPond, I don't know about Miami Corp, but I am curious as to if they would allow herbicide spraying. If you find out, please let us know. Cattails and sawgrass are not preferred duck forage, but what they do provide is cover and a source of invertebrates. The late season is when this may be crucial as ducks are getting as much protein as they can getting ready to head back and make more duckies. You have probably witnessed late season ducks land in the thickest cover they can find.

You could prevent cattails if you had a way of controlling the water on your place. A drawdown would keep the cattails at bay and let the other desirables sprout.

Your cheapest bet may just be to get out there with a weedeater and open up a hole right before teal season and then again before big duck season and/or get a mudboat or airboat in there to keep it down.

Good luck, keep us informed

Miami Corp is good with it for sure but doubt they would recommend an airboat to make holes. Only Little Pecan has the ability to draw down their true marsh $$$$$$$$$. Marsh lessees are labor and financially intensive, animals and the good ones are worth the fight but its an annual fight.

This is in the burns and most everywhere there is growing over less water every year and the hurricanes made it worse before Rita and Ike u only had to worry about lily pads the hurricanes brought the cane and cat tails

ETA: I meant to say Imazapyr not Triclopyr in my previous post

Herbicide name is "Habitat".

Thanks, that is Imazapyr. When you see rights-of ways completely brown and nothing growing there, that is what is used, it has a good bit of soil activity and doesn't discriminate on what it kills, but is a good herbicide on certain projects:) If you read the labels on where to and where not to use it, there aren't many places to use it:rotfl:

Does habitat have an aquatic label? It is a soil steralent and kill all desirable plants. be careful for what you wish for. This small pond could erode out over years with out any vegetation to hold the marsh in place. this small pond can soon become a big pond. I am not against Herbicides either, since I make a living selling them, but be careful and please follow the label.

Its leased property, so what happens after duck season isn't a big deal :grinpimp: (being sarcastic of course)

There are Two Options; kill what you have to kill in order to continue using the Leased Property (paying exorbitant prices) OR let it revert to a Jungle. Those are the only options available for 99% of the marsh areas we hunt. Ducks use the marsh primarily to rest not eat so having open areas inside of the marsh would seem more beneficial than grown over floaton with no beneficial use,IMO.

Has anyone ever tried hiring someone with a marsh buggy to go in and scrape the plants up in the area you want the hole? Seems it would make a full season at least.

We have a marsh and cattails have been a big problem over the past 13 years. We spray every year and have tried different chemical formulations throughout the years with different active ingredients. I have found some glyphosate formulations work pretty darn good.... Rodeo, Aquamaster and Touchdown work well. I have tried imazamox with an aquatic surfactant and got nice results as well... I think we used Clearcast. Used Habitat as well and got nice results but it doesn't do well on duckweed and watermeal. What we find works is an initial application of Habitat and then manage with glyphosate and 2,4-D and we have been managing our marsh like this for 3 years...going on 4 and it looks nice.

Same cost or more than spraying with no residual.

cost way more than spraying. not to mention the permits required to dig in the marsh.

But you aren't trying to kill duckweed though right?:confused:
Glyphosate is one of the 'safer' chemicals to use as long as what brand you are using is wetland approved. It will topkill many of those plants but not likely to kill the extensive rhizomes of plants like cattails and sawgrass. It may be a pain to apply every year, but other more desirable plants can grow in the voided area. And its relatively inexpensive as there are many generics to choose from so may make it more cost effective. Imazapyr is great in certain applications, but its nondiscriminant in what it kills and keeps on killing. Imazapyr is often what you see used when an area is clearcut and along rights-of way when its prime growing season and everything is green except those areas:grinpimp:

You don't need permits to clean ponds or ditches. No land company will allow new areas to be created, ie; new ditches,ponds,levees.

I know it's not practical, and I don't even hunt the marsh, but was just curious if anyone had done it.

Correct.... not trying to kill duckweed. When you get all of the cattails out and if there is some duckweed there, it seems to multiply pretty fast.... but other herbicides work well on duckweed and we have gotten great control with other products. Agree, glyphosate is a relatively safe chemical, in the right formulation.... and that is why we pretty much manage our marsh with it now that we have gotten it under control.

Duckweed is like crack to gadwalls

A guy I work with does it every year in their marsh.

Looking at spraying some imazapyr soon along some mudboat runs. Casey, how has the residual effect of the spray you used at your place been? Checked it lately?

No cat tails they are done and did not come back. Salvina (spelling) is hurting me right now. I'm spraying it, I have it boomed off... Just trying to fight the fight.

I had a lease off of Bayou Penchant south of Amelia. We were spending twice the cost of the lease every year on spraying. It got to the point for me that it wasn't worth while to continue. Additionally, every time we wanted to do anything we had to nearly beg the land owner to allow us to do it. We really needed to impound some of the ponds and install wiers etc. I had enough and got out of the lease. I wish I would have owned the property we had or had more controll of it. It could have been really nice with the proper management and improvements. We had 5 members and only two of us did the work. The others would show up hunting season and want to hunt. Nope, never going through that again unless I own the property. I'd rather hunt the Wax or the Delta.