How to get rid of Backswimmers when my chems are good??

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M

Mcham

0
Jun 29, 2018
14
Waco, TX
I’ve had an awesome 1st AGP pool season thus far! Now we had a few days of rain here in Central TX and I continued to check my chems daily and adjusted as need my FC and PH. I had to drop the PH a little due to <8.2 and I had some scailing developing on my SWG Cell. That being said I keep my FC at about a 3-4 but it did drop to a 1.5-2 about 2x over the couple days of rain and I treated it with bleach to raise it back. Now I have about a handful of these back swimmers. Le sigh☹️ How did this happen? More importantly how to I be rid of them? Can they multiply on their own? My FC 3 and the CC is 0 as of this morning. What do I do? Can the family swim, I wasn’t sure if they bite or what the deal is? Been trying to catch them with my net. Thanks for any and all help in advance.

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This is what they are
 

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Up until this pool season, I had only seen a few boat swimmers (they don't bite from what I have read) in my pool a couple of times. But this season has been like no other for me (dealing with algae and with insects). Back swimmers (they do bite and from what I read, it hurts) also decided to enjoy my pool this summer. Supposedly, they frequent pools that contain algae (which they like to eat and lay eggs in) and they like to eat other bugs that eat algae. They fly into the pool. For me, I haven't seen either of those bugs in my pool since I have gotten the mustard algae controlled (I don't let my FC go below 15% of my CYA level).

Maybe the free chlorine dips you had allowed microscopic algae begin to bloom. If it was me I would do a SLAM, but I feel it's best that and other advice come from one of the TFP experts.



Good Luck
 
In my experience it doesn't really matter if your pool has algae or not. Mine never has when they came in.

They seek bodies of water and I do get 1 or 2 if I take the cover off early in the morning before it gets hot.

I had 2 or 3 in my last pool when it was at shock level for the winter. Again ZERO algae.

Just scoop them out and either step on them or release them in the front yard.
I've had one or two get out of the net and fly back in the pool!
 
I mean is algae something you don’t see? All summer my water has been clear I vac once a week, and I have t noticed anything on the liner? Right now there’s a little debre in the bottom from the wind, I’m about to go vac it up. Other than that I’m just concerned of that whole laying eggs and multiplying thing &#55357;&#56861;. Not sure what changed besides us getting 3 days of rainy weather and temp drop from 100+ to 85. Now temps back up.
 
Water Boatmen are the bugs that like algae, and do NOT bite/sting.

Backswimmers are a predator that feeds on other insects, and WILL bite/sting you if you trap them.

chlorine levels don't seem to affect backswimmers, and I have not found a good way to avoid getting them. It seems that if you have bugs landing on the surface of your pool, the backswimmers will stick around.
 
So my best plan of action should be the overnight chlorine lost test to indicate algae or not before Slamming ? Yes I do have small bugs on the top of the pool water this past week with rain we had, and I could see them going for those. So that could be he issue. I guess the OCLT with tell me what need to know
 

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Mcham said:
I’m so I just ran my CYA to 40 and it had dropped so I added some liquid CYA to bring it to 65 via the PS app. Where the info on how to do the OCLT and shocking if nessessary ?
Click to expand...

Should you fail the OCLT you should SLAM not "shock" please read:
https://www.troublefreepool.com/content/125-slam-shock-level-and-maintain-shockingl

Your CYA should be rounded up, so you should raise to the FC shock level for a CYA of 70 which is 28.
You are going to need a lot of chlorine, (2.5 Gallons of 6% for the initial dose) so stock up before you start.

The better you can hold your shock level and brush the quicker the process will be. Remember to run your filter constantly and backwash as necessary during the process.

Also your minimum FC should be 5, not 3-4 as stated above.
 
My pool gets a lot of organic material from the yard. A lot of tiny bugs (ants, spiders, potato bugs/sow bugs, earwigs and another harmless insect I haven't figured out yet) fall into the pool often. The chlorine level has been kept high greater than the minimum level at all times. (CYA 60, and FC >= 5). Pool brushed once or twice a week manually.

I got a backswimmer in the pool about two months ago. I fished it out and killed it. I saw really really tiny water beetles (just 1/2 mm or 1/4 mm) in the pool about 6 weeks ago. Perhaps 2 or 3 every day for about 3 days. Couldn't catch them because they were tiny. But they weren't there after a couple of days. I saw a waterboatman on the wall about a month ago. Fished it out and killed it. You can see those bugs very clearly on white plaster walls. The water beetles were the one that concerned me the most because they might have been hatching in the pool. The waterboatman and the backswimmer must have flown in as they seemed to be adults. They haven't returned.

About a year ago, I had a couple of hundred of these bugs, mostly waterboatman, a few dozen adult water beetles and about a dozen backswimmers. There were just a few to start with, and after a day of trying to figure out what those bugs were, there were many more and increased to hundreds. I shocked the pool, brushed the wall twice a day and it took about a week for all those bugs to disappear. Whenever I saw a backswimmer, I fished it out and killed it. The waterboatman and the beetles were the first ones to leave. A few backswimmers were hanging around either waiting to be caught and killed and finally those bugs left the pool too. They certainly didn't seem to mind a shocked pool. I didn't have the testkits then and so never really kept track of the chemical levels.

I think that regular brushing of the pool walls and the floor is essential in addition to keeping a minimum level of FC.
 
I know this will sound crazzzy.... 1 12 OZ bottle of Dawn dish soap in the skimmer, I use a sponge to clean the skimmer at the same time... wait 2 days and they all should be dead... I use a 20 OZ bottle for my 15,000 Gallon pool and it works every time :)

From what I have learned/read it breaks the air water barrier they need to swim under water and breath air...
 
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