Pool cleaning is an important aspect of keeping your swimming environment healthy and hygienic. When summer arrives, your pool surroundings will be a welcome spot for bees, wasps, and other bugs. In addition, your pool is a great water source that attracts many breeds of mosquitoes. So, how do you counter this annoying problem and remove them from the area?
The pool experts at Premier Pools and Spas have some tips that can help you get rid of bugs in your swimming pool.
Swimming Pool Bugs Around Your Pool
Mosquitoes are the most common of all the bugs that lurk around in the shadows of your pool. These types of bugs generally look for dark, damp spaces to live in.
Bees, wasps, and other types of insects are attracted to any colorful flowers around your pool. They could end up in your pool, die, and cause additional issues. The best thing you can do to prevent bugs is to maintain a good pool cleaning schedule.
Cleaning Your Pool
In order to deter bugs from your pool area, you can follow the below steps:
- Keep your filter running every day for a few hours. Set up a timer to alert you about switching it on. You can turn it off after about 4 hours.
- Brush the pool walls and the interior surfaces using a manual scrubber or use a vacuum system to keep the pool clean. Skim away all the debris from the water surface regularly.
- When the pool is not in use, cover it to keep the bugs off. In addition, you will also be preventing water and chemical loss from evaporation.
- Balancing the chemicals in your pool is as important as pool cleaning. If you do not properly chlorinate your pool or maintain the right disinfection levels, it will likely result in an increase in mosquito larvae.
- If it rains, make sure to remove any water puddles near the pool. Mosquitoes use them as breeding areas.
Getting Rid of Swimming Pool Bugs
It is almost impossible to deter all bugs from your pool, even with a perfectly clean pool. So, what do you do when they sneak in?
Use pool screen enclosures: Pool screen enclosures not only keep the bugs away and prevents them from dying in the water, but they also provide you with shade. Pool screens provide much-needed privacy from pesky pests.
Keep the night lights on: It is true that lights attract bugs. Install Tiki torches or lights at about a 20 ft. distance from the pool, and switch on the lights closer to the pool only if you need them.
Mosquito repellents and scents: Some plants like lavender and basil can keep the mosquitoes away due to their strong scent. But make sure their leaves don’t end up in the pool. Or, you could light some scented candles that bugs avoid, such as citronella.
Electric bug zappers: Make use of clever pool technology trends and use electric insect killers that can also look beautiful and can easily pass as pool decor objects.
Additional information: Check out this article on specific pool bugs and how to remove them
