When you open your pool in the spring, you’ll typically remove the cover if you put one on. Then you’ll run the filter for a few days and add shock and other chemicals to kill algae and bacteria. Once it’s clear, you might still see some reddish-brown, rust-looking stains, mainly at the bottom or deep end of the pool near the drain.
Some of this is from falling leaves, sticks, organic materials, and possibly some bugs or even snakes. You don’t want these going through your filter or clogging up your drain line either. But the truth is, the stains are mainly caused by lots of worms that get into your in-ground pool after you close and winterize it. They fall in over the winter and can’t get out. They eventually gravitate to the deepest, darkest, and warmest part of the pool, where they die and release an iron-based fluid, along with other compounds that permeate the porous plaster and cause the reddish-brown stain. If you’ve never seen it before, a pile of dead worms sitting at the bottom of your pool all winter is about as gross as it sounds.
HOW DO I REMOVE WORM STAINS?
To remove the stain, you’ll need to buy two quarts of powdered stain remover (usually), depending on the severity and size of the stain. Put the powder in a sock, then hover it over the stain for about an hour or two per quart. If that doesn’t work, then you’ll need to add a substantial amount of shock (about 25 lbs.), and within about a month the stain should be gone. Between the stain remover, the shock, and the waiting, that’s a lot of time, money, and effort just to get your pool back to the way it looked when you closed it.
HOW DOES A WORM STAIN SHIELD WORK?
Another easier, less costly option is to buy a Worm Stain Shield or Wormguard to place over the drain when you close the pool, which keeps worms from staining the pool in the first place. The shield is a durable, high-density plastic device that rests on the bottom of the pool, covers the drain, and extends almost 2 feet into the surrounding plaster, preventing the stain from permeating it.
Since the worms gravitate to the deepest part of the pool, they end up right around the drain, which is exactly where the shield sits. Instead of settling on the plaster, they settle on top of the shield, which doesn’t absorb the stain. That extra 2 feet of coverage around the drain catches the worms where they collect and keeps them and other debris out of your drain over the winter.
A CLEANER, EASIER POOL OPENING
When you open your pool in the spring, just lift the shield out, rinse it off, and store it until you close the pool again in the fall. There’s no sock to hover, no bags of shock, and no month of waiting. It only takes a few minutes to put it in at closing, and once it’s in, there’s nothing else to do until you open the pool.
Think of it as cheap insurance for your pool. A few minutes at closing can save you the cost, time, and mess of removing worm stains every spring.
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