Help--earthworms!!

[tdp]

Hi everyone, When I opened my pool this past spring, it had a lot of earthworms in it, chlorine was 0, CYA was 0, and I had a positive ammonia test. It was not fun to get the pool in shape.

I hardly had any earthworms in the pool over the summer, just one or two if it rained. The last few months, I am getting a lot of earthworms in the pool when it rains. I even put lime around the perimeter of my pool deck because I read it would make them not like the soil; it didn't seem to work.

I am getting ready to have the pool closed. What can I do to keep out the earthworms?? I have a mesh safety cover that is tight to the deck, but that doesn't seem to stop them. I don't want to open to a pool with so many worms whose gut bacteria probably ate my CYA and caused ammonia. Any ideas on what I could do? Put water bags at the edge of the pool deck?

Thanks!

 

[Joshii]

I'm guessing the earthworm problem will take care of itself once they all decide to commit suicide and there aren't any left.

As for the CYA - I doubt the zero reading is earthworm related.
As for the ammonia - probably due to high combined chlorine levels due to not enough chlorine.
Your pool is about as big as mine - a gallon of bleach will bring the chlorine level up 4ppm. Keep those levels up and you'll be fine!

 

[tdp]

All I know is when I opened the pool two seasons ago, there were few if any earthworms, and the CYA had certainly fallen from its in-season value of 70, but was still about 30 or so. This season, quarts of earthworms, CYA stone cold zero.

Having all those earthworms get in the pool during the season is gross but manageable. Having them get into the pool over the winter and opening to all that grossness is awful.