Pool spawn

Summer, the season, doesn’t start here for a few more weeks. But summer, the vacation, is now officially under way.

From 2009

So the above is my pool about 10 minutes ago, after I spent an hour and a half cleaning, blowing leaves off the patio, washing furniture, bagging yard debris, blah, blah. Oh, and hacking my way back into the bushes to rescue the cat who decided today was the day to go exploring. In the middle of a mosquito swarm.

From 2009

And here it is now. My apologies for the waterlogged nature of the photo; I had to shoot it from the patio, since my camera is not monsoon proof.

Yes. Very briefly the pool was all cleaned up and ready to go. My daughter had invited her friends down the street over for water fun, as soon as the cleaning was done. Then the storm rolled in, as it has every day for the past 10 or so. By the time I finish cleaning we have about 10 minutes (one day, all of 30!) to swim before the storms chase us away.

So you might be thinking, if it happens every day, maybe you should skip the cleaning and just swim with the leaves. How bad could it be?

Well this is what keeps me from swimming before cleaning:

From 2009

A bug? One little bug?

From 2009

As cute and harmless as they seem to be when they cling to the side of the pool, we don’t just get one cute little bug. We get thousands of them. Overnight. When I get up in the morning, there are piles and piles of them along the bottom walls of the pool. They seem to die pretty quick – the few times I’ve seem one alive in the pool, they are already beginning to weaken and drift down towards the bottom.

My exterminator is stumped. Google Images has so far not been any help. I can’t find out what they are, or where they are coming from. The ground? The trees? Spontaneous air drops?

This is what keeps me from swimming pre-cleaning. If anyone has any clue what these guys are, please send me a link so I can at least have a name for my daily spawning.