I found a dead mouse inside the skimmer filter today and my wife is now refusing to go near the pool until it is properly sanitized. I poured a gallon of clorex into the area I found dead mouse and turned the filter on for entire day and just told my wife that clorex and sun should do the job in a few days. The pool water does have quite a bit of borax in there as well. I couldn't think of anything else to do. Is there something else I can do to reassure my wife that water is fine? Should I shock the pool? Or pour in a few gallons of clorex or muriatic acid and neutralize it in a few hours? Any suggestions?
Dead mice found in the pool! Proper way to disinfect?
- Thread starter samhahn
- Start date
If it was my pool, I would shock at the minimum. Won't hurt and certainly help comfort your wife.
Santa Barbara County says that in the event of a fecal, vomitous, or dead animal incident you need to reach something called a "Chlorine Contact Time" of 9600. CCT = Free Chlorine x Minutes of Exposure
http://www.sbcphd.org/ehs/Documents/poolaccident.pdf
So you could have FC of 5 for 32 hours, for example.
Sure there are some problems with that equation but it sounds very reassuring so try passing it by her. :-D
http://www.sbcphd.org/ehs/Documents/poolaccident.pdf
So you could have FC of 5 for 32 hours, for example.
Sure there are some problems with that equation but it sounds very reassuring so try passing it by her. :-D
The 9600 is the older standard against Cryptosporidium (a protozoan oocyst). It is now a CT (chlorine in ppm times time in minutes) of 15,300 as shown here from the CDC. However, that is a chlorine concentration with NO CYA. With CYA, there isn't much you can do unless you raise the FC to about 10 ppm above the CYA level for 24 hours or so. Note that these recommendations are for public pools where the risks of infecting many people are much higher than in a residential pool.
However, the odds of getting Crypto from a mouse or any other creature are low. Crypto and Giardia aren't something that stays in the body all the time. If the animal, or human, had diarrhea (or a loose stool), then that would be of more concern. I would just shock at normal shock levels which will kill bacteria and viruses very quickly. Technically, even that shouldn't be necessary, but should give some peace of mind.
Richard
However, the odds of getting Crypto from a mouse or any other creature are low. Crypto and Giardia aren't something that stays in the body all the time. If the animal, or human, had diarrhea (or a loose stool), then that would be of more concern. I would just shock at normal shock levels which will kill bacteria and viruses very quickly. Technically, even that shouldn't be necessary, but should give some peace of mind.
Richard
Went through the same thing with my wife when I found my first dead animal in the skimmer basket one morning. Here's what works for me now...
1.) Make sure wife is distracted (a good way to do this quickly is to pitch the 3 year-old a piece of chocolate as 3 year-old will get chocolate all over hands and face and wife will spend the next 30 minutes wiping up child and trying to figure out where child got chocolate)
2.) Quietly and covertly remove dead animal(s)
3.) Shock pool
4.) Tell wife and kids that pool is closed for "special chemical treatment"
5.) Mention nothing about animal in skimmer basket
1.) Make sure wife is distracted (a good way to do this quickly is to pitch the 3 year-old a piece of chocolate as 3 year-old will get chocolate all over hands and face and wife will spend the next 30 minutes wiping up child and trying to figure out where child got chocolate)
2.) Quietly and covertly remove dead animal(s)
3.) Shock pool
4.) Tell wife and kids that pool is closed for "special chemical treatment"
5.) Mention nothing about animal in skimmer basket
That's funny!!!!! She probably would really have freaked if she had seen the 6 dead squirrels floating in the pool one morning!
Always make sure you put the ladder in the pool as soon as possible after taking off the winter cover. The poor things, my hubby wasn't happy about losing all squirrels that year.
Always make sure you put the ladder in the pool as soon as possible after taking off the winter cover. The poor things, my hubby wasn't happy about losing all squirrels that year.
Mona, if you want to save them. just secure a pool noodle to the deck going into the pool so they have a way to scamper out if they fall in 
We had several squirrels make the plunge during the winter months last year because we didnt cover it. Fortunately we did a liner change this spring so all the junky water was removed and fresh put in
Richard,chem geek said:
As one who is arguably a member of the world largest "test group" for zoonotic diseases, I would have little concern about contracting a disease from a floater mouse in a reasonably maintained and appropriately chlorinated swimming pool. Since I've started paying attention to the logic behind BBB, I wonder if the most predictable effect of a dead mouse, frog, and other organic detritus such as bird droppings would be to feed the engine that results in algae blooms.
Rewinding to when my CYA was off the wire, I think that some of my more intense algae wars might have followed suicidally tame mallard pairs using our pool as their personal pond when my then undiagnosed CC was probably far too high and my FC was far too low.
It's true that any extra organic matter, especially of the type that would consume chlorine, would increase the risk for getting algae because it would lower the Free Chlorine (FC) level. In fact, this is probably the main reason why many algae blooms occur after storms since a lot of excess material gets dumped into the pool and maybe even more algae spores themselves. Such organic debris also adds many nooks and crannies where circulation of chlorine might not be good enough and are also additional surfaces where biofilm could form. The good news is that a properly maintained pool can handle this extra demand in the worst case with a shock level of chlorine to bring things back into balance though for mild cases simply keeping the FC level at normal levels might be sufficient.
An animal such as a mouse, however, may not use up a lot of chlorine since it doesn't have that much surface area. The chlorine consumption rate is very much related to what chlorine is exposed to and that relates to the surface area (for similar substances) which is why chlorine combines most rapidly with dissolved chemicals (e.g. ammonia and urea including that from sweat and urine), then bacteria and viruses, then algae and pollen, then protozoa (not in cyst form, however), then small insects, then leaves, then small animals, then larger animals.
Richard
An animal such as a mouse, however, may not use up a lot of chlorine since it doesn't have that much surface area. The chlorine consumption rate is very much related to what chlorine is exposed to and that relates to the surface area (for similar substances) which is why chlorine combines most rapidly with dissolved chemicals (e.g. ammonia and urea including that from sweat and urine), then bacteria and viruses, then algae and pollen, then protozoa (not in cyst form, however), then small insects, then leaves, then small animals, then larger animals.
Richard
Have people had much luck with the pool noodle trick?
I've tried similar things (boards with noodles etc) on them, and the squirrels still don't seem to get out. I'm not sure they have the intellegence to swim around the edge of the pool to find it, or they simply don't last that long, because it never seems to work for me (or it does work sometimes, and I don't notice those since they escape the pool).
Generally I worry more about the dead squirrels then the mice, and even then I don't give them too much worry from a sanitation point of view.
The biggest thing I found was a possum, but the pool was half drained, and luckily it was alive, although rather grumpy to see me, in the shallow end.
I've tried similar things (boards with noodles etc) on them, and the squirrels still don't seem to get out. I'm not sure they have the intellegence to swim around the edge of the pool to find it, or they simply don't last that long, because it never seems to work for me (or it does work sometimes, and I don't notice those since they escape the pool).
Generally I worry more about the dead squirrels then the mice, and even then I don't give them too much worry from a sanitation point of view.
The biggest thing I found was a possum, but the pool was half drained, and luckily it was alive, although rather grumpy to see me, in the shallow end.