Do you regularly find yourself sharing your swimming pool with wild ducks? Sure, they look cute and your kids probably have fun watching them, but once they begin to poop in the water and around the edge of your pool, we’re pretty sure you’re going to regard them as a nuisance. As a result, you’re probably considering your options for discouraging ducks from using your pool for their own enjoyment.
Deterring ducks from your pool – what are the options?
By the time we’re asked by customers whether a pool cover is effective at keeping ducks at bay, they’ve often tried a variety of other ‘so-called’ solutions. This includes trying to scare the ducks away with inflatable pool toys such as alligators and sharks. The trouble is that once they realise these do not possess any threat whatsoever, they carry on using your pool. Other people have tried chemicals repellents which work by reducing the surface tension of the water. The downside of these is that they are expensive, often have a pungent smell, and have been known to cause baby ducks to drown.
Pool covers, on the other hand, don’t cause ducks to die nor do they rely on scare tactics. Instead, they’re designed to prevent the ducks from getting what they want – access to the water. Whether a pool cover is efficient at keeping ducks at bay depends on the choice of pool cover and how well it’s installed. Let’s take a look first at solar pool covers or blankets as they’re often known.
Solar blankets can make things worse
Solar blankets float on the surface of the water which is fine until a duck lands on it. What happens then is that its weight causes the blanket to submerge so that water covers its surface creating a watery playground for the duck to paddle in and enjoy. Unfortunately, this encourages the ducks to continue using your swimming pool and to poop in the water and around the pool area. What’s more, the surface of the solar blanket soon becomes covered with faeces and feathers which is transferred to both sides of the blanket when it’s rolled. In effect, it exacerbates the duck problem and makes an even nastier mess.
So what’s the solution?
At Just Covers we provide two great options:
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Pool Safety Net – As well as protecting children from accidentally falling into the water, the safety net also stops ducks from getting into the water as they can’t walk across the net with their webbed feet. They soon give up trying and go off in search of someone else’s uncovered pool.
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Premium Leaf and Debris Cover – This stretches tightly across your pool and not only keeps out the most persistent of ducks but also prevents leaves and debris from falling into the water. While it isn’t designed to be a safety cover on its own, many of our customers combine it with the pool safety net.
Advantages of our Premium Leaf and Debris Cover
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Attractive, lightweight polyethene mesh
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Will not fade
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Does not collect rainwater or become waterlogged should it fall into the pool
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Very easy to remove and re-fit to your pool
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Blocks out 80% of the sunlight thereby significantly reducing maintenance time
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Chemical requirements are reduced by around 50% during winter months and your pool filter needs only be operational for about one hour a day, once a day
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Supplied with a full 5-year warranty
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Custom made for an accurate fit
How to change duck behaviour
Basically the leaf and debris cover works by assisting you to break the ducks’ cycle of behaviour. The idea is to keep your pool covered for several months during the winter so that the ducks cannot gain access to the water. The leaf cover will support ducks and small animals, keeping them above the water, and once they realise they can’t gain access to your pool, they’ll soon relocate. You can then uncover your pool for the summer months knowing that the ducks will not return. It’s important to note, however, that once the swimming season ends, you need to re-fit the cover to prevent the ducks from coming back.
If you’d like more information about any of our pool covers, please don’t hesitate to contact Just Covers on 1300 268377 and speak to one of our experts.