Aquacide Blog — aquatic weed control

WASHINGTON (CN) - The Environmental Protection Agency is allowing Arkansas cotton growers to use fluridone on cotton through 2014, to avoid an expected 25 percent crop loss from aggressive weeds resistant to glyphosate, the commonly used pesticide, according to a new regulation. Click here to check out Courthouse News' Environmental Law Review. "Since the introduction of glyphosate resistant cotton in 1997, twenty-one weed species have developed resistance to [it]," the regulation notes. Glyphosate-resistant palmer amaranth has become the most severe weed problem that Arkansas cotton growers face, according to the regulation. Fluridone is generally used on pond weeds such as...

One of the most common submersed lake weeds is Bushy Pondweed.  Bushy Pondweed is a rooted native weed that grows up from the pond bottom.  It has thread-like narrow leaves oppositely arranged on slender, sparsely branched stems.  Lake weed identification can be made by the microscopic teeth along the leafs edge.  Bushy Pondweed leaves are also slightly broader at the base than tip.  This water weed can be found growing in depths of 10 feet or more.

It is generally not a good rule of thumb to place any type of aquatic vegetation into a private lake or pond.  However, Common Cattails are one of the species that can be utilized, carefully, to add dimension to the water body.  Because of the thick root system and dense growth of Cattails in general, they are a great type of erosion-control.  Cattails also provide great habitat for waterfowl, especially wood ducks. Several species of birds also use Cattails as a perch, and Cattails provide habitat for other aquatic animal life as well as cover for small fish. Although there...

Brazilian Elodea (egeria densa) was introduced to this country about 100 years ago.  It was an attractive oxygen producing plant primarily sold as an aquarium plant.  It can now be found in 40 States including Hawaii. It is an aggressive lake weed, very similar to both American Elodea and Hydrilla.  All three are submersed and rooted to the lake bottom.  Leaves of Brazilian Elodea have minute teeth not visible by the naked eye.   It spreads primarily by floating fragments that simply re-root.  It does not use seeds or tubers.  Stems are long and slender and rarely branch.  Each leaf is...

Augusta, GA (AP) - Eight bald eagles found dead a lake near the Georgia - South Carolina border died of a disease linked to an invasive weed, authorities have determined. The deaths, which occurred during the winter and early spring, were the result of an algae-borne linked to the invasive weed , The Augusta Chronicle reported. Scientists working to find ways of controlling the problem say they aren't the first bald deaths linked to the weed.  They say 11 eagles died in the area during the previous season. The eagles succumbed to avian vacuolar myelinopathy, caused by algae that grow...