When I was a kid, I heard about the Elephant Graveyards – the mythical places where old or sick elephants are said to find when it is time for them to die. Over the years, the graveyards have been pooh-poohed by scientists, as it seems that no one had ever really seen elephants going there. They just found the bones of many all in one place.
Well, if these same scientists would like to discover an actual animal graveyard, all they need to do is go research my pool.
When my husband and I bought our new home, it came with a swimming pool. We heard from many friends how annoying they were to care for, but we decided that since we had never had one, we’d try it for at least a year or two.
(I don’t think it’s much to care for. But my husband’s response is, “That’s because you’re not the one who cleans it.” Hmmm…he’s got a point. But, I digress…)
Once my husband got the ph balanced in the pool, we thought we were good to go. Then, he realized that having lots of trees in the yard – even if it’s not fall yet – will lead to tons of leaves in the pool.
As a result, every couple of days, my husband vacuums out the pool. Then he cleans the top with the skimmer.
Sometimes, these actions cause more icky stuff to mysteriously appear on the bottom, and I see him vacuuming again, then skimming.
It seemed like a pretty straight forward method. You clean out the gunk, then you get in the pool.
Until, that is, the bugs began to visit.
I guess I shouldn’t really call it a “visit” because, for some reason, the bugs are coming here to die.
At first, we would find just a few bugs on the top of the water. If they were still alive and didn’t have stingers, I would scoop them up in my hands and throw them back to land. Hey, look at me, I’m saving God’s creatures.
Then the bugs began to get, uh, a bit nuts.
I don’t care how much we (and by “we” I mean my husband) clean that pool, we are barely in it when tons of bugs are floating or drowning on the pool top.
Tons.
Enough to make our friend’s daughter screech and begin paddling backward while yelling to her brother to “get the bugs out of the pool!”
Yeah, the pool has become tons of fun.
What we’ve decided is that our pool has become a holy place. It is the place where all the bugs in Maryland are coming to die.
Big bugs, little bugs, bugs that sting and buzz…They’re all making the pilgrimage to our swimming pool.
Some dive into the water like kamikazes. There’s no doubt that they are killing themselves. We’ve stopped questioning why.
We think that some may be stopping by to get a drink and then get sucked in. But we’re really not sure if bugs drink from pools and are too lazy to look this up on the internet.
After all, that would take away from our pool cleaning time.
I began to wonder if they tried to take a drink, then got poisoned by the chlorine, then keeled over in the pool. Then it would be the pool of death.
And that is a bit disturbing to me.
But what bothers me the most is that when I’m trying to have fun in the pool, I’m constantly pushing water away from me because their little dead buggy bodies are completely grossing me out.
I’ve also discovered – and don’t ask me how as I might faint – that if they are too close to you, and you get out of the pool, they can stick to your legs.
Bleck…
I’m hoping that the bugs find a new bug graveyard next summer. If not, I may just have to rustle up some old elephants and put them in the pool. The bugs would see that it was an elephant graveyard and fly away.
And although that might stink up the place a bit, at least all those scientists would have something to do.
Michele Wojciechowski, when she’s not being creeped out by all the bugs in her pool, writes Wojo’s World™ from her office in Baltimore.