Q: I have a small pond with cattails growing in it. Is there any way to get rid of them? There is a duck nesting in the pond so I do not want to disturb her.

A: The ducklings should be paddling on your pond by now (July) so spraying the cattails wouldn’t disturb them. The herbicides glyphosate (Rodeo, Eraser-AQ) and diquat (Reward, Weedtrine) kill cattails.

If it is a small cattail patch, and depending on how muddy you want to get, regularly clipping the stems could be effective. Removing leaves will starve the plants to death.

See Cattail Management