Hello.

I have a small dam I'm aiming to transform from cow watering hole to flourishing home for native flora and fauna.

In my enthusiasm I bought and planted into my dam a couple of plants from a local nursery:

a.. Sagittaria graminea - spreading very quickly, and almost impossible to dig up from the clay. I have since discovered this to be one of Australia's worst aquatic weeds.
b.. Myriophyllum aquaticum - Parrot's Feather - also spreading very quickly
Also, Paspalum is marching and swamping the banks of the dam and now alarmingly into the bed of the dam itself and Bullrushes have also appeared this year. Both are also extremely hard to erradicate by hand.

I had also added Nardoo which seems to have settled in successfully as well.

The dam teems with frogs, dragonflies and assorted insect life and is also visited by assorted birdlife.

My concern is that the dam will be choked with these very soon and I want to erradicate them as soon as possible without having an impact on the wildlife.

Can anyone advise me of some environmentally friendly ways of tackling what has become a minor ecological disaster in my own backyard?

Thanks.

Sue