How often do you pull critters out of your pool?

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glitter&guns

0
Jan 25, 2013
242
The Great State of Texas
I am usually not the squeamish type of woman, but as of late I am about ready to claim helplessness and go shoe shopping. How often do you pull animals from your pool? In the last month aside from a crazy amount of huge bugs and spiders, I have pulled out countless frogs - 2 of them dead in the skimmer. I have pulled out 11 snakes, all quite alive, some of them I am sure are repeat offenders. One day I had 3 in the pool at once! And I have pulled out 3 DEAD moles (I think they are moles. They have fur and it makes me too sad to study them much). Of course I shock the crud out of the pool every time someone decides to off themselves here.

If I get anything bigger than the moles that are furry and dead I may not make it. It is rainy here for this time of year, so I fear it is only going to get worse as the drought season kicks in. Other than maybe a St. Patrick statue to drive off the snakes ( :lol: ) any thoughts on anything else I can do. Granted, I want the moles gone, but really didn't want them offing themselves in the pool. Tell me this will pass.
 
glitter&guns said:
I am usually not the squeamish type of woman, but as of late I am about ready to claim helplessness and go shoe shopping. How often do you pull animals from your pool? In the last month aside from a crazy amount of huge bugs and spiders, I have pulled out countless frogs - 2 of them dead in the skimmer. I have pulled out 11 snakes, all quite alive, some of them I am sure are repeat offenders. One day I had 3 in the pool at once! And I have pulled out 3 DEAD moles (I think they are moles. They have fur and it makes me too sad to study them much). Of course I shock the crud out of the pool every time someone decides to off themselves here.

If I get anything bigger than the moles that are furry and dead I may not make it. It is rainy here for this time of year, so I fear it is only going to get worse as the drought season kicks in. Other than maybe a St. Patrick statue to drive off the snakes ( :lol: ) any thoughts on anything else I can do. Granted, I want the moles gone, but really didn't want them offing themselves in the pool. Tell me this will pass.
Click to expand...


Talk about timing ...... i just took my cover off and saw a big item in the shallow end ..... from a distance it looked like a small piece of firewood.

Closer inspection revealed a dead squirrel :shock:

I don't want to hijack your thread but the answer to my question will fit right in so i will ask it .... I assume the only thing i need to do is get a little extra chlorine in and let it work?
 
ship of fools said:
[quote="glitter&guns":1x6kqcle]I am usually not the squeamish type of woman, but as of late I am about ready to claim helplessness and go shoe shopping. How often do you pull animals from your pool? In the last month aside from a crazy amount of huge bugs and spiders, I have pulled out countless frogs - 2 of them dead in the skimmer. I have pulled out 11 snakes, all quite alive, some of them I am sure are repeat offenders. One day I had 3 in the pool at once! And I have pulled out 3 DEAD moles (I think they are moles. They have fur and it makes me too sad to study them much). Of course I shock the crud out of the pool every time someone decides to off themselves here.

If I get anything bigger than the moles that are furry and dead I may not make it. It is rainy here for this time of year, so I fear it is only going to get worse as the drought season kicks in. Other than maybe a St. Patrick statue to drive off the snakes ( :lol: ) any thoughts on anything else I can do. Granted, I want the moles gone, but really didn't want them offing themselves in the pool. Tell me this will pass.
Click to expand...


Talk about timing ...... i just took my cover off and saw a big item in the shallow end ..... from a distance it looked like a small piece of firewood.

Closer inspection revealed a dead squirrel :shock:

I don't want to hijack your thread but the answer to my question will fit right in so i will ask it .... I assume the only thing i need to do is get a little extra chlorine in and let it work?[/quote:1x6kqcle]

I assure you that I am no expert on this at all, but I have just been raising the chlorine level to "kill a plague" level and keeping everyone out for a while. I cannot possibly drain the water every time a critter dies in here (although that is my gut instinct - drain it, and run pure bleach through every part of everything for 3 days, then start over - obviously not necessary, but ICK!!!!!!).

Sadly I don't think mine are getting in looking for water as some of these mornings there has been standing water from rain coming through.
 
ship of fools said:
[quote="glitter&guns":25tbf1s9]I am usually not the squeamish type of woman, but as of late I am about ready to claim helplessness and go shoe shopping. How often do you pull animals from your pool? In the last month aside from a crazy amount of huge bugs and spiders, I have pulled out countless frogs - 2 of them dead in the skimmer. I have pulled out 11 snakes, all quite alive, some of them I am sure are repeat offenders. One day I had 3 in the pool at once! And I have pulled out 3 DEAD moles (I think they are moles. They have fur and it makes me too sad to study them much). Of course I shock the crud out of the pool every time someone decides to off themselves here.

If I get anything bigger than the moles that are furry and dead I may not make it. It is rainy here for this time of year, so I fear it is only going to get worse as the drought season kicks in. Other than maybe a St. Patrick statue to drive off the snakes ( :lol: ) any thoughts on anything else I can do. Granted, I want the moles gone, but really didn't want them offing themselves in the pool. Tell me this will pass.
Click to expand...


Talk about timing ...... i just took my cover off and saw a big item in the shallow end ..... from a distance it looked like a small piece of firewood.

Closer inspection revealed a dead squirrel :shock:

I don't want to hijack your thread but the answer to my question will fit right in so i will ask it .... I assume the only thing i need to do is get a little extra chlorine in and let it work?[/quote:25tbf1s9]

As long as the deceased is intact and not oozing any bodily contents and your FC is at the top of your daily target you should be ok. If you want a little insurance bump the FC to shock level and do an overnight test. If your FC was below the daily level or the deceased was not intact go ahead and raise the FC to shock level and do the overnight test. Remove as much of the deceased from the pool as possible.

The thing about lakes and streams is that there is a much larger volume of water so the dead critter to water volume ratio is much higher that it would be in your pool. There is also a constant exchange of water going on in lakes and streams that is mimicked by the filters we use on our pools, except most of us don't run our pump and filter 24/7.
 
The critter was alive when it fell in your pool so it shouldn't have been teeming with bacteria like a decomposing animal. And since your pool was sanitized to begin with, there shouldn't be much decomposition going on in the pool either. I wouldn't be to worried and certainly wouldn't consider draining the pool over it.
 
MassNerd said:
The critter was alive when it fell in your pool so it shouldn't have been teeming with bacteria like a decomposing animal. And since your pool was sanitized to begin with, there shouldn't be much decomposition going on in the pool either. I wouldn't be to worried and certainly wouldn't consider draining the pool over it.
Click to expand...

This is completely the logical answer to the whole thing and I completely understand what you are saying. And I believe this on a scientific level. On a "OMG there is a dead thing in my pool" level, draining and bleaching everything feels so right. I am going to force the logical side of me to win out, but I am oh so tired of having this fight with myself.

On a side note, I am sure I am over reacting with the amount of bleach/filtration/abandoning the pool that I am doing, but maybe as I get used to the idea of swimming in dead mole water I will have an easier time. Or maybe the dang things could just quit drowning in my pool.
 
zea3 said:
ship of fools said:
[quote="glitter&guns":1xlxtbv0]I am usually not the squeamish type of woman, but as of late I am about ready to claim helplessness and go shoe shopping. How often do you pull animals from your pool? In the last month aside from a crazy amount of huge bugs and spiders, I have pulled out countless frogs - 2 of them dead in the skimmer. I have pulled out 11 snakes, all quite alive, some of them I am sure are repeat offenders. One day I had 3 in the pool at once! And I have pulled out 3 DEAD moles (I think they are moles. They have fur and it makes me too sad to study them much). Of course I shock the crud out of the pool every time someone decides to off themselves here.

If I get anything bigger than the moles that are furry and dead I may not make it. It is rainy here for this time of year, so I fear it is only going to get worse as the drought season kicks in. Other than maybe a St. Patrick statue to drive off the snakes ( :lol: ) any thoughts on anything else I can do. Granted, I want the moles gone, but really didn't want them offing themselves in the pool. Tell me this will pass.
Click to expand...


Talk about timing ...... i just took my cover off and saw a big item in the shallow end ..... from a distance it looked like a small piece of firewood.

Closer inspection revealed a dead squirrel :shock:

I don't want to hijack your thread but the answer to my question will fit right in so i will ask it .... I assume the only thing i need to do is get a little extra chlorine in and let it work?
Click to expand...

As long as the deceased is intact and not oozing any bodily contents and your FC is at the top of your daily target you should be ok. If you want a little insurance bump the FC to shock level and do an overnight test. If your FC was below the daily level or the deceased was not intact go ahead and raise the FC to shock level and do the overnight test. Remove as much of the deceased from the pool as possible.

The thing about lakes and streams is that there is a much larger volume of water so the dead critter to water volume ratio is much higher that it would be in your pool. There is also a constant exchange of water going on in lakes and streams that is mimicked by the filters we use on our pools, except most of us don't run our pump and filter 24/7.[/quote:1xlxtbv0]

Great point about intact vs "way dead" animal. Thankfully mine were all newly deceased.

I have also done a lot of water skiing in my day, but always figured that lakes were kind of "self leveling ecosystems" unless something really bad is going on with them. I do avoid lakes during times of "turn over" due to the chance of higher fish kill off (probably not necessary, but again, sometimes the idea wins out over the fact), but figure the rest of the time in most lakes everything is kind of a happy little ecosystem.
 

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I have to remove rabbits, often in pairs, way more often than I'd like, which is NEVER! I am a female that doesn't want to deal with dead critters but my husband is disabled and isn't wheeling out there to do it for me. I suit up with tons of plastic gloves & bags, and I use a grabber tool, also covered in plastic. I double, triple, quadruple bag the stuff--ick! We live in a pretty cityish suburb, but we have rabbits everywhere (no dispute over where the multiplying jokes come from).
 
I cant count the number of live chipmunks anmoles ive rescued from drowning in my pool or the number of drowned ones ive had to flip off my paddle skimmer into the woods. But i am confident of the sanitary conditions of the pool so i dont give water quality a sec thought
 
I've only killed a few frogs.. thankfully but what I do dish out every couple of days is those rolly polly bugs. I empty out at least a cup of those insects out of my canister vac every couple of days.. I suppose I will count my blessing. I haven't dealt with snakes.. eek!
 
I used to have to pull large toads out of the pool all the time. Sometimes I'd get to them before they'd drown and sometimes not. I got a Frog Log and it really helped. My old one finally wore out so I ordered a new one last spring, but I haven't really felt the need to put it out yet. I'm only getting the occasional tree frog during rainy weather. I have two new, young indoor/outdoor cats who love to hunt and I think they are keeping all the critters scared out of our yard!
 
growing up with an IGP we had:

Deer: several times, twice destroying the liner
Bats in the skimmer box
Opossums/Groundhogs/ Raccoons
Snakes/ Salamanders
Toads/Frogs
mice/moles
neighbors blind dog ~ she would cross the road and take a swim several times a season
litter of St. Bernard Puppies all walked right in like baby ducklings ~ our dogs the majority of them all enjoyed the pool
I am sure I have forgotten critters ~ but they were pretty much a daily even for us.

Have an AGP now:
so it's just been bugs and one cat so anxious to get in and swim she can taste it but she doesn't have the courage to take the plunge. She has no problem getting in the bathtub though & I have to lock her out if I run a sink full of water in the kitchen.
 
What timing, I know someone that has spent nearly the last year or so having initial start up problems with theirs second pool (builder / automation systems, etc). They just got things all lined out a few weeks ago and were finally able to start using their pool, then last week an escaped cow decided to cool off in their pool. I swear that house is cursed, nice big 5,000+ sq ft house on about 10 acres about 5-10 miles out of town, screened small lap pool, and now outdoor sport / general use pool, was on its 3rd owner before construction was complete, driveway paved, etc.
 
We had friends who moved down south (years ago, I was a teenager) ~ and they had an armadillo that visited frequently & he would float around if it could get on a pool float. He truly seemed to enjoy a daily swim.

We never had a cow ~ that would have freaked me out :shock:

For deterrent we were always told to go to a hair salon & get hair clippings and put them in nylons and hang them around pool and garden ~ human scent is supposed to keep most away. Kind of a tossup in the gross factor ~ critters floating or unknown hair clippings flapping in the breeze :shock: Now the people who went with that method made decorative socks and hung their clippings so it wasn't as nasty as it sounded, but still not real appetizing to be having a dog and drink by the pool thinking about those hairs... We didn't go that route. We did plant plenty of marigolds and that did help, but wasn't total resolve.
 
OK... cows and deer?!?! I will stop complaining about the moles. Maybe it is the stupid heat, but I haven't had a mole or a snake in a week!!! Gobs of pill bugs (rolly polly bugs) and grasshoppers, but for whatever reason I have less problem with dead bugs than dead furry things.

Thanks for making me feel better about it all!
 

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