I made a post a year or so ago about the little snow fleas I see around here in the winter. Frankly until them I had never heard of them but I noticed some sooty stuff on the snow and upon closer inspection, saw that they were alive. Little specks of black and they were all over the place. I think they are of the springtail family.
I posted some poor pictures of them but they are very hard to pin down. The size of soot and they are there one second and gone the next.
Today I had done my daily duty at the gym and thought instead of a boring spell on the treadmill I would go for a hike in the woods.
I drove out to my favorite hiking trail and it was a mess. The snow is rapidly melting and the trails are just muc. I went for a drive and was on a dirt road when I started noticing black crud in the mudholes. there was a lot of it and looked thick. I thought that it was soot, figuring that someone with a diesel had strated up there and continuted on. Hell, I saw more nd paid little attention to it but it was in the back of my mind. Then I thougth, "Could that be snow fleas?" I had never noticed anything like that before but it just came to me.
I stopped the truck and walked over to a puddle and looked down at teh black mass. Looked like soot. I squatted down and scooped up a hand full and looked closely.
The black mass on the puddle was at least a half inch to three quarters of an inch thick. As I said I looked closely and the little suckers were jumping and crawling all over the place. There had to be millions of the suckers in that one little puddles and I had passed a hundred puddles that were black with them. The snow is melting and the little rivlets runing along the side of the road, into the puddles are black with them, They are collecting in the puddles.
I dumped them off my hand and went to my truck and got the camera. I took these pictures. I had to use auto focus as I had only one had free but you get the idea.
I have lived in Michigan and been an outdoorsman for all that time and until the last couple years these little guys had been unknown to me.
[attachment 50707 snow-fleaspuddle.jpg]
[attachment 50708 snow-fleas-hand.jpg]
[attachment 50709 snowfleasclose.jpg]
I posted some poor pictures of them but they are very hard to pin down. The size of soot and they are there one second and gone the next.
Today I had done my daily duty at the gym and thought instead of a boring spell on the treadmill I would go for a hike in the woods.
I drove out to my favorite hiking trail and it was a mess. The snow is rapidly melting and the trails are just muc. I went for a drive and was on a dirt road when I started noticing black crud in the mudholes. there was a lot of it and looked thick. I thought that it was soot, figuring that someone with a diesel had strated up there and continuted on. Hell, I saw more nd paid little attention to it but it was in the back of my mind. Then I thougth, "Could that be snow fleas?" I had never noticed anything like that before but it just came to me.
I stopped the truck and walked over to a puddle and looked down at teh black mass. Looked like soot. I squatted down and scooped up a hand full and looked closely.
The black mass on the puddle was at least a half inch to three quarters of an inch thick. As I said I looked closely and the little suckers were jumping and crawling all over the place. There had to be millions of the suckers in that one little puddles and I had passed a hundred puddles that were black with them. The snow is melting and the little rivlets runing along the side of the road, into the puddles are black with them, They are collecting in the puddles.
I dumped them off my hand and went to my truck and got the camera. I took these pictures. I had to use auto focus as I had only one had free but you get the idea.
I have lived in Michigan and been an outdoorsman for all that time and until the last couple years these little guys had been unknown to me.
[attachment 50707 snow-fleaspuddle.jpg]
[attachment 50708 snow-fleas-hand.jpg]
[attachment 50709 snowfleasclose.jpg]
Itches like heck 