water bugs? Look here.

What is floc, clarifier, stabilizer, cyanuric acid,
algaecide, brightener, dichlor, sodium hypo,
sodium bisulfate, ....??
GodSpeed
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water bugs? Look here.

Postby GodSpeed » Fri 07 Apr, 2006 03:17

To get rid of water bugs. Attack their way of living!
I had a problem with water bugs, and no way to get rid of them. Clorine wont kill them because because they breath the air!!! So here are some things you should do to elminate water bugs.

I see alot of posts from people with problems of backswimmers and boatmen

waterboatmen: are oval shaped bugs that do not bite, There food source is alge and minute aquatic organisms, they eat mosquito larvae and tend to eat small aquatic animals.

backswimmers: have a streamlined body shape and DO bite(as painful as a bee sting), the backswimmer is pradacous, they come to the surface for air, a supply of which they carry down with them under their wings and between the fine hairs covering the underside of the body

now I didnt some experimenting, since these bugs come up for water i caught a backswimmer put it in a bucket filled it with some water to swim, and put household lubricating oil in (which floats on the top) when the bug came up for air, it inhaled a bunch of oil dove down real quick swam sideways hit the side of the bucket several times then drowned. that is an effective way of killing them but is not practical to fill your swimming pool up with gasoline or oil just to get rid of them.

both waterboatmen and backswimmers can fly.
both lay eggs in underwater vegetation, in a swim pools case, "alge"
both can be found in mud at the bottom of streams, pools and ponds.
both NEED to come up for air, if you hold them down under water they will drown
both for pools, lay eggs in the alge.


The only way to get rid of them is to take away there food supply, for water boatmen its alge, for backswimmers its other water bugs such as waterboatmen or water beetles. the first step is clorination of course, shock the pool several times, scrub the alge off of the sides and bottoms of pool, scrub all alge after shocking. everytime you shock? SCRUB.

fishing them out with a skimmer works, make sure to kill them when you have skimmed them out, leave a bucket of water and oil close teehee!

after the population of the other water bugs has gone down for the backswimmers to live off of, they will start dying off, and/or finding another place to swim "next door neighbors pool"!

make sure the pool is heavily clorinated, make sure your filter is cleaned out DE filters especially, if you have an auto water refiller put a clorine tablet in it to keep the alge from growing in there. every area your pool has contact with water, make sure clorine is passing through.

Now this is the most important part, BUY ALGECIDE! BUY ALGECIDE! BUY ALGECIDE!

With no alge in the pool the bugs cannot and will not lay there eggs!

clorine is not effective unless the pool water is completely balanced Ph, alkalinity, hardness ect, so in case it is not, algecide is most effective of eliminating water bugs

So let me summarize this for you

1. clorinate, SHOCK over SHOCK for the first week everday, it might cost you, but if you want the bugs gone do it.
2. after shocking immediatly scrub the whole pool every corner that has contact with water even the skimmer, get the alge floating so the clorine kills it faster, the clorine no longer has to break through the alge stronghold on the pool serface, with alge free floating the clorine can erradicate it quicker.
3. ALGECIDE, there are some forms of alge that clorine does not kill, if you take away one bugs food supply they die, the predators will die and so on
4. Fish the bugs out, kill em. one less bug to lay a ton of eggs
5. Continue Alegice treatment indefinatly. if you live in an area with irrigation or standing water areas, water bugs can migrate. when they come to your pool and see theres nothing to eat they will leave. if they dont leave and decide to stay the night? fish em out crush them or drown them
6. keep your water balanced afterwords!


OlgaLovesPools

thank you! thank you! thank you!

Postby OlgaLovesPools » Thu 25 May, 2006 19:44

thank you! thank you!thank you! thank you! thank you!thank you! thank you! thank you!thank you! thank you! thank you!thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you!
VERY MUCH!!!! IT HELPED A LOT!!!!
lainey

pool bug

Postby lainey » Fri 02 Jun, 2006 12:42

also there is an algecide called back-up when added to pool water blocks the air and they die fairly quickly. needs to be repeated weekly according to my pool guy.
Heidalli

how to get rid of backswimmers in your pool

Postby Heidalli » Fri 16 Jun, 2006 20:49

I have a huge problem with the backswimmers in my pool. I have spent a few hundred dollars and a lot of time to try and get rid of them and I just finally found the solution. All you have to do is get BioGuard brand Back-Up algaecide and put the whole bottle in your pool. I just put it in an hour ago and there are at least 50 dead bugs floating at the top of my pool. The rest of the bugs are on their way out and really struggling to stay alive. I bought the product from hydropools(dot)com for half the cost that you can get it at the pool stores. I hope this helps someone else.
rkoback
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Thanks

Postby rkoback » Mon 19 Jun, 2006 16:03

I have been looking everywhere to find out what these bugs were even called and then trying to kill them was even harder. I read this post about the Back Up and it just so happened that I had a bottle so I just dumped it in a few inutes ago. My daughter actually got bit by one of these little bugs and she said it was very painful. Thanks for the info!
aniboogirl

stupid bugs

Postby aniboogirl » Mon 10 Jul, 2006 20:44

Ha ha! Whoever said that water and oil worked, well... I have over seventy of these funky bugs, dead, in a bucket!!! I've just gotten more and more aggrivated this year because we've had little time to take care of the pool water and it seems that over the last two weeks we've gone from like five of these backswimmer things to billions. Just yesterday there seemed to be a few... but today, they were all hanging out together above the pool light. I'm having so much fun "fishing" today!
Thanks for that tip.
robinm17

Boy do they bite!!!!

Postby robinm17 » Tue 25 Jul, 2006 19:46

I just read all the posts about these bugs. We always have a few in our pool. My daughter just got bit by one on her finger. She loves bugs and could not resist playing with one. I feel so bad. Her finger tip swelled u p and we put ice on it. Now I'm mad and want them out!!!!
sad about new pool

Postby sad about new pool » Thu 03 Aug, 2006 13:44

I have this problem too
we jsut got our above ground pool lat week.
We shocked it, we put algeacide and put two clorine pucks in....they are still alive. We fished out quite a few and killed them right away. we still see them swimming around, its seriosuly GROSS.
I dont know what to do next.
should i try a better algeacide? any recomendations, WE VACCUMED the crap out of it, and I just dont wanna go in until I am sure they are gone. Are these things harmful? my 4 year old refuses to go into any pools now! what do I DO!
SAD ABOUT NEW POOL
lainey

pool bug

Postby lainey » Tue 29 Aug, 2006 14:57

This is a follow-up to my June posting. I have continued to us the Back-up algecide weekly and have not had any more problems with the swimmers. I can't stress enough though, that it must be a weekly routine to enjoy the full effect. One bottle last for a month (4 treatments) for my pool, 33 foot round.
momto3boys
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Postby momto3boys » Wed 30 Aug, 2006 22:22

Can I use the algecide (Back up) in a salt system pool? Our pool is less than 2 weeks old and we have the backswimmers in it. I am new to this whole thing and not sure what to do to get rid of them.
lainey

swimmers

Postby lainey » Sat 16 Sep, 2006 13:00

Call a pool supply in your area, ask to speak with the owner or the person that has been there the longest. I found that when I was trying to get answers there were alot of people at pool supply that didn't have clue.

My pool guy that seems to know the answers is Steve at 575-5821

Hope this helps
law1120
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Postby law1120 » Fri 01 Jun, 2007 08:17

I am going TODAY to get the Bioguard Backup. I hope that I have as much success as the previous poster did.
justnutts

pool bugs

Postby justnutts » Sat 07 Jul, 2007 23:23

we had those nasty water bugs in our pool too. we got some inexpensive algacide and dumped it into our pool. killed a lot of those critters, but they kept coming back. so we tried the lemon joy routine as mentioned in another web site. says to turn on the pool light after dark and wait for the critters to show up and drop lemon joy in the water. somehow it prevents the bugs from breathing and will die. it was only minimally effective, so we kept dumping in the algacide, then waiting until dark, turned on the pool light and waited for the little ones to come out. we caught them in a net and dumped them into a pail of soapy water and watched them die. after a couple of times of this, the population decreased to zilch. we will keep up the algacide routine once a week and don't expect the bugs to come back. it works for us and we hope it works for you!!!!!!!!!!
Backglass
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Postby Backglass » Sun 08 Jul, 2007 09:58

This is poor advice.

If your pool is properly chlorinated, you don't HAVE algae and therefor there is nothing for the bugs to eat. Algaecide is a preventative..NOT a cure and it certainly is not a pesticide.

DO NOT pour "Lemon Joy" or any other wives tale home recipe into your pool. Unless you want your problems to multiply. :roll:

Chlorine is your cure for algae. Cure the algae and you cure the bugs. Get your water balanced and these kind of problems magically go away.
Frustrated in PA

Backswimmers

Postby Frustrated in PA » Sun 08 Jul, 2007 21:37


I just logged on to find out what those little bugs are called. I usually have 2 or four of them in my pool and cannot get them out. I fished two out today - one which wiggled off the net and down my suit and bit me where you are probably thinking it did. Let me tell you.... IT HURT!! Thanks for the above tips to get rid of the little buggers! I hope that it works, and thanks for the website to find the chemical cheap! When it comes to the pool - saving a few bucks where you can considering how expensive it is and how long you actually get to use it - it a great thing!!

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