Orange/Brown Bugs

[NewHere28]

I have an above ground pool. We got it last year so this is the first full summer with it and everything is still new. Well this year the outsides are covered with these orange and brow tiny (seriously they are hard to spot unless you're looking for them) bugs. They do fly and crawl. They are all over the sides and the ledge. They also float in the pool, they do get picked up in the skimmer. But it doesn't seem right to have them everywhere. They do not seem to be anywhere else in our yard. All our tests are normal- but again we're some what clueless. Does anyone know what these bugs are and how we get rid of them. Help! Thanks!

[aylad]

Take a look at this link http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthr...t-things/page2 about springtails, which are very common. There's a link within the thread to pics..

Janet

[NewHere28]

Thanks, I'll google. Unfortunately it won't let me look at the thread because I'm new.

[NewHere28]

They look like this..I couldn't zoom any more because they are so darn tiny. But they are orange and at closer look their back end is black or brown.

[PoolDoc]

Hi New;

Generally, bugs that are not LIVING or GROWING in your pool are near your pool because they want to be, and your pool chemistry has nothing to do their presence. In other words, there's nothing you can do to your pool to get rid of them.

I looked at your picture, but it was too fuzzy to tell anything. If you'll take a picture in MACRO mode, and send it to me at poolforum AT gmail DOT com, I'll post it.

Ben

[NewHere28]

Thanks. I'm sending one now hope it's clearer. I cleaned them out of the skimmer so this picture has less concentration but it is in macro.

[PoolDoc]

I got your picture, below. (Watermom, don't look! ;-)

The first is a reduced version of your pic; the second is a full size crop (no reduction!) of the only 'critter' that was close to being in focus. I emailed my son, who is a biologist. He looked at them, and after noting that they were small blurs, wrote this:

"your red blurs are not identifiable. probably a thrip (money on this one if i had to choose), but maybe a silverfish-, springtail-, bristletail-, zoropteran-type thing. or a even larva of something else (but i don't think so)"

But, he also noted that your pool chemistry is unlikely to have anything to do with their presence. It may not even have anything to do with the fact that you've got a body of water there. He'll look again, if you can get better pics, but he'd need something that clearly delineates body parts.

Ben

reduced original:


cropped but un-reduced closeup:

[NewHere28]

The thing is these things are SO tiny. I looked at the with a magnifying glass and could not even figure out how many legs etc.

[PoolDoc]

Neither could my son. I didn't include it, but his first question was, "Dad, why do you want me to try to ID these blurs?"

[NewHere28]

haha yea that's exactly what they look like they are seriously microscopic but everywhere!