How to Remove Lily Pads

What could be more serene than a pond with lily pads in bloom? The answer, if you're trying to pull the roots out of your boat motor or simply see the surface, is just about anything. Lily pads pop up when ducks leave seeds in your pond, or seeds are blown in by the wind or come via a stream. In a healthy pond, they can spread very quickly, causing headaches for your boat's motor and leaving you without a swimming hole. There are two effective ways to get rid of lily pads, with hungry fish and a spray-on product.

Instructions

1. Analyze exactly how bad the problem is before you take action. If your pond is less than 50 percent covered, then it's not technically considered a nuisance yet. A healthy pond has 30 to 50 percent coverage, making safe places for the fish to hide on a hot sunny day and oxygenating the water from below.

2. Place two to three small grass carp in your pond for each acre. Young carp eat a lot of vegetation, and lily pads are their favorite food. As they get older, carp are less effective. You'll want to add one young carp per acre over the next two to three years until the colony establishes itself naturally.

3. Buy Shore-Klear or AquaStar, the aquatic glyphosate product that's similar to Roundup. These products have surfactants built in to combat the water-resistant properties of the outer layers of each pad.

4. Spray the surfaces of the leaves following the manufacturer's instructions and rake away the dead material after a few weeks. Instead of treating the entire pond at once, experts recommend you start in the center of the pond and work your way closer to the shore. This will ensure that there isn't a rapid increase in gases from decomposing lily pads feeding the remaining lily pads.

5. Leave a few lily pads. You may need to battle them every year, but if you want fish and frogs in your pond, the lily pads are a nice place for them to hide from the hot sun.