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| Help! I posted some pictures of ducks taking a dip in our pool on my Facebook page, and I received some negative feedback. I can't find anything online regarding the possible dangers associated with some visiting ducks, but one of my friends posted something about the ducks messing up our PH levels, and a few others mentioned some concerns about the possible health dangers to our human swimmers being exposed to the water after ducks have been swimming. Does anyone know if this is truly a danger? The ducks usually aren't in the pool longer than 1 minute or two, as our dog typically chases them off. Any advice or shared knowledge will be appreciated. Thank you! |
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| Remember everyone on Facebook is an expert and really loves to give advice that, often sucks. Cant be worse that frogs. Chlorine keep it in recommended level, run pump properly, check PH weekly, pull any dead ducks out of skimmer every few days. |
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| Ha ha! Thanks, goyom. I do notice that our water isn't as clear as it has been in previous years, but we'll continue checking it and go from there. |
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- Posted by cloud_swift (My Page) on Fri, May 25, 12 at 10:29
| We also have ducks that visit our pool so I checked this out. The stuff I found on credible web sites, e.g. National Geographic, Audubon, said that it wasn't a problem in a properly treated, e.g.chlorinated level and PH, pool because the chlorine will deal with any pathogens. The CDC website says that chlorine at residential pool levels deals with most pathogens from regular solid fecal matter pretty quickly - in less than an hour. That article said that most of the pathogens are inside the stool and not on the surface so is best to get it out whole. There was one pathogen, Cryptosporidia, that can be present if someone is actually sick and having diarrhea. That can take longer like 7 days at a 1 ppm free chlorine level. That is kind of a low level - 3 ppm is recommended which would bring that down to a couple of days. Shocking to 10 ppm gets rid of it in 16 hours and 20 ppm in 8. The ducks have never had any affect on our water color. The ones that visit us are mostly in the spring and fall so I guess they are migrating and they aren't there during our swimming season. There was a pair that tried to nest once but the eggs were broken - the local racoons may have been the culprits - so they didn't stick around. |
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