Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Invasion

We walked down to get yesterday's mail and came upon this at the bottom of our driveway.

We live at the top of a gentle hill and the melting snows had run down to this low point bringing this "sludge" with it.






What could it be?

Snow fleas.



Yes, there is such a thing.

And I believe we have an infestation!

On warmer winter days (like the many we've been having this year) you can see them in action, especially against the white snow. One of our nature books suggests looking for them at the base of trees, as does this site.

Head on out and see if you can find some. Of course, if you're squeamish about such things as bugs, you can pretend you didn't read this.




I did also read that they are beneficial to agriculture. Maybe I should go down there and scoop them up in a bucket and spread them on my garden.

Have a beautiful day!

2 comments:

Michaele said...

I had to enlarge the photo to see it for myself. I have never heard of this. Something new to research - I'm off to google.

Unknown said...

Wow! We have never seen these. That is quite the congregation of bugs you have in that snow. Really curious about the agricultural benefits... off to research