Your Crystal Lake well is their home: have insects set up house in your well?

Would you want to drink water from your Crystal Lake well
if this family of earwigs is in the well cap? And earwigs are
only one of the species of bugs and insects that may make a
home in your well.

You bath in the water from your Crystal Lake well. You wash laundry and dishes in the water from your Crystal Lake well. You drink the water from your Crystal Lake well. Your loved ones drink that water, too. Is it safe to drink? One reason the answer may be ‘no’ is that you may find insects living in your well.

Of course, insects aren’t the only threat to the quality of the water that comes out of your well. Your well could have bacteria, pollutants, pesticides and other foreign elements that reduce the quality of the water – that could even make the water hazardous to drink. But, insects are also a potential problem for your well water’s quality.

Insects that may make a home in your Crystal Lake well include:

• Book Lice
• Camel Cricket
• Carpet Beetle 
• Ground Beetle
• Cellar Spider
• Cobweb Spider
• Ghost Spider
• Spitting Spider
• Dark-Winged Fungus Gnat
• House Centipede
• Earwig
• Little Black Ants
• Moth Fly
• Parasitoid Wasp
• Silverfish

Imagine that your pour a glass of water in the sink of your Crystal Lake kitchen. Then you notice a Silverfish or a Dark-Winged Fungus Gnat in the glass. Would you pick the insect out and then drink the water anyway? Probably not. So, why would you want to drink water from your well if your well is playing host to one or more of the insects listed above?

Unfortunately, many insects are searching for just the kind of environment that is found inside a well. For instance, Earwigs consider that moist, dark environment, found on the underside of your well cap, an ideal place to make a home – to make baby Earwigs.

To ensure that insects aren’t turning your water supply and Crystal Lake well into their home, the best thing you can do is to ensure that your well cap seals tightly at the top of your well. It’s also a good idea to keep debris away from the well. In consideration of the latter, idea, look at it this way; if the debris attracts them to the vicinity of your well, they’re liable to get the idea of moving from the debris to the well.

You should have your water tested annually. It’s a good idea to do this while performing annual well maintenance. If you do find insects living inside your Crystal Lake well, you’ll want to clear the insects, and dead-insect parts, out of the well as best you can. You’ll want to flush the system to clear away insects you were otherwise unable to reach and you’ll want to have the well chlorinated to kill the bacteria created by the insects. All in all, it’s better to keep the insects out of the well in the first place.