Ok, great. I wasn't terribly worried since they don't seem to be able to swim and all I need to do is skim the little carcasses out of the skimmer every day. Still, it's good to be sure. Thank you, again!
Bugs in water or water bugs?
- Thread starter Elwood5487
- Start date
mguzzy
Gold Supporter
you should see significantly less boatmen and swimmers since there isn't any algae to eat in your pool now... they will skip you and head to your neighbors pool. 
I'm ok with that. The water is absolutely amazing, it's clean and crystal clear so as a new pool owner I'm troubled by them being in my water, but I do understand it's outside and all sorts of things are drawn to water. Thanks for the words of encouragement!
The water is absolutely amazing, it's clean and crystal clear so as a new pool owner I'm troubled by them being in my water, but I do understand it's outside and all sorts of things are drawn to water. Thanks for the words of encouragement!
Congrats on your pool, Elwood5487, and welcome to the club of bugs and critters. I had heard that if you take a net and scoop out some boatman/backswimmer bugs, then put them in a 5 gallon bucket of water that has Dawn dishsoap in it, it will kill the bugs because they can't breath through the Dawn dishsoap. One particularly buggy summer, I felt like putting a whole bottle of Dawn in my pool. But I did try the bucket dunk and it worked, but then you have to keep doing it.
We get some chipmunks here and there committing suicide. If I see them on the surface of the water, I run, grab the pole and net them out. Oddest thing is I've never seen one get out of the pool on its own, until last week. Poor thing was in shock, but finally came back to life. We still can't figure out how he got out unless he used the skimmer some how.
We get some chipmunks here and there committing suicide. If I see them on the surface of the water, I run, grab the pole and net them out. Oddest thing is I've never seen one get out of the pool on its own, until last week. Poor thing was in shock, but finally came back to life. We still can't figure out how he got out unless he used the skimmer some how.
Thank you, Micky4Paws (love the name - I am also an animal lover, Elwood is my 4-legged friend). This forum has been a lifesaver and I've been raving about it to anyone who will listen.
I've also heard about the dish soap idea. Those guys are so fast I can't even almost catch them to get them in a bucket. So, here is my most recent wondering because I agree that I don't want to put 1/4 cup of dish soap in my pool either. But...what if we had some diluted dish soap in a spray bottle handy while in the pool and we sprayed them? Wonder if that would be enough to croak them. Thoughts?
Sorry to hear about the Chippers. I fished out one live and one dead squirrel earlier on in the season so I bought 2 frog logs just in case it happens again.
Thanks, Elwood
It's funny you brought up the Dawn spray. One summer we had a horrible quantity of stink bugs, I think they're called, that would be all over the brick on the southern wall of the house (of course the pool is on the south too and looking at a wall of stink bugs isn't pretty). I sprayed them like crazy with a spray bottle with water and Dawn in it. It did work to rid them or at least make them less. Thank God they haven't come back since.
I don't know if it would change the chemistry if Dawn would be sprayed in the pool, even if it's a small amount. I'm finding the more I keep the water in good shape, the less bugs we get. The ones that "bug" me are black ants. We have a cement deck around the pool and they start out there, then decide it's more fun to crawl on the coping, and then eventually fall in the water. I tried things like essential oils but that didn't really work so I had to turn to Raid. I would make a border on the cement around the pool and it did pretty good keeping them away. Except every time it rains, you have to spray again.
Sorry to hear about the squirrel but glad you got the chipmunk out in time. We had a squirrel one summer that kept drinking out of the pool. So we put out a container and then filled it up every day with the garden hose. But the squirrel kept drinking out of the pool and one day he just kealed over into the pool. No one was home at the time so I was the lucky one that got to fish him out.
Let me know how those frog logs work. Right now I have a homemade critter ramp. It's a section of leaf guard connected to the fence with a bungee cord, so it hangs into the pool. The only problem is these chipmunks can't swim far at all, so if he's not near the ramp, it won't help. I need to make some more of the ramps. The fence is close enough to put one on 3 sides of the pool.