EWWWWW! Insect eggs on my liner!

[AnnaK]

Not kidding. About an inch above the water line there are insect eggs, those thin rod-shaped waxy things, less than 1 mm long. White. BILLIONS of them! Ok, maybe not that many, I didn't count. I did, however, swish water at them and sure enough, they come off real easy and then float on the surface, and got in my hair and stuck to my skin. I can't even tell you how fast I was out of that pool and in the shower!

The biting flies have been absolutely vicious over the past two days. This morning, when I started to backwash to use up all the free water we got from a torrential downpour yesterday, they were so nasty that they chased me into the house. I had to don full tropical gear (long sleeves, long pants, mosquito net over my hat, gloves) to get the backwash done. In the pool this afternoon I was safe from them only when submerged, still wearing the mosquito hat.

Gack! Now I have those eggs floating on the water and have visions of them turning into maggots in due time. Is there ANYTHING I can put in the water to kill them? And to prevent them in the future?

I am so very grossed out!

 

[Jason]

AnnaK,

I am about 40 miles from where you are, and I don't have those. I do use Borax in my pool (50 ppm). Have you tried that?

I certaily emphasis with the biting fly issue. They're nasty suckers!

Jason M

 

[AnnaK]

Hi Jason,

I've used borax to adjust alkalinity but haven't needed to add any since very early in June since all my chems are holding steady. I'm a little cautious with borates because of the dogs.

This may have been just a one-time event. There aren't any new ones today, whew! Because I'm a geek I put the skimmer sock from this morning in a bucket, covered it with some old fly screen, and set it in the shade just to see what, if anything grows

Those biting flies are evil, aren't they?