How To Keep Mosquitoes Away From Pool? – A 10 Step Guide
Most of us want to spend time in swimming pools for relaxation, exercise, mental peace and earn good and fit body. Are you one among them? If so, you need to think about mosquitoes as they will not help you enjoy the purpose of spending time in pool.
If your pool is constantly busy with buzzing sounds of tiny insects and mosquitoes then, you need to start finding out how to keep mosquitoes away from pool. It can be extremely annoying and excruciating. Moreover, they carry diseases and if you are a victim, then you will soon need to see a doctor.
If you are planning to find simple and effective solutions to keep these tiny flies far away from your pool then, we can guide you with the best possible solutions. First of all, you need to know what invites mosquitoes so that you will know how to find the solution.
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What invites mosquitoes?
Improper maintenance of pools can be the host for breeding mosquitoes. One of the simple and obvious facts is that if your pool is unhygienic and has a lot of stagnant water around its surroundings, then you will be opening doors to invite mosquitoes.
If your pool is already witnessing issues with these annoying flies, its high time that you take steps to find a solution. Let’s discuss briefly about what all solutions we can implement to our keep away mosquitoes from the pool surroundings.
1. Apply Mosquito Repellent to your skin
If you are planning to go for swimming, take a precautionary step by applying a waterproof mosquito repellent to your body. This way, though the mosquitoes are busy buzzing in your surrounding environment, you can still feel better as they cannot bite you.
2. Choose a long lasting repellent
- If you don’t have one with you, you can prepare natural repellents at home with simple ingredients like lemon oil or eucalyptus oil.
- Natural repellents do not give long lasting results and hence you need to reapply every couple of hours.
3. Work on mosquito larvae
It is better to quickly implement actions to kill mosquitoes while they are still in larvae stage or too young to bite. If you neglect to take action at this state, the mosquitoes will be too difficult to manage as they will grow into adults and start biting. If possible, try using fine dip nets to monitor for larvae.
4. Citronella candles
Lit citronella candles and place them around the swimming area. Citronella acts as a natural mosquito repellent. When you lit these candles, they emit scent that is unfavourable for mosquitoes. Ensure that you lit and place them to be out of reach for children and pets.
5. Remove stagnant water
- Old stagnant water is attracts mosquitoes for breeding. So, try removing them.
- Check regularly if your pool toys and other equipment like rafts have stagnant water and dump them.
- Always, dry pool toys and other devices that hold stagnant water, in the hot sun before you use them again.
- During rainy seasons, act regularly to push out standing waters from the pool premises.
- Check for uneven areas in the pool surroundings and do the needful so that the water will not stand in those gaps.
6. Eliminate Food Source
- Analyse your pool surrounding areas to find if any source is acting as food to attract mosquitoes.
- Excess vegetation and organic debris are the most favourable sources of food for mosquitoes. Ensure that you remove them.
- See if they are finding shelter from sun and do the needful as they cannot stay in hot sun.
- Check if any plants in the surrounding pool area are standing in still waters. This also can be of the common reasons for mosquito breeding.
7. Filter water everyday
- Run the filters regularly for 3 to 4 hours a day so that if at all any insect larvae exists, it will die.
- Run the filters even when you are not using your pool to ease your pool maintenance.
- Check and balance chemical levels in the pool regularly to maintain hygienic conditions of the pool.
- Remove rubbish on the surface of your pool like leaves, flowers and other yard debris regularly. You can make use of a skimmer for this purpose.
8. Disinfect your pool
- It should be a regular habit to clean and disinfect your pool.
- Maintain proper chemical levels and chlorinate regularly to maintain disinfection levels.
- Regular chlorination might not kill mosquito larvae, but will help in maintaining hygienic pool and that is one of the greatest turn off for flies.
- Scrub the floor and walls of your pool regularly on a weekly basis to avoid hard mineral and algae build up.
9. Use Pool Cover
- If you are not using your pool, ensure that you cover it with a pool cover to avoid bugs and flies entering into it as they might start breeding.
- A pool cover will also help to prevent the chemicals from evaporating and hence will have a longevity for hygiene.
- During rainy season, the surface of your pool cover will be seen pounding with stagnant water due to uneven surfaces. So, remove the standing water regularly to avoid inviting unnecessary mosquito breeding.
10. Prefer living mosquito repellents
Some plants act as natural and living mosquito repellents. Prefer to plant them in the surrounding areas of your pool. The scent emitted by these plants will reach a height of 5 to 6 feet and 2 to 3 feet wide. When mosquitoes enter the scent zone, they get confused due to the mask of the smell emitted by these plants.
- Citronella is the most commonly used natural ingredient in mosquito repellent formulation. Though you get citronella scented candles and torches in the market, living citronella is much more effective.
- Catnip emits a chemical that is 10 times more effective than DEET and is the most preferred ingredient in commercial insect repellents. It is very easy and fast to grow. You can plant the grass to be scattered along the yard and the surrounding pool areas along with other flower plants.
- Nepeta Cateria is another grass like catnip that grows fast and act effectively as mosquito repellent.
- Just like citronella, horsemint can also be used as an effective mosquito repellent that grows fast and requires very little maintenance. It is shade and drought resistant plant. It can also tolerate salty water.
- Marigolds, ageratum, sage brush, vanilla leaf, geranium are some more best examples of natural and living mosquito repellents.
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Finally, Start Implementing Solution
Mosquitoes carry diseases and itching can be extremely annoying. Now that you know what invites mosquitoes, and the possible solutions, you must have got a clear idea on how to keep mosquitoes away from pool.
Keep in mind that stagnant water resides in uneven and unused areas in the pool surroundings, on the pool cover, pool toys and rafts. Ensure that you work your best to scoop out the water from all these places and ensure that you dry them thoroughly in the hot sun so that the insect larvae will be killed.
Use possible living mosquito repellents that require minimum maintenance and grow fast. Plant them to be scattered and mingled with other flowering plants so that the scent emitted by these living repellents can be scattered throughout the pool surroundings. Choose flowering plants that act as mosquito repellents like geranium and marigold.
Run the filters regularly so that mosquito larvae that is already present on the surface of the pool will be killed.
