Help prevent a mosquito breeding ground.

[Madneighbor]

I do not have a pool but I have a neighbor that has walked away from his home and his pool. It is now green and scummy. I have tried calling the city but the timeline for them to take action could be a year. The electriicty to the house has been cut.


I am looking for something I can do to minimize this pool becoming a mosquito breeding ground. I can access the backyard so if I put household bleach in it would that do it.

TIA

 

[Bama Rambler]

Adding chlorine without being able to circulate it isn't a good idea. Besides that would be an ongoing situation. I wouldn't worry about it turning green but I'd suggest getting a few mosquito dunks and throwing them in there. Call the health department to make sure it's ok to do that first.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

You could in theory pour bleach in but without electricity it is a problem. You need a way to circulate when adding chems. I would worry about your liability however, since it isn't your pool should a problem develop from your action.

Your safest option would be to purchase some "mosquito fish" and dump them in the pool. You can Google for them to find out more.

 

[bk406]

Call the city. Even stepping foot on anothers property is trespassing. Dumping something into a pool that you dont own is vandalism. Sounds harsh, but that's the reality. Having something like that next door is frustrating, but again, call the city and let them deal with it.

 

[Madneighbor]

You guys are great. Thanks for responding. I live in south louisiana so my biggest concern is the mosquito problem. We have two confirmed cases of west nile virus locally.

 

[svenpup]

When I was house shopping a few months ago I was surprised to see small fish in the pools of foreclosure houses we were looking at. My real estate agent told me that the county puts them in to take care of the mosquitos. Kinda cool I thought.

 

[geekgranny]

Can you throw some mosquito dunks over the fence into the pool? Just don't tell anyone. I've used the dunks when my pool has become a swamp, during a few winters and into spring when I couldn't be here to manage the leaves going in and had to close it down without cover. The dunks work really well and are not supposed to be harmful to fish or wildlife or pets. Supposedly you can use them in bird baths. They come is sprinkles too, for smaller applications. If I don't have the sprinkles I just pull little pieces off of the dunks.

Mid winter here, after warm spells of a few days mosquitoes come out.

gg=alice

 

[Madneighbor]

Can you throw some mosquito dunks over the fence into the pool? Just don't tell anyone. I've used the dunks when my pool has become a swamp, during a few winters and into spring when I couldn't be here to manage the leaves going in and had to close it down without cover. The dunks work really well and are not supposed to be harmful to fish or wildlife or pets. Supposedly you can use them in bird baths. They come is sprinkles too, for smaller applications. If I don't have the sprinkles I just pull little pieces off of the dunks.

Mid winter here, after warm spells of a few days mosquitoes come out.

gg=alice

How many dunks did you use? This is an average backyard inground pool. Thie dunks sound like the easiest, safest solution. Thank you so much.

 

[kimrst]

We used those on our winter pool cover for the time between the ice thawing and it getting warm enough to open the pool. There are easy to follow directions on the little donuts. I think I paid a few $'s for 8 at the Farm and Fleet store. Kimrst

 

[geekgranny]

Can you throw some mosquito dunks over the fence into the pool? Just don't tell anyone. I've used the dunks when my pool has become a swamp, during a few winters and into spring when I couldn't be here to manage the leaves going in and had to close it down without cover. The dunks work really well and are not supposed to be harmful to fish or wildlife or pets. Supposedly you can use them in bird baths. They come is sprinkles too, for smaller applications. If I don't have the sprinkles I just pull little pieces off of the dunks.

Mid winter here, after warm spells of a few days mosquitoes come out.

gg=alice

How many dunks did you use? This is an average backyard inground pool. The dunks sound like the easiest, safest solution. Thank you so much.

I actually don't remember but it was a lot. Dunks are more like biological warfare and not a poison so you probably can't use too many. The package I have here, purchased probably at HD, last year comes in a 6-pack. I would use at least one 6-pack. They are not very expensive. Two 6-packs would be even better.

I have at least 12 Oak Stump Mosquito traps around my yards. I started off with a few, a few years ago, and then last year purchased a case of them. During the winter I ordered bait refills. I found one place, on Internet, that had a really good price for a case of the traps. Attractant comes with each trap. The traps don't have to be Oak Stump brand as it seems that any brand will do. I don't put any really close to the house. The closes is about 12 ft from the end of my deck, in the deep woods wild area.

Edit---- May be better to do search for "passive mosquito trap"

Here's a link. Do some searching for Mosquito Bait traps to find best prices.

http://www.biconet.com/traps/osmtrap.html

gg=alice

 

[Richard320]

Out here we have a county department called "Vector Control." They can hunt down the owner (bank) and order them to empty or treat the breeding ground. Or possibly spray it and slap a lien on the next property tax bill.

I'd start searching the government directories. Probably under the health department, whether that's done county or state level there you'll have to figure out.

 

[anonapersona]

The package of mosquito dunks will say how many square feet of surface area it will treat. It will last a month I think.

The county health department will typically act very fast to address this sort of thing. If they add mosquito fish, then those fish will take care of all the mosquitoes pretty quickly. And they will breed to address any future mosquito larvae that show up. The department will typically try to recover the fish for future use in other pools, as they should not be let lose in ditches or storm drains, they are aggressive breeders and are considered invasive.

 

[ShockerLU3]

I was watching the show Dirty Jobs in a Katrina aftermath episode. There was actually a fairly extensive mosquito prevention program established in Louisiana. That may be another place to search out information on government agencies to help deal with this.