Decaying possum in my pool.

[NY65912]

So I come home after a real crappy day of getting my ash kicked by contract managers, city agencies, workers and of course my partners.

Upon arrival home the wife prepares my vodka/sprite and I tell her that since we have time before dinner I'll water the plants around the house.

I do the side and work my way to the backyard. I have been very busy latley and I have not been in the yard since late last week. I get this powerful dead something or other smell.

In the past there have been animals that have crawlwed under my nieghbor's deck and died in the pool pump pit so I figure it must be coming from George's yard.

No....I see a thousand flies gathering at one spot on the deck. So I go and investigate.

Uhhhh!!!! WTF? NOooooo! There is a possum floating under the solar cover and it is a complete mess.

Foolishly I tried to pick it up with the skimmer, no good. I keep trying and try as I may my new friend decides to start to come aprt in chunks. Ewww! I ran away and vomited. I got an old tee shirt and sprayed it with interior car scent I got as a gift with an order and wrapped it around my breathing holes.

I finally get him, most of him up and into a black trash bag. I then get bleach and bleach the crap out of the deck, staining it lighter of course.

I treat the pool (biguanide) with shock, clarifier, enzyme stuff and oxidizer emptying whole bottles in to the pool. Vac the pool and skim some more. Wash everything down again and again. After 2 hours all is good at least much better.

The stench was incredible, it is still in my nose. I tried everthing I could think of to get it out. I took an incredible long hot shower and started to feel a little better. I had another cocktail, as I really did deserve it.

I went into the kitchen and asked what was for dinner, thinking to myself, damn I can't get that smell out of me!!. My wife had prepared shrimp scampi over angel hair pasta, ummm. The shrimp had thesame sour fishy smell as the carcass and surrounding area. I made a grilled cheese and called it a night.

I got up this morning and was out in the yard at 5 am skimming and bumping the filter. The pool is clearing up and I expect it to be clear in 24 hrs.

Any thoughts if I should do more to mitigate the after effects? The water does not smell.

Sheeesh!

[tevake]

Yuck!
I'd plan on doing a good vacuuming of the pool when you get home tonight, things may have settled to the bottom. Oh, back flush your filter too.

Wonder what sort of filter mask would have kept it out of your nose?

Good man, to have delt with it! Many would have just called someone.

[M.D. Holloway]

I know your pain to some extent. We have had frogs, birds, a rat and dog poop. Shock the live'n shyt out of it. Chlorine and more Chlorine is your friend in this case. You would be surprised at how quickly that stuff with sanitize and mine is a salt water pool.

[tabs]

Ohhh goody when can I come over for a swim...nothing like swimming in dead Posum water...

[VincentVega]

What a mess. I have a weak stomach, would have been ugly(er?). Try and get what you can but let the pool pump and chlorine do its thing. Check the levels, it'll be fine.

[GG Allin]

Are you 100% certain it's not playing 'Possum?

[porsche4life]

As much as I hate fishing leaves out of our pool, so glad we don't have a cover. I can check the pool a few times a day out the kitchen window that way!


And honestly, I do a total water change and filter cleaning after that....


I'm about to barf just thinking about it!

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by GG Allin

Are you 100% certain it's not playing 'Possum?

ooh, that's bad

[vash]

i think the possum's day was significantly worse.

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by NY65912

I keep trying and try as I may my new friend decides to start to come aprt in chunks.

That's what you call "fall-off-the-bone" tender....

[Jim Richards]

I was thinking that, too. Hahahaha!

[Por_sha911]

Other than making sure the solar cover doesn't have residual possum slime on the underside, call your go-to pool guy and ask them if there is anything else you should do.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

...call your go-to pool guy and ask them if there is anything else you should do.

Isn't that who we are?

[NY65912]

Going to the pool guy this afternoon. I wonder how a possum cacciatore would taste.

It was not a pleasant experience.

[Noah930]

I have a friend who was a professional diver. He said recovering dead bodies was never fun, because (other than the sadness of the events) if he'd pull on a limb to extricate a person, after a few days of being submerged, said limb would often separate from the rest of the body.

[NY65912]

Solar cover in the trash.

[87maniac]

We had a possum in the hot tub (106*) while on vacation.
Possum Soup when we returned a week later.

We had to drain and sanitize.

[VincentVega]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Isn't that who we are?

Too funny and so true.

[NY65912]

Yeah, spoke to the pool guy. Draining and sanitizing sequence commencing.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by NY65912

Yeah, spoke to the pool guy. Draing and sanitizing sequence commencing.

Yep, treat it much the same as you would with a Code Brown.