cattails for duck habitat

[mjroberts]

I have been looking for cattails in catalogs and can not find a good one to save the life of me. I don't like the ones that McKenzie has or van Dyke's is there somewhere else  or a supplier that anyone likes for their duck habitats

                                                           thanks mike

[mountman]

Mike,
Check your local hobby store.
I usually find mine at Hobby Lobby or Michaels here in Iowa.
They are very realistic and usually run around $5.00 for a cluster and they can be broken down individually too depending on how you want to use them.
Good Luck ,
Jeff

[tlbullfrog]

Budy of mine is a full-time Taxi and does large mammals.  I take his trimmings and cut-aways from his deer forms and make my own cattail heads. Airbrush the desired color. Really easy. Then find a respective stalk and slip it through.

[DDavis]

check out al holmes ,they have some in there catalog not sure what they are like . You could make some take the real steam take some foam and rasp it to the shape of the pod paint it brown . 

[Laurier]

use the real cattail stock, carve a new head out of foam , cover it with a layer of elmer glue , let dry and air brush.glue to the stock and your done.

[ida]

Mike
  I am having the same problem finding cattails. I have found them but they all look plastic .  I also have been to a couple of Hobby Lobby .  They only had the single ones and they were bright green , very fake looking.
                           IDA

[Laurier]

no can read /  make your own!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[after the shot]

I bought some from Al Holmes supply. very nice.

[gamer360]

You can also try Hide and Beak Supply Company, theirs are pretty nice. My sister is a florist and get them at the fr oral market in large bundles for me. If you know a florist you might ask one. Good Luck Mike

[Nancy C]

Believe it or not, I saw a bunch of them at Walmart recently.
The stems weren't very good (in my opinion) but the heads didn't look too bad. They were in clumps of more than a dozen and they were about $3.00

[TrailsEnd]

Yeah Walmart has all kinds of stuff. I got some nice vines and eucalyptys  there. They also have some nice stones.

[Habitat Specialist]

Instead of just painting your "pods", after painting for a solid color background-also use "flocking" over the paint to give it texture. Hope this helps, Susan.

[mitchson1]

i get mine from hobby lobby. they also have artificial water at the one by my house

[CROW]

     I'm currently experimenting with the cattails I grow in a small pond and marshy area in my yard.  They key is to harvest them in July (in my area) when their heads are tight.  Stick the stem in Never-Say-Dye green and hang upside down to dry after a week or so.  I dip the heads in HydroMist Gloss Topcoat as the heads are like cotton, soaking it up, to keep them from sloughing.  Hairspray or lacquer spray would work also.
     I have a few I didn't soak in NSD nor did I dip the heads and the stem leaf color is green, albeit dead-green and semi-brittle but the heads are still tight.  The key is when you harvest them.  However, to achieve the fresh look, dip and soak.
     For what it's worth.

[DILLWEED]

try carving them out of foam then covering them with brown flocking. they look real and you don't have to worry about them falling apart.