Dead slug in the padding pool. Still ok for kids to use?

[Snowflakes1122]

Spent the last two hours filling DCs padding pool. Just been to check on how it’s going, only to find a dead slug at the bottom of it 🤢

As gross as it is, my gut says it is still ok for them to go in - what do you guys think?

Despite the attempt at a shocking headline the story is really that hot weather has increased water consumption in Scotland by 10% for one day. Whoop de doo.

Seriously, you don’t think it’s worth £3 in water to prevent worms in your DCs brain for which there is no cure and the possibility of dying? The cost to the environment is negligible here because paddling pool water doesn’t go down a drain, it is emptied out where it waters the garden.

You can also die from eating unpurged snails I'm sure. Not a good idea to eat either anyway.

@Discovereads no it was an attempt to educate you as you don't seem to understand that it's wasteful to throw water away like that.

Seriously, you don’t think it’s worth £3 in water to prevent worms in your DCs brain for which there is no cure and the possibility of dying?

Because that was the likely alternative to throwing away the water.

The cost to the environment is negligible here because paddling pool water doesn’t go down a drain, it is emptied out where it waters the garden.

No wonder we have a climate crisis

Educate me? Are you daft, the water comes from the environment, and emptying a paddling pool into your garden returns the water back to the environment because it’s not going down a drain. What do you think the water would have done if not first used to fill a paddling pool? Hmmm? Oh, yes it would be watering plants in the environment…..does it matter whether it’s watering grass and trees/shrubs over by Loch whatever or grass and trees/shrubs in a garden in Dundee? No it doesn’t matter one bit. And water use in the U.K. has zero impact on the “climate crisis” because that is caused by anthropogenic global warming due to emissions of various pollutants. Not by watering garden grass instead of some other patch of grass. We don’t live in a desert.

You do know there isn't a infinite water supply despite it coming from the "environment"?

Duh. But water from the environment, going back into the environment is a loss….of let me see….er….zero.

Educate me? Are you daft, the water comes from the environment, and emptying a paddling pool into your garden returns the water back to the environment because it’s not going down a drain. What do you think the water would have done if not first used to fill a paddling pool? Hmmm? Oh, yes it would be watering plants in the environment….

The irony of typing this & calling me daft 😂

Duh. But water from the environment, going back into the environment is a loss….of let me see….er….zero.

That's just not how it works but I've done enough charity tonight!

I'd lift a drain cover and empty the pool directly into it, to not contimate the garden with the water.
I would then take the pool to the amenity tip and declare it has hazard waste.
I would contain a company to remove the top ten inches of soil.
I would then let it 'lie fallow' for a year.
Then buy a new pool and hope another slug doesn't commit suicide in it.

Actually I wouldn't do any of that but I would consider putting in one of those tablets they use in hot tubs as a matter of course whether they had been a slug swimming around or not.

Are we thinking these kids are going to drink the water or something?

I get that rat lungworm is a worry if kids are going round eating slugs - but being in the same paddling pool that one was fished out of isn't quite the same.

The rat lungworm parasite lives in the slime mucus on a slugs skin. You don’t have to eat one to get it. A woman got it just eating unwashed salad leaves where a slug or snail had crawled and left a slime trail. You just need a bit of contaminated water to go in your mouth. Or touch your mouth with wet hands. Or get a bit splashed in your eyes or up your nose. Don’t tell me kids never splash in a paddling pool. Never touch wet hands to their mouth/face or rub their nose? A dead slug in a paddling pool has created a lovely paddling pool of slug slime tea. But hey if saving £3 is more important, crack on.

We have a bestway pool with pump & treatment & chemicals in It is it still okay to use or do we need to re-fill?

gosh yes. I wouldn't have given it a second thought!

I been treated overnight cleaned best we can it's a big pool we treat it everyday with chemicals treated once a week with algecide

Actually no, it’s not ok. One of the side effects of global warming is that the parasite which causes rat lungworm is now prevalent in the U.K. The parasite eggs vector is the slime on slugs and snails. It’s microscopic. If it gets into a human (by mouth or nose), it causes brain worms and can kill. A man in Australia recently died because he ate a slug on a dare. (It’s there too). A woman in the U.K. recently caught it from eating a salad that hadn’t been properly washed. The parasite also causes lungworm in Hedgehogs…natural predators of slugs… and lungworm is decimating our hedgehogs right now.

So no, it’s not fine anymore. You need to empty the paddling pool, scrub it and refill it.

The kids will be treading on slugs and their slime and touching the ground where the slime will be and then going in and out of the pool. They’ll also be touching many other ‘bad’ things. You could drive yourself mad and think everyone needs to just stay inside the house.

OP, take the slug out and let the kids enjoy the pool.

The thread is a year old, pretty sure the slug is long decomposed 🐌