Junk around my drains

[tnthudson]

OK I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this, but I figure someone has dealt with it before. I don't remember this being so bad in the past, but this year I have alot of junk (leaves, bugs, who knows what else) in both of my pool drains. The pool is a '06 install, so these are the safety drains with all the little holes around the outside of the plastic cover, and stuff seems to be jammed up into most of the holes.
I've run my robot over it, tried to brush the stuff, etc., but it won't budge, even with my pump off.
Any ideas on how to get the stuff out? Or am I going to have to send one of my kids down there to manually extract? (Come to think of it, that could be fun to watch)

 

[Bama Rambler]

You could try a manual vacuum if you have one. Or just the vacuum hose taped to the pool pole.

 

[tnthudson]

Duhhh I haven't used the manual vac in so long I had forgotten about it. Thanks!

 

[Suziqzer]

I had a little bit of debris stuck to mine this year too. The manual vac took a few extra passes, but got most of it. After shocking, any tiny bits that remained are now gone.

 

[Richard320]

Once it's swimmable, you can always dive down with a small bottle brush and try cleaning it out. I didn't have much success, can't seem to hold my breath long enough.