Believe it or not, you may occasionally find a little creature or two in your pool. Sometimes, baby salamanders will find their way to your swimming pool and will hang out on the bottom of the pool.
The salamanders are brought out of their hiding places by the rains, which begin filling native ponds and creeks. The rains also signal the start of mating season, which extends through the winter and early spring.
In the summer, the salamanders find damp areas under rocks and logs, and many go into a type of summer hibernation. Then when it starts to rain, they leave their homes and head toward small bodies of water to mate. The males hang around in the water, waiting for willing females, who then lay their eggs in the water before heading back to land.
Unfortunately, as they head toward bodies of water, they can get sidetracked by swimming pools. As it’s unlikely they’re going to find any hookups there, plus the chlorine is not good for them, we need to scoop them up and put them back on track.
Your pool-party crasher, who appears young, can be released in your yard, under some bushes or some other protected area where it is wet, moist or damp. It can then continue its journey.
The salamander might wander back into the pool, so you might want to put up some sort of temporary barricades around your pool. If you find this happening a lot, there are products designed to help small critters find their way out of the pool by providing escape routes for salamanders, frogs, mice and other small critters that fall into pools.
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