AquaTICKS™: The New Insect-Powered Pool Cleaning Solution
An Antarctic environmental cleaning company is set to roll out a new solution for keeping pools clean that does not add chemicals and is zero waste.
The company, EnviroMINTS™, has discovered a revolutionary new product to keep public swimming pools clean - AquaTICKS™.
Apparently, ticks (yes, the tiny little insects that like to live in hairy places) love pool water. And their metabolism is so fast that they can ingest a whole lot of algae and other substances we consider “dirty.”
"We discovered it by accident after one of the company dogs jumped in the indoor pool," says Travis, a manager at the company. "The water had not been cleaned in over a month since it was the off-season and we were actually worried that the dog might get sick after ingesting the dirty pool water."
Travis said someone in the office had recently found a tick on the company dog. Although the tick was removed, animals who spend a lot of time outdoors can come into contact with multiple ticks.
"Our dog, Snowball, thankfully had no issues but after about 3 days we noticed that our pool was spotless," says Travis. "We all asked each other who had cleaned the pool but everyone said they hadn't touched it."
Curious now, Travis says he removed the filter basket to see if he could find any answers there. To his surprise, he found one single tick sitting in the basket, still alive and very overweight.
"Since the tick was the only variable, we decided to test it in our second indoor pool at our other facility. We placed the tick in the dirty pool and sure enough, we watched the pool get cleaner each day! A few days later - spotless!"
It turns out that ticks enjoy the taste of pool water, so anything in a pool is a delicacy to them. They move at such a slow pace that they completely digest the algae and dirt they've eaten by the time they come across more of it.
At this point, it’s not clear if it’s only Antarctic ticks that love pool water or if there are other regional ticks with similar taste buds.
The revolutionary pool cleaning product is expected to be available in the Summer of 2021.
Asked how the ticks will be packaged and sold, the company said they are repurposing snow globes from their last unsuccessful product called LobeGlobes™ - earrings in the shape of snow globes.
**There is no evidence that the people, the company, or the products in this article are real. But there is reason to believe that it would be pretty funny if they were.
DigiQuatics is a simple tool that aquatics facilities can use to modernize their operation. Visit www.digiquatics.com to learn more.