Well now that our pool stays crystal clear all the time my wife has nothing to complain about or at least i thought ! she got bit by a back swimmer today seems like there are only a few in the pool everyday it is Borated 50 PPM is there anyway to keep the little guys out?
Backswimmers get me out of trouble please!
- Thread starter fsteve65
- Start date
Really, no. Proper chlorination is the best that you can do. Scoop the little buggers out with the leaf rake as you are able to.
I hate bugs too! That's why I have bought an extra skimmer that I keep poolside just for this reason. The first thing I do when I get in is go around the pool scooping out all the unwanted junk (I have lots of pine trees next to my property so there is always a lot of needles), then I throw it in the skimmer that I leave the top off of just for this reason. Sometimes I like to "lead" them to the skimmer by splashing them over there. It's right up there with the bug zapper! :lol: See ya later bug! 
I am having the same problem! Them little bugs hurt! Guess I will just have to skim and skim some more...
I've had good luck running the pump overnight. I don't know why that helps, but if I notice them in the pool I just let the pump run all night and it seems to get rid of them.
I've read that they are attracted to light, so I've wondered about putting a floating light in the skimmer to try to encourage them to get close.
I've read that they are attracted to light, so I've wondered about putting a floating light in the skimmer to try to encourage them to get close.
randa and steve,
Neither of you report your FC levels but most folks (including me) find that adequate chlorine makes an unfriendly environment for the little devils.
Test your CYA and FC and bring your FC up to the upper side of normal for a few days. I would bet two cold brewskis the backswimmers will move out.
Neither of you report your FC levels but most folks (including me) find that adequate chlorine makes an unfriendly environment for the little devils.
Test your CYA and FC and bring your FC up to the upper side of normal for a few days. I would bet two cold brewskis the backswimmers will move out.
I keep my FC at 8 and the beer does help! LOL I would rather be complaining about the bugs than the algea 
Uh-oh! it sounds like I might owe you those beers!
What's your CYA? Do you live in a state where the backswimmers are particularly cantankerous?
I have been adding stabilizer and I think I have it up to 50 now. It seems like all bugs are much worse this year in southern Indiana. First it was the biting gnats, now vampire mosquitos! My bug zapper bulb burnt out so I dont know if that has any effect on the water bugs, but I am going to get a new bulb asap.
Dave, I live in Missouri so we are in the really hot part of the summer. My cya is 70 i check my chlorine level every evening and raise it to 9 ppm witch will be back to about 5 the next evening during the hottest part of the year .
They haven't really been bad since i borated earlier in the season we only seem to have 3 or 4 brave ones everyday!
They haven't really been bad since i borated earlier in the season we only seem to have 3 or 4 brave ones everyday!
Well, the obvious answer to me is to come on down to North Carolina. I usually have a few in the spring when I start to clean up but the first shock process starts and they are gone! I can't remember a season where I've even seen one after April.
We always have room for a couple more midwesterners down here and I will provide way more beer than just a couple if your just an hour or so away. :lol: :lol:
We always have room for a couple more midwesterners down here and I will provide way more beer than just a couple if your just an hour or so away. :lol: :lol:
Dave, That might work i need to order some refills tonight and the shipping would also be faster if i moved down there....
You know, a few drops of soap would likely handle it. Not enough to suds up, but just enough to break open the surface tension.
Ohm_Boy said:
Maybe for a few minutes until the filter removed it, especially if it's a sand filter.
rastoma said:
So... a little Dawn dishwashing detergent should kill Backswimmers AND clean the sand! A Win-Win!! :lol:
I had a few of the boatman last week in the super high heat we had. I noticed one backswimmer. It is easy to know which is which apart from the one swimming on its back. The backswimmers will chase after you! The boatman will swim away from you or anything you use to try to catch them. Anyhow, I googled them both and invariably, proper sanitation is the issue. My pool was crystal clear but as it happened my CYA was low and my FC was getting burned away.
Added CYA, and shocked for three days. Levels are normal and bugs are gone. No algae, no bugs.
Added CYA, and shocked for three days. Levels are normal and bugs are gone. No algae, no bugs.
We had the backswimmers pretty bad last year. So what I did was I filled a bucket with water and Dawn dishsoap. I then took my skimmer and as I skimmed out the bugs, I quickly dumped them in the soapy bucket where they died. You have to do it quickly because those little buggers will hop off the skimmer very quickly. As others of said, shocking helps too.
We just went through a bout with them... I couldn't figure out what was wrong, because we read online that they like algae, but I try to keep the pool and or near the FC for our CYA level, but we realized that we hadn't swept the liner in several weeks, and there was some dirt and debris that had collected in a couple spots. We also figured we weren't diligent enough in keeping FC up ALL the TIME... like the BBB method says.
I swear I would put the net in at one spot and get 20-30 swimmers - I was shocked. Our process was threefold:
1) Diligently scooping them out and killing them over a couple nights (effectively halting reproduction!),
2) Sweeping the walls and floors, and vacuuming everywhere weekly at minimum (removing food source),
3) Keeping FC up at the target level for my CYA level - daily (poisoning their habitat)
(CYA= 50, so target FC is 6ppm; I would let it fall below that in the recent sunny days we had potentially caused the problem.)
And it has really gotten rid of the problem. I may find one bug once in a while, but it's so much better than it was, that I'm happy to scoop out one bug every few days. They are goners and the water looks sparkly!
Choots
I swear I would put the net in at one spot and get 20-30 swimmers - I was shocked. Our process was threefold:
1) Diligently scooping them out and killing them over a couple nights (effectively halting reproduction!),
2) Sweeping the walls and floors, and vacuuming everywhere weekly at minimum (removing food source),
3) Keeping FC up at the target level for my CYA level - daily (poisoning their habitat)
(CYA= 50, so target FC is 6ppm; I would let it fall below that in the recent sunny days we had potentially caused the problem.)
And it has really gotten rid of the problem. I may find one bug once in a while, but it's so much better than it was, that I'm happy to scoop out one bug every few days. They are goners and the water looks sparkly!
Choots