We don't use a cover during the winter so I can better monitor water conditions but hence drown quite a bit of wildlife, largely insects and a few lizards. I rationalize that I might otherwise miss something more threatening, as a drowned dog or cat having slipped around its edge, and I do attempt a rescue of anything still living

However every few years we experience an irruption of moths--thousands every day for as long as a week--and though first thing in the a.m. I do scoop up those still fluttering around before I fire up the pump to collect the rest in the skimmer, I still feel guilty

1. Why do they do it

2. Can I assuage my guilt by arguing (a) they must also use lakes and streams in the same way and therefore (b) isn't this an evolutionary phenom to their ultimate advantage perhaps in limiting their numbers

3. In what other ways might one deal with wildlife, for instance a transparent cover though (a) in my lifetime wouldn't it have cost thousands of dollars to replace each year as with the blue bubble solar cover and (b) wouldn't the two reels interfere with one another