Airmax Shoreline Defense Emergent Weed Control, 1 Quart Review

Our Verdict

A pond is the one place on a rural property where the standard reasoning about herbicides changes, and this is the correct class of product for emergent shoreline growth like cattails and phragmites. Two things are genuinely different from spraying a fence line. First, formulation matters legally and biologically: only aquatic-labelled products and aquatic-approved surfactants may be used in and around water, because the surfactants in ordinary glyphosate concentrates are the part that is toxic to fish and amphibians. Do not substitute a lawn or agricultural glyphosate here, whatever the active ingredient panel says. Second, and the mistake that costs people their fish: killing a large volume of vegetation at once means all of it decomposes at once, and decomposition consumes dissolved oxygen. Treating a whole pond's growth in one pass during warm weather can drop oxygen far enough to kill fish. The standard guidance is to treat in sections — commonly a third or less at a time — with a couple of weeks between passes, and to avoid the hottest weather when oxygen is already lowest. 756 Amazon ratings.