Double whammy skimmer night

[crabboy]

Well only a week into pool ownership and I had my first skimmer surprises tonight. I checked the shallow end skimmer and found a nice dead mouse floating around in circles. And of course this had to be the skimmer basket without a handle on it. Well, I got him out and dumped it in the woods. I went to check the other skimmer and I had a nice little lively frog swimming around with the leaves. I got this basket out a bit easier and I sent Mr. frog hopping into the woods as well.

With these surprises in mind, I need a better handle on these skimmer baskets. The one that has a handle is pretty much flush with the top of the basket and with a load of leaves in the skimmer, I can foresee having to dig my hand in there and search for the handle. Not a good thing given my surprises tonight.

Joys of pool ownership!

 

[Butterfly]

We don't have handles on our skimmer baskets, but I never stick my hand in there without seeing everything first (too chicken)! DH has two different size fish nets that I use to swirl & scoop until I can SEE everything. Then I just lift one side of the skimmer sock & pull it out. Then recheck w/ fish net, clean basket & sock & replace. I take a clean sock w/me so that I do it all at once. This works for me. Also, I check my skimmer often & try to keep it clean.

Hope this helps!

Joyce

 

[sammm]

I cut a length of weedeater line, threaded it thru the skimmer basket and knotted the ends. Will stay upright and works great!

 

[crabboy]

The fishnet is not a bad idea, it ran through my mind last night trying to get the cridder out of the skimmer.

I was thinking of some sort of wire handle, but was worried about rust or corrosion. Trimmer line is worth a try.

I may also try to fabricate a hook on the end of a stick or pipe so I can lift the basket out.

 

[Poseidon]

Yeah I stuck my hand in the skimmer one time without checking it out first. Got stung by a still alive wasp. Ouch. Mine does have a handle. Seems to me you could make a hook out of some wire to pull it up with.

 

[crabboy]

Got home today and there was another frog in the skimmer, probably the same Dang one. I found an old baluster from the deck railing demo that had two nails sticking through. Stuck the nails into the basket and it pulled it right out. Came in handy considering it did not require any effort on my part.

 

[Buggsw]

Please do be careful sticking your hands into the skimmer basket.

I found, on one occasion, a hypodermic syringe with needle in one of mine. You just never know.

 

[crabboy]

Wow, sounds like some pretty wild pool parties over there.

 

[Buggsw]

Not thrown by me.

Actually, I think it blew into my pool during a big storm.

 

[jnorris]

Ever since the first time I had to get a dead mole out of my skimmer, I bought some kitchen tongs to use. My skimmer baskets have handles, so I remove the top of the skimmer, use the kitchen tongs to grab the handle, and then dump it out. I can even use the tongs to remove the dead critters from the basket itself if necessary. We get spiders in our pool (I guess they are going for the water), and sometimes they are in the skimmer basket still alive. Don't want to stick my hand in there!

 

[divnkd101]

I have posted this one before but thought it warrants a revisit. I don't think you could grab this guy with tongs... I can handle everything except for snakes

 

[sammm]

I have posted this one before but thought it warrants a revisit. I don't think you could grab this guy with tongs... I can handle everything except for snakes

I've pulled many a frog out of my pool, but nothing like that! Everything is bigger in Texas. 8)

 

[jnorris]

That's not a frog, thats a dog with really weird feet.

 

[ric]

my personal record for one night with frogs is 14. i'm glad they didnt way 10 lbs. each! They can keep you jumpin :-D :-D

 

[Kinguni]

I had too many frogs (much, much smaller than that one) to count one morning after a storm the evening before. Skimmer basket was full with frogs and leaves (I'm sure at least 20 frogs), skimmed over 20 live ones from the surface with a leaf net, and probably the same number dead from the bottom of the pool. A very wet spring/early summer proved a boom to their population it seems. I have a highway with a large ditch behind my property so I imagine it provided good frog breeding this year. A normal year it would dry up before they could breed too much.

Other than the frogs I've had one dead bunny in the skimmer, and one dead mouse on the solar cover this year.

 

[beth_clydes]

My skimmer basket has a handle on it but I do not pick it by the handle, had a live snake eating one of those little frogs that have jumped in last year, I use my little garden rake to pick it up. We also have those large lovely spiders that love our pool. Yuck