I found a water boatmen in our pool...

[gonefishin]

What a strange looking bug! It was swimming in and under the water with the greatest of ease With legs that appeared to be backwards.

Well...I couldn't catch the thing...but I ended up splashing it out of the pool. But I couldn't find it outside of the pool to squash it.

I've never seen a bug like this before...and wanted to touch base to find out if this particular bug could point to a problem I may not know yet (are they attrcted to xyz condition?)

Never seeing this bug before...is this a bug where I see one...I'll be likly to see many more?

Is there anything you could do to keep them from getting in the pool? do they fly?

The pool looks great...crystal clear...holds it's chlorine very well (with a cya of 30). I vacuum, run the filter and check the water often.


thanks,
dan

[poolrx]

I believe the picture is one of a backswimmer. Very similar to a water boatmen. Backswimmers fly and they can bite. I have had them periodically over the last several years. You have to kill them or direct them into the filter to get rid of them. They are not agressive though. They usually swim away when you get near.

See link for more info
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2037.html

[gonefishin]

Thanks poolrx,

The picture in the other post is one I found while searching the internet. It isn't of one of my bugs...but very similar looking. I'll have to get a picture of one of them.

I had two more today...so perhaps this will be a new battle I have on my hands. They're kind of neat to watch swim...but still too quick for me to catch, except with the vacuum hose

thanks again,
dan

[lizzie64]

Hmmm -

I think I just found 3 of these little buggers in my pool. At first I thought they were tadpoles since I didn't know there were any bugs that could swim underwater.

Very weird.

[matt4x4]

everyone gets them, they like water, they almost make a game out of the whole catch and destroy routine.
The net works well, that's actually how I get most bugs etc. out.
They tend to live through shocking too.
My neighbour had one the size of a quarter when he opened his pool, I told him that whatever's growing in his pool, this thing obviously likes it, it was probably 10 times bigger than the ones I catch in mine.

[gonefishin]

They are such strange little creatures...and quite good swimmers! Well, I haven't seen any for a while. I've found that they're much easier to catch with the vacuum hose...but do be warned. I sucked a few up in the vacuum hose but you still need to kill this things. I've had them pinned in the strainer, under vacuum for over an hour...when I emptied the basket they start to take off...so I squashed'em! I imagine if you turned the pump off without taking them out of the pool...they'd just swim away.


Have you squashed a water bug lately?

dan

[michladny]

I just did something very interesting.....
I caught the bug, placed it in a jar and left it halfway filled and then I put bleach in it (about a 1/4 cup) and now he is floating at the top of the jar and not moving much at all..... I thought bleach/shock wouldn't kill them or did I suffocate him---it has been about 15 minutes since I put him in here with the bleach? My water is sooo clear and I keep my chlorine at around 5 (with a CYA between 40-50).

[Rangeball]

You have 5 ppm in your pool.

You likely have around 250,000 ppm in your jar.

[sevver]

That would do it, drain pool 3/4 of the way, refill with bleach.

[gonefishin]

That would do it, drain pool 3/4 of the way, refill with bleach.

lol



Well, I've found a few more in the past couple weeks. It doesn't seem to be much of a problem...I get maybe one to four a week. I just hope the numbers stay low


They are strange little bugs though. I suppose we should all be happy we don't have the giant waterbug