What is the worst or most unusual animal encounter you have ever had while being in the swimming pool industry. Mine was ii Arizona, with a Gila Monster!
I hate snakes
- Thread starter oldprophet
- Start date
- Jul 18, 2019
- 561
- Pool Size
- 33780
- Surface
- Vinyl
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Not in the industry, and probably not super uncommon, but a dead possum that drowned in our pool.
- Jun 22, 2014
- 47,857
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Nothing freaks me out more than spiders, especially when they jump on my hand as I reach in there. We have the large fishing spiders that look like Wolf spiders, and they don't scare easily.
I have live wolf spiders in the pool all the time. Most dead things don't bother me. So far this season I have had a dead mouse, dead lizard and a number of toads. Frogs are pretty good at getting in and out of the pool. I'm really surprised I'm not getting snakes since it is all wooded behind my back fence.
jark87
Silver Supporter
- Jun 5, 2011
- 1,180
- Pool Size
- 25500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
Had a small snake in the skimmer basket a few weeks ago. He’s lucky I emptied the baskets when I did because the water temp was in the 60s. I doubt he would have made it much longer. I warmed him up in my hands and let him go on his merry way.
I with @Texas Splash on the spiders, though. We have wolf spiders that seem to live under water in the skimmer baskets. I especially hate when they have babies and they’re all over the skimmer sock. Totally freaks me out.
Worst thing I’ve found in the skimmer basket was a dead rat. Ugh.
I with @Texas Splash on the spiders, though. We have wolf spiders that seem to live under water in the skimmer baskets. I especially hate when they have babies and they’re all over the skimmer sock. Totally freaks me out.
Worst thing I’ve found in the skimmer basket was a dead rat. Ugh.
I've also been bitten by a Western Diamondback rattlesnake in AZ while working on a spa
How about a live (if sleepy) rattlesnake in the pool with me while I was doing laps?
https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/a-bird-in-the-hand.184009/post-1624539
https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/a-bird-in-the-hand.184009/post-1624539
OK, maybe not a pool, but kind of close.
My family used to have a cabin (glorified camp) on a lake in Canada. This was real old school. We had electricity, but wood stove for heat, propane for cooking gas, cesspool (not septic), bathe in the lake, and a hand dug well (pumped into the cabin).
We drove up there one summer, opened up the camp, ran the water and - something was not right. We took the cover off the well to find a dead racoon.
Fished it out, drove 25 miles to the nearest town, bought a load of bleach, and basically shocked/slammed the well (without a test kit of course) and ran the outside faucets until the well ran dry. Let it refill and repeated.
I was a teenager at the time, so I just took it at face value that my parents knew what they were doing.
My family used to have a cabin (glorified camp) on a lake in Canada. This was real old school. We had electricity, but wood stove for heat, propane for cooking gas, cesspool (not septic), bathe in the lake, and a hand dug well (pumped into the cabin).
We drove up there one summer, opened up the camp, ran the water and - something was not right. We took the cover off the well to find a dead racoon.
Fished it out, drove 25 miles to the nearest town, bought a load of bleach, and basically shocked/slammed the well (without a test kit of course) and ran the outside faucets until the well ran dry. Let it refill and repeated.
I was a teenager at the time, so I just took it at face value that my parents knew what they were doing.
PoolMammy
Well-known member
Years ago when I was married and had young children, we had a large inground pool, and one day I opened up the skimmer, cover to find a small, cute, what looked like a store-bought mouse, sitting a top my skimmer basket extension pole. ( yes the very thing that I bought so that I wouldn’t have to put my hands into anything yucky or be surprised by anything yucky was being used by something kind of yucky in order to avoid drowning lol) It was all wet and just staring at me. My first thought was that it just had to be someone’s pet because it was one of those cute little mice that Ive seen at the pet store before…. so I saved it. I dried it and went to my neighbors house first (because he had boys) to ask him, maybe if they had lost a pet mouse. Well…. This is where the story takes a turn and kind of a dark turn. Much to my surprise. My neighbor informs me that that is the mouse that he hurled off of his back porch into the woods because his snake didn’t want to feed off of it. 
I told him … well I guess my kids are getting a new pet. It wanted to be saved. I saved it. Imagine the horror of the poor little fella being enclosed with a snake for several days waiting to be eaten. 
I went to the pet store, bought it all kind of fancy stuff and gave it to my daughter as an early 13th birthday present. She named it Gina and it stayed with us for quite a while. I personally don’t like them , their tails gross me out, but her and her friends loved it. I am and have always been a bit of an animal angel. I’m not certain if they seek me out or if I seek them out or if they are led to me. I’m not certain but regardless if there’s an animal in need and I come upon it, I’m gonna do my best to try to help it The end…. 
I told him … well I guess my kids are getting a new pet. It wanted to be saved. I saved it. Imagine the horror of the poor little fella being enclosed with a snake for several days waiting to be eaten. I went to the pet store, bought it all kind of fancy stuff and gave it to my daughter as an early 13th birthday present. She named it Gina and it stayed with us for quite a while. I personally don’t like them , their tails gross me out, but her and her friends loved it. I am and have always been a bit of an animal angel. I’m not certain if they seek me out or if I seek them out or if they are led to me. I’m not certain but regardless if there’s an animal in need and I come upon it, I’m gonna do my best to try to help it The end…. 
Sunny Blues
LifeTime Supporter
We have come home to find a large turtle swimming in our pool, a dead rabbit twice, lots of mice/rats and frogs. The biggest horror for me are the huge black spiders with bodies the size of my thumb and are the size of an adult palm with legs out. I can’t clean out the skimmer ever myself because of my arachnophobia, it’s too severe. Thankfully the worse was the first few years after digging our pool but we still occasionally get a large one floating on the surface or already drowned in the deep end. I shudder as I type this. Lol
BUT the most wonderful find ever has been multiple years of baby ducks or geese. We back up to a long pond and they tend to find our landscaped yard cozy. They used to make a nest near our house in the spring because of the warm air escaping the vent by it. Here is a couple pictures one year after a bunch hatched, and the last pic was our attempt to help them jump out because they couldn’t otherwise.
BUT the most wonderful find ever has been multiple years of baby ducks or geese. We back up to a long pond and they tend to find our landscaped yard cozy. They used to make a nest near our house in the spring because of the warm air escaping the vent by it. Here is a couple pictures one year after a bunch hatched, and the last pic was our attempt to help them jump out because they couldn’t otherwise.
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I have a completely fenced in yard. 6' board on board fence on two sides. 4' chain link on an other, and aluminum fencing with 3" spacing on the pickets on the other, all with automatic closing gates (because of the pool).
I (or more accurately, my dog) found a 8-10 inch wide turtle crawling around the middle of my yard one day. We still wonder just how that thing got in there.
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