Boatmen bugs frustrating Coachella Valley residents
They’re back again, boatmen bugs invading pools across the Coachella Valley.
As water falls into this pool, a tiny menace is giving fits for Jennifer Lynn.
“I get sick to my stomach. I get angry,” she said.
She’s lived in Desert Hot Springs for three years dealing with a swarm of water boatmen invading her pool.
“You know, we get rid of them and then they come back. The longest we had clear was two weeks,” she said.
A never-ending battle that has gotten costly.
“Pool guy put something in the pool. Vacuumed it out the next day, and we didn’t have another problem. It’s just the beginning of this year, summer, spring, it’s been ongoing. It’s cost me thousands of dollars,” Lynn said.
For Jose De La Rocha, the issue of boatsman appearing in pools is nothing new. As the owner of Living Water Pool Care, he’s been getting about 50 percent more calls due to the bugs.
“Homeowners are not happy. They don’t like going into the pool with a lot of those bugs in the water you know?” he said.
He suggests checking the chlorine levels in the pool, to keep algae from growing- a major food source for boatsman.
“Algae is what they like and if they don’t have it, I’ve seen them come in the water and go out,” he said.
Lynn says she taking it to the extreme, by draining her pool to get rid of the bugs once and for all. She tells others to watch out.
“Just be vigilant. Keep them out of your filters, use those filter socks. But, they’re gross,” Lynn said.
Vigilance that will hopefully make this pool more suitable for people rather than insects.
Download the KESQ & CBS Local 2 app on iTunes or Google Play for up-to-the-minute breaking news alerts & more
More: I-Team and Stands for You investigations
Find us on Facebook: KESQ News Channel 3 & CBS Local 2
Follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates: @KESQ & @Local2
We’re on Instagram! @KESQ_News_Channel_3 & @CBSLocal2
Noticias en español: Telemundo 15
