Weird teeny tiny bugs and stinging/flying ant things

[matt4x4]

look like mosquito larvae to me!
As for the ants, waves and splashing aren't going to kill them, ants can live under water for several days.
Since ants like water, it is hard to eliminate them, it is usually only a short time span that they are a nuisance.

[rpoldervaart]

I posted this on gardenweb too and someone suggested some sort of migratory fly eggs (maggots). I'm thinking mosquito larvae also.

My numbers
FC 3.5
CC 0
pH - new pool and SWC so pH rises quickly. I try to maintain 7.2-7.5
TA - 100
CA - 330 - this has risen from 200 over a few months
cya - ~45
water temp 85
salt 3200

[Tredge]

The larvae shouldn't hatch into worms when the chlorine is maintained at those levels.

Maybe they are mutant chlorine resistant mosquitos!!!
I'd still shock the daylights out of them.

Not sure if mosquitos still try to lay eggs in a chlorinated pool but if they do it never develops.

[matt4x4]

New Mosquito protocol forbids laying of eggs in pool, however, mosquito can't read, so protocol is not being followed.
Chlorine at 3-4 ppm does NOT make any difference on killing bugs, those pesky backswimmers sure don't seem to mind 10 ppm's, almost seems like they grow in it!
You have to shock or get some Gambusia Affinis in your pool, that should do it.
I just read something interesting, they say to use a spoon of vegetable oil in a rainbarrel to kill the mosquito larvae - theory behind this is that the larvae need to breathe and the oil will "coat' the surface of the water so their air straw cannot break through, in effect suffocating them.
I wonder if the "solar fish" availabale at pool stores will have the same effect, essentially it does what the oil does, coat the surface with a thin layer.
That could be a simple effective cure worth trying.

[rpoldervaart]

After using a magnifying glass (I told you these were small), I *think* I can make out two antennae. They also seem to be able to crawl so they might have legs. And they either jump or fly because while they were up on my deck and I was using a magnifying glass, they were able to jump up and land on the glass.

I wish my skimmer had more suction to pull them down, but that's another forum to which I'll post that question.

springtails? silverfish? They are tan/brown and a few are almost black.

Robert

[aylad]

Do they appear to live at the waterline and jump back and forth from the water to the edge of the pool? If so, they're springtails--when I get them, I shock the $#@@ out of the pool and they go away.

Janet

[rpoldervaart]

Hi Janet.

Yes, they do seem to jump back and forth. A lot of them were floating on the water, but there were a lot on the tile also. When I scooped some up in a cup, I did notice that some would jump from the side to the water and back and forth.

It sounds like these are springtails. I just saw cpmart's post "springtails or water fleas" and saw your post in there too. I put in 3 gallons of bleach 6% earlier today. In my 20000 gal pool, that should give me 9+ 3 I already had in there. I'll go get some more and get up to 15 per Ben's best guess chart.

Do you keep it there, or did it seem to kill them instantly and you could let it drift back to normal right away?

Thanks,
Robert