Wow, exhausing. My biggest issue this weekend was finding a black snake, one who ate baby birds in the nest last week, draped off a beam in the garage. It was a mess getting it out of there and I'll spare you the gruesome details. Not a fun way to start an early Sunday morning.
Oh, we had a garter snake living under the pool walkway for years. They're attracted to water just like all the other wildlife. Imagine going out there every day, lifting the cover off the skimmer well, and finding everything from chipmunks to frogs in the basket, drowned. I had to fish out a small snake just a couple of years ago and give him the boot. I don't know if you've ever seen one of these:
It's a critter pad. An escape ramp for frogs, newts, etc. When the cover came off this afternoon, she said it was like someone announced that the municipal park pool was open, and we got swarmed. But she'd also treated the pool with Shock Xtra Blue, chlorine, pool salt, and flocculent, and the frogs went nuts. She put the critter ramp down, and it was like watching a boat being evacuated. They can get in, but most of them are too small and/or too dumb to get back out. That goes for the chipmunks and snakes, too. We put it down by the deep end so they don't have to fight the suction of the pump inlet. I'm high risk for recurring leg infections, and I don't want to get in a pool with water that's been flushing past dead animals. My doc says I can get in the pool as long as the water is clear, pH balanced, and chlorinated, and I don't have any sores or scratches on my legs. The pool above is oval and ours is rectangular, but you get the idea.