5 Tips for Keeping Wildlife Away from Your Pool

You might love your Phoenix pool and the option it gives you to cool down after a long, hot day, but you may not be the only one – local wildlife might also find your pool beneficial. While animals may not exactly swim laps in your pool, they could use it for their own purposes when you aren’t around. Similarly, this body of water could be an ideal place for insects in the area to make their homes.

If the thought of this makes your skin crawl, it’s never too late to take some preventative measures into account. The sooner you begin to create barriers around your pool, the quicker you’ll gain peace of mind. Whether it’s insects that bother you or the occasional raccoon, here are some tips for keeping these pests at bay.

1. Put up a fence
Bringing in a Phoenix pool service professional to install a fence can not only provide you with additional safety, but protection against wild animals. This is the easiest and one of the most efficient ways you can keep creatures out of your pool area – literally. No more evening dips for the animals in your neighborhood!

2. Install an automatic sprinkler
Another way that you can keep animals away from your pool and yard is to install an automatic sprinkler system, even if you don’t have much grass growing around your property. The unexpected spritz of water can be enough to scare away even the bravest animals, according to the City of Elk Grove.

Certain sprinkler systems have infrared beams that are specially designed to detect the movement of animals. When it recognizes a creature nearby, it sends out a stream of water to keep it at bay. After a couple of weeks, you might find that you no longer need the system once animals get the hint that they need to stay away.

3. Use a flashing infrared system
If you notice that you have large animals or predators in your area, you might want to consider installing a flashing infrared system in your yard near your pool, according to Smart Home. This device is ideal after the sun goes down and animals begin to lurk around your home. The light deters creatures from coming close to your lawn and pool by pulsing and creating a scare. It’s an environmentally friendly, harmless way to get rid of animals that could be interested in your pool, but pose a threat to your well-being.

4. Spray around your pool
Even when you put up a fence or have a sprinkler system in place, there might be some animals who are daring enough to venture toward your pool. For this reason, you may want to invest in a natural repellent that can deter animals that want to test your patience. Utah State University stated that you can create your own mixture of repellent by combining Cayenne pepper and water in a spray bottle and liberally applying it to areas around your pool. A repellent composed of onion and jalapeno pepper can also be efficient.

5. Use candles around your pool
If you’re tired of getting bitten by insects when you’re using your pool or laying nearby, Houzz recommends lighting citronella candles. They’re a temporary solution to pesky bugs such as mosquitoes that might put a damper on your swim when you’re outside.

Whether you have a large pool to protect from wildlife or a small one, these tips can help you keep local animals and insects from becoming a nuisance throughout the year. The time and money put into these tactics will be well worth it for peace of mind.