The environment of Florida is attractive to many different types of animals and insects. The climate is hot and humid during a great part of the year. A lot of rain and waterways means that insects have a lot of places to procreate.
The aquatic insects in Florida are very diverse and live in all types of bodies of water, and our swimming pool is one of them. Although they take care of the ecosystem by controlling the populations of other insects and eating dead plants and animals, insects are only parasites for us and they are particularly unpleasant when they proliferate in our pool.
Summer in Florida coincides with the mating season of many aquatic insects and, due to the pool maintains a warm temperature that is very attractive for those cold blooded creatures, they naturally take advantage of it considering pools the best place to fulfill their reproductive cycle. This turns out to be an inconvenience since a sudden proliferation of insects invades our pool.
Florida aquatic insects in Your Pool
Of the great variety of bugs that live in Florida, only a few insects and beetles can find their way to your pool. Some are harmless, while others can cause painful stings so it’s a good idea to know more about these:
Proyect Oceanography insect identification
- The water boatmen are flat elongated insects that reach a length of 3/16 inch (0.46 cm) to 3/8 inch (0.94 cm). They are true aquatic bugs and spend most of their lifetime underwater. They are harmless to humans and feed on plants, including algae. They can be grouped in pools or ponds and can be removed with nets.
- Belostomatidae is a family of freshwater hemipteran insects known as giant water bugs or colloquially as alligator fleas. They often lie motionless at the bottom of a body of water, attached to various objects, where they wait for prey to come near. Occasionally, as a survival strategy play dead and when people grab them, it triggers a painful event.
- Mayflay: also known as Canadian soldiers, ones lay their eggs in the water and the immature fly lives in the water and feeds on vegetable matter and other organic materials.
- Mosquito: are small, midge-like flies that constitute the family Culicidae. In most species, adult females lay their eggs in stagnant water; some lay eggs near the water’s edge; Each species selects the situation of the water into which it lays its eggs and does so according to its own ecological adaptations.
- The dragonflies and damselflies are insects found around ponds and open bodies of fresh water where they look for a couple to mate and deposit eggs.
We should not despair if our pool is infected by insect larvae or eggs because it is a seasonal phenomenon that is accentuated with the rains we have had lately in Florida. It is not advisable to add some chemicals to kill insects that could endanger the health of bathers.
The important thing is to maintain the schedule of physical and chemical cleaning, perform an additional cleaning of the filter cartridge of your pool in order to capture the largest amount possible of those larvae or insects. the best choice to deal with insect is to call Urban Pool Services, our pool cleaning experts have the training to control this pest and take care of your pool.
