Tadpoles in above ground pool? 20 characters.

Question

there's tadpoles in my mom's above ground pool. she went away for the summer and i guess some frogs laid eggs in the pool cover. i don't want to hurt them. how long will it take for them to grow into frogs, and how can i prevent frogs from laying more eggs?

Answer 1

If I understand right - there is water that has collected on top of the cover and the tadpoles are there?

If so, your best chance of saving some of them is to gather them up into a jar with either the water they are in or treated (dechlorinated) water and release them in a nearby pond with shallows and cover (cattails, smartweed, duckweed, etc.)  Try to handle them as little as possible.  If the water on the cover dries out, they will die (and there probably isn't much in the way for food for them there either).  If they make it into the pool, the chlorine will eventually kill them.

To prevent more tadpoles, keep the cover dry by removing standing water after it rains (you'll want to do this for mosquitoes anyway).  Keep the chlorine levels correct in the pool, and no eggs should be able to hatch there.

Good luck.