Summer’s here, and that means you’re getting ready to use your fibreglass pool every day. But during summer, you aren’t the only one who’s interested in your pool. Bugs, snakes, ducks, frogs, and other critters enjoy entering your pool as well. If you saw a snake in your pool, then you might decide to stay far away from it.
Bodies of water are actually natural habitats for various animals. Usually, they prefer areas that are darker and more vegetated. These provide them with protection against their predators. But if they can’t find a natural water body to rest in, they might consider visiting your fibreglass pool. So let’s look at some common critters that are likely to enter your pool, as well as how you can keep them out.
Snakes
Snakes tend to prefer pools that have black bottoms, over the more common blue-bottomed fibreglass pools. However, this isn’t always the case. It’s also possible for snakes to fall into your fibreglass pool completely by accident. If this does happen, then they may have trouble getting out of the pool. One way you can solve this problem is by getting a ramp or set of steps installed in your pool. The snakes can use these to slither out of your pool.
But what if you wanted to prevent snakes from coming anywhere near your pool in the first place? This is what you can do:
- Consider sprinkling sulphur in its granular form, on the outside of your pool deck perimeter. Snakes don’t like the smell, and if they crawl on top of the sulphur, they can get rashes.
- You can spread garlic as well as cloves around your pool deck as well, especially the dried kind.
- If you plant mint leaves or lemongrass, then you may be able to dissuade snakes from coming anywhere near your backyard.
Frogs
Another kind of critter that you’re likely to find in your fibreglass pool during summer, is a frog. Frogs usually love spending time in the water. You can purchase specialized ramps for frogs, as well as other critters, that might enter your pool. You can also purchase a special skimmer which comes with a ramp located inside. This allows small critters to easily climb up the ramp, and then leave the sunshine coast swimming pool.
Some people also choose to manually capture frogs in buckets or jars. Then, they manually drive down to the nearest pond or lake and release them there. But what if you don’t want frogs to enter your pool at all? If this is the case, then you can purchase some rubber snakes, and leave them floating in your pool.
Frogs are known for being scared of snakes. So when they see the rubber snake in your fibreglass pool, they may decide to not come anywhere near it. Another thing frogs don’t like is the high levels of chlorine in the pool. If the pH level is low, then this can dissuade frogs from entering the pool as well.
One suggestion is sprinkling the filter powder from your DE filter on the edge of your pool deck, as well as near your planters. This can repel frogs from coming anywhere near your pool. In case you find frog eggs in your pool, you can remove them using a small bucket. A skimmer net may not work, as it can end up dispersing the eggs across your pool.
Ducks
Another kind of visitor you can have to your pool this summer is ducks. Ducks can be very messy, and they can end up affecting the pH level of your pool as well. They also increase the production of chloramines in the pool. Most of the time, ducks will only come to your pool for a little while, before straying off. But this isn’t always the case. If a duck decides that your fibreglass pool is its new home, then this can be problematic for you.
One way you can dissuade ducks from coming anywhere near your pool is by keeping a few plastic or wooden owls in your backyard. If you have a pet dog, then they can also chase the ducks out of your backyard. There’s also a product that’s been around for a while, meant specifically to get rid of ducks. Known as ‘Duck Off’, this product works by changing the water’s surface tension. As a result, ducks will no longer enjoy swimming in your pool. But this won’t affect human swimmers in any way, and you’re unlikely to notice it as well.
You can also think about investing in an automatic pool cleaner, for your fibreglass pool. Pool floats shaped like natural predators – such as alligators, can also keep ducks away. All of these make the duck think that there’s an actual predator in your pool. When this happens, the ducks are likely to leave your pool alone.
Bugs
Should you keep finding bugs floating in the water of your fibreglass pool, then it may be time to change its surface tension. While this won’t affect you while you’re swimming in your pool, bugs won’t be able to float in the pool water. Instead, they’ll sink to the bottom of the pool, and from there, the pool filter will remove them from the pool.
There are some products on the market that can enable you to achieve this effect. If you have bugs in your skimmer basket, then you can consider investing in a skimmer basket with a ramp. These allow the bugs to leave using the ramp, once they’re caught in the skimmer basket.
Alternatively, you can add a handle to the skimmer basket you already have.
Conclusion
Critters like snakes, bugs, frogs and ducks may enter your fibreglass pool, simply because they enjoy being near water. However, using your pool can be difficult, when you have critters floating in it. Depending on the kinds of critters you have in your pool, how you can get rid of them will change. This guide covers what the most common critters likely to enter your pool area are, as well as how you can get rid of them.
