Okay,
I was swimming around in the pool today, tweaking the eyeball returns and netting the surface when I noticed this bug swimming around in the water. I netted it up and tossed it out of the pool. A few minutes later it was back in. I figured it was either really stupid or was a water bug. A sort of red triangular body, wide at front tapered at the rear. It has wings, really long swimming legs and BIG eyes. Watching it a while I noticed it comes up to breathe and takes air down with it while submerged, and that amazingly it swims underwater upside-down.
When it got to one section of the pool and hung out there I noticed at least three more smaller versions of the same type of bug and decided to do some research.
The description and pictures I've seen lead me to believe these are backswimmers, but I held the large one twice with no bites, so I think I was just lucky.
My pool is borated to about 60PPM and the water chemistry is good, water is clear/sparkly and no odors or algae. FC usage is about 2PPM/day in the Phoenix area with daytime temps of 110F+ and water temp of about 90F and a waterfall. When I say the water is clear, I mean that with goggles under water, I can look the 20 feet across the pool, wall to wall and not be able to tell that there's any water in the way other than some floating debris that hasn't been to the filter yet.
PH: 7.4
FC: 5
TC: 0
CYA: 65
TA: 90
The #1 recommendation on these boards to rid a pool of these buggers is to add borates and I have that covered.
Given that there's nothing in the water for these things to be eating (not that I can tell at least), are they likely to just move on or should I go ahead and shock just to deal with the few bugs? Is there another solution other than the Back Up stuff that seems to cause eye stinging?
I stopped writing and went hunting. I caught the largest one and 13 small ones, but still any other knowledge about how to rid a pool of them?
I was swimming around in the pool today, tweaking the eyeball returns and netting the surface when I noticed this bug swimming around in the water. I netted it up and tossed it out of the pool. A few minutes later it was back in. I figured it was either really stupid or was a water bug. A sort of red triangular body, wide at front tapered at the rear. It has wings, really long swimming legs and BIG eyes. Watching it a while I noticed it comes up to breathe and takes air down with it while submerged, and that amazingly it swims underwater upside-down.
When it got to one section of the pool and hung out there I noticed at least three more smaller versions of the same type of bug and decided to do some research.
The description and pictures I've seen lead me to believe these are backswimmers, but I held the large one twice with no bites, so I think I was just lucky.
My pool is borated to about 60PPM and the water chemistry is good, water is clear/sparkly and no odors or algae. FC usage is about 2PPM/day in the Phoenix area with daytime temps of 110F+ and water temp of about 90F and a waterfall. When I say the water is clear, I mean that with goggles under water, I can look the 20 feet across the pool, wall to wall and not be able to tell that there's any water in the way other than some floating debris that hasn't been to the filter yet.
PH: 7.4
FC: 5
TC: 0
CYA: 65
TA: 90
The #1 recommendation on these boards to rid a pool of these buggers is to add borates and I have that covered.
Given that there's nothing in the water for these things to be eating (not that I can tell at least), are they likely to just move on or should I go ahead and shock just to deal with the few bugs? Is there another solution other than the Back Up stuff that seems to cause eye stinging?
I stopped writing and went hunting. I caught the largest one and 13 small ones, but still any other knowledge about how to rid a pool of them?