Your backyard swimming pool is an oasis, a place to relax and enjoy precious time with your family. Unfortunately, there are unwanted invaders that aren’t held at bay by your pool fence. These can include midges, mosquitoes, mice and even frogs. Aside from being a nuisance, these unwanted guests can actually compromise your pool’s safety, leaving behind an unbelievable mess when they meet an untimely end by drowning. Instead of hiring a professional exterminator, learn a few tips and tricks to keep unwanted insects, rodents and reptiles out of your backyard swimming pool.

How to Keep Pests Out of Your Swimming Pool

How to Keep Pests Out of Pool

No matter if you have a small, inflatable pool or an in-ground model constructed from imported Italian marble; you’ll still deal with insects, including mosquitoes, bees and midges. Insects are attracted to your pool for several reasons. Some feed on algae, while others make a meal from the dead insects floating on the water’s surface. Whatever the case, there are several methods, some more expensive than others, to keep bugs away from your pool.

• Install brighter lights at least 30 yard away from your pool and turn off any underwater pool lights when no longer in use, especially at night. It may look glamorous, but many times the insects are attracted to your lit pool as much as the neighbors. Turn off your pool lights once the sun goes down.
• Cover your pool when not in use. If you have a small inflatable pool, drain it completely after each use and allow it to dry before storing. Never allow your kiddie pool to remain in the backyard overnight, unless you want to wake up to a watery insect graveyard.
• Hang bug zappers around the perimeter of the pool. These inexpensive, low-tech devices are highly effective and will keep the insects away if you wish to enjoy your lit pool at night.
• Regularly trim any shrubs, bushes or grass around the pool. The shorter foliage isn’t as attractive to insects, making your pool a less desirable destination.
• Finally, keep your pool clean! It cannot be stressed enough that decaying leaf matter, dead insects and algae are a major attraction to several varieties of insects, so never skip your weekly or daily pool maintenance.

How to Keep Mice Out of Pool

• Keep the area around your pool clean. This especially means moving any garbage cans out of the vicinity and generally keeping the area around the pool tidy.
• Remove anything from around the pool that the rodents could use as shelter, such as a small shed or wood pile. This also means keeping the shrubs and bushes neat.
• Cover your swimming pool. Once again, this is the best way to keep any unwanted invaders, including mice, away from your pool when not in use.

How to Keep Frogs Out of Pool

• Cut down any tree branches that hang over the pool. Many times the frog will hop to the end of the branch and accidentally fall into the water.
• Examine your pool fence and repair any damage. If your pool’s fence is falling into disrepair, consider replacing it with a model that features small gaps between the slats. These will keep almost every unwanted visitor, including frogs and rodents, from accessing your pool.
• Skim your pool consistently, paying attention to remove any frog eggs or tadpoles that are now calling your pool home. Often times a frog will see this undisturbed body of water as an excellent place to further their species.

How to Keep Animals Out of Pool: Racoons

Aside from being a destructive menace, raccoons can actually pose a major health risk to your family. The animal’s fecal matter harbors a roundworm called Baylisascaris, which is spread when an individual swallows the parasitic egg. This disease is extremely dangerous and completely preventable by ensuring raccoons do not enter your pool. A pool cover and maintaining your fence are the most effective ways to ensure raccoons don’t access your pool. If you see a raccoon in the area, call your local Animal Control agency or a pest removal company immediately. These agencies will humanely capture the raccoons and relocate it to a more desirable area.

Don’t get too worried about the dangers that surround inflatable pools (or any kind), if you take proper care of your backyard swimming hole and practice vigilance, you will be okay.

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