While out shoveling this morning, I start to notice a dense, even pattern of dark flecks on the snow, like tiny black caraway seeds.
I’m figuring maybe this is ash that floated down from my chimney or over from a neighbor’s wood boiler. But when I inspect a handful of snow, one of the flecks jumps. The mini-carraway seeds are actually zillions of little insects.
My next thoughts are of a plague of locusts, or that I’m having a Hunter Thompson moment.
But a friend who used to live in the Catskills says they’re just “snow fleas”—benign critters which play a useful role in our ecosystem, and are often found in forested areas. They’re also known as springtails, because their appearance in temperate winter weather is considered a harbinger of the next season. With storms predicted for the rest of the week, don’t break out the Bermuda shorts quite yet.
