There’s nothing like a cooling swim in your backyard pool, and if you’re lucky enough to have one, they can provide a huge amount of relief and relaxation during the hottest months of the year.
Whether it be for hosting parties or simply chilling out with your family, a pool can have a great impact on your lifestyle, however a pool doesn’t come without its drawbacks, and aside from making sure the pool is well looked after and is properly maintained, there is also the threat of insects and bees being attracted to the water as they look for a place to cool off also.
Bees, wasps, hornets and other insects will see your pool as a great way to stay cool and will happily hover around the poolside or over the water hoping to get a little moisture to cool themselves down, or to take back to the hive to help keep others in the colony cool and hydrated, as well as to help in the construction and maintenance of the nest.
Naturally then, a pool can become a hot spot for these insects and this can make the pool a much less relaxing place to be, if you’re trying to dodge insects capable of leaving a nasty sting on you or your family.
The worst thing about this is that some stings can have really nasty consequences and should be taken very seriously, as some people can go into shock and even die if they are allergic to the toxins in wasp or bee stings.
Even if you aren’t allergic, any kind of sting is usually enough to put the brakes on your relaxation and turn the pool into a place of stress instead of tranquility.
To help combat these issues and ensure you can get the most out of your pool, we’ve collected a few tips and tricks to use to make sure your backyard and pool area is as insect free as possible, to ensure you have maximum peace of mind and can enjoy your pool as it's supposed to be enjoyed.
Before we start, if you’re someone that’s conscious of how important bees are to humanity, and the essential role they play in our ecosystems, we’d like to note right away that it's best not to harm bees, because they’re really important and are far less likely to sting than wasps or hornets, which is why in this guide we’re focusing on non-violent and preventative solutions to this problem.
But without further introduction, let's look at how to keep bees away from your pool!
Reduce The Number Of Flowers In Your Garden Or Near Your Pool
It's no secret that bees are attracted to flowers and their pollen, and if your garden is full of beautiful flowers you will definitely increase the chances of bees using your pool to cool off due to the sheer convenience of the two resources being located so closely together.
Bees need pollen to make honey, and they need water to stay cool, and if your garden has all of this then you’ve unwittingly created a sort of bee utopia!
To help mitigate this it may be necessary to reduce or rearrange your flowers, either setting them as far away from your pool as possible, reducing their numbers or simply removing them altogether to bring less bees to your garden in the first place.
This may not be popular, but it's one of the best preventative options you have and is often quite easy to implement.
Provide An Alternative Water Source
One of the other options available to you is to provide an alternative source of water for the bees.
A small bird bath or even a bucket set as far away from the pool as possible will make it less likely for the bees to seek out your pool, and at the very least you will reduce the number of bees using your pool for its cooling effects.
A water feature can also do this, and has the added benefit of using moving water which will also help reduce the chances of mosquitos being attracted to standing water.
Repel The Bees
Another good deterrent can be to use strong odors disliked by bees to help ward them off and make your garden less appealing, or even just certain areas of your garden around the pool.
Using a scent such as peppermint, which is known to be disliked by bees, can be a great natural way of discouraging them.
You can either use a spray or a strong peppermint oil doused on a rag, or even place potted mint plants around your pool!
It may even be an idea to drop a small amount of oil into your pool directly, although be careful with this as it may upset the balance of your pool's chemicals so make sure before trying.
Place A Fake Wasp Nest
It's no secret that wasps don't get along with other insects.
They barely even get along with each other, meaning that most wasps won’t want to tread on a different colony's turf.
Interestingly, wasps don’t even need to see or hear another wasp to avoid their territory, and just the sight of an unknown wasp nest can be enough to make wasps steer well clear of an area.
You can use this to your advantage to make sure that wasps don’t take over in the absence of bees, and as bees also don’t get along with wasps a fake nest can deter them also!
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