I had never heard of these bugs till I got a couple last year. My girlfriend was bitten by one and it hurt big time. A couple of pool centers in my area (suburbs of Montreal, Canada) either had never heard of these bugs, or others told me there is nothing you can add to the pool to get rid of them.

This spring I started the pool a bit later than usual, the water was pretty swamp like and I could see plenty of backswimmers having a good time. This year just a minute drive from my home a new place opened. Being this close makes it very convenient, provided they have decent service and prices on their products. They carry BioGuard products, which I had never heard of before (not being a pool techie, doesn’t mean much), but I asked them about the backswimmer problem. A couple of guys had never heard of them but one guy did. He said that he had read about success with the super concentrated algaecides (40% or 60%), not the copper based solutions but the ones that have an ammonium base. His product with the ammonium base is Back Up, but I am sure there are many other brands that have their own version. I tried it and so far it looks like it has worked, it’s only been about 10 days but no backswimmers and I have crystal clear water. The guy at the store said that along with this algaecide to keep the chlorine level high for a week to 10 days (4-5 instead of the 1.5 to 3).

So a couple of questions, first, anyone have any success stories with backswimmers…in case this solution does not work long term? Second, these BioGuard products, anyone have good or bad feedback about them?

Thanks