You may laugh but having a flock of ducks in your pool is a common problem for pool owners in the spring season. Your family may enjoy having cute ducklings swimming around in the pool but what about the contamination of bird faeces, feathers, bacteria and viruses in the pool. Read this article to discover the best way to keep ducks out of a pool.
When you are not using your pool and it’s properly sanitized finding some ducks floating around in the pool is not going be harmful. However, allowing ducks to use your pool as a toilet is unhygienic and you really should move them on. The simplest methods are to frighten the ducks away with noise, dogs, floating toys and pool cleaners. The best solution is to buy a pool cover so the ducks cannot land in the pool.
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Why are Ducks in My Pool?
Ducks are water fowl and live in and around a body of water. They spend a large portion of their lives swimming around waterways searching for food and raising their young. They can walk around on land but are better adapted at floating around in ponds and lakes.
Ducks get into water to protect themselves from other animals and predators. They like to land directly in the water and take off again from the water. A predator, apart from an alligator, cannot sneak up on a duck in the middle of a pond of water.
An adult duck sees your swimming pool as a nice place to bring up a family of ducklings. It looks safe, it’s fully fenced, there are no other animals using it and there are no obvious predators around.
How Do I Get Rid of Ducks in my Pool?
Finding any bird in your pool is unsanitary as all birds can carry a wide range of diseases such as salmonella, E. coli bacteria and bird flu. The ducks will be shedding disease and dropping faeces in your pool. When your pool is correctly sanitized with chlorine or another sanitizer the contaminants are destroyed and your pool is still safe for swimming. However, you don’t want animal faeces, bacteria and viruses in the pool.
It’s obvious that ducks are attracted to the water in your pool but if they drink too much water for too long it may kill them. Remember your pool water contains chlorine, cyanuric acid, algaecide and maybe salt. All of those chemicals will eventually poison the ducks.
Never try to harm the ducks as mostly they are a protected species in many jurisdictions and they serve a useful purpose in our waterways by eliminating other pests. Don’t try to capture the birds and move them somewhere else as this will only be stressful to the ducks.
Try some of the following tactics to encourage the ducks to move on.
Pool Cover
The best solution to the problem is to install a pool cover so the birds cannot access the water. A basic floating solar pool cover will keep out ducks and keep your pool water warm and free of debris.
I always recommend a pool cover for an inground pool because it prevents so many issues and saves money for pool owners.
Automatic Pool Cleaner
If you have an automatic cleaner the noise and activity will frighten away the birds. Set up the cleaner to activate several times during the day when the ducks are likely to be in your pool.
Inflatable Pool Toys
Some pool owners have had great success at frightening away ducks with floating pool toys. Just leave a floating alligator or killer whale in the pool and that will serve as an effective deterrent to ducks.
Loud Noises
Ducks hate to be disturbed when looking after their young. If you create loud noises in the backyard when the ducks arrive they will quickly move on.
Keep Your Dog Outside
Do you have a dog? If so, try putting the dog in the pool area as a deterrent to the ducks landing in the water. When adult ducks see any other animal that is a threat they won’t take their babies into your backyard. Your dog will bark at the ducks and they will leave and go somewhere else.
Read our post on Should Dogs be Allowed in Swimming Pools?
Entice the Ducks to another Location
If you have a park, open area or waterway near your home you could try to entice the ducks to move to that location. The way to do this is to show the ducks food but don’t give it to them and let them see you place the food in the park. Hopefully the ducks will go to the park and eat the food. If the ducks try to come back to your backyard try some of the above methods to discourage them from landing in your pool again
Call the Authorities
If the ducks simply just won’t move out of your pool you may sort to calling the wildlife authorities. They will come and remove them to another location. Please don’t try to capture the ducks and move them yourself. This is a task for the authorities as they are very experienced at handling all types of wildlife.
How Do I Keep Ducks out of the Pool?
The first thing is don’t feed them. They will feel safe and secure in your backyard and be more difficult to get them to move on.
One or more of the above methods to frighten off the ducks will keep them away. However, when not being used by your family, a pool cover is the only truly useful deterrent to ducks using the pool.
If the ducks cannot land in the water and float around in safety they will go somewhere else.
Read our article on Swimming Pool & Hot Tub Safety
Final Thoughts
They may be cute, friendly and harmless but nobody really wants a family of ducks living in their backyard swimming pool. Maybe it’s still too cool for swimming when the birds move into your pool. But the sooner you move them on the better for the health of your pool and your family. Simply keep disturbing the ducks and don’t feed them. Usually they will tire of your pool and move on to the next body of water.