Most hot summer days are best spent in a backyard pool to cool off. Floating around the pool on a float with a drink in hand is relaxing and a great way to break the heat until…..suddenly something crawls on your body. So much for quiet time!

The swimming pool offers a perfect habitat for aquatic pests and other pests that can certainly ruin any outdoor time. What attracts pest to your pool? Fruit juice, sweets and other types of foods and beverages always contribute in the attraction of insects into your pool area. Make sure that you clean the area surrounding your pool after using it or after eating near the pool. This is one of the simplest yet most effective ways of discouraging any type of insects from coming back or staying somewhere the swimming pool area.

Common swimming pool pests include:

Stinging insects such as wasp, bees, paper wasps, hornet and yellow jackets, ants, flies and mosquitoes. With stinging insects, they are many harborage areas like deck railing, under pool edges and under chairs and tables. Be careful if you see wasps or yellow jackets going in and out of a specific area, that means there is a nest in an underlying area.

Ants are common around the pool decking looking for sweet items left behind. Identify the ant to make sure it is not a carpenter ant, a wood destroying insect that could damage your home and property.

Mosquitoes breed in standing water. Removing tires, birdbaths, tarps and cleaning gutters around your home will help reduce mosquito populations. Basic pool fundamentals, like a clean pool reduce organic material and running the pool keeps the water moving.

The next time you are relaxing by the pool and a stinging insect, ant, mosquito or other pest come to bother you, contact Thomas Pest Services and ask about our green services. Do not try over the counter products around the pool as too much can harm you, your family, pets, plants and water in your pool. Pests around the pool are common in the outdoors, but if they become a nuisance, your Albany pest professional can help!