the camel has fleas??

so here is a strange question....
i hiked camels hump via monroe for the first time 2/1/06. about a 3/4 mile to 1/2 mile from the summit the snow was riddled with fleas!!! at first i thought they were poppy seeds but upon closer inspection saw fleas!! i assumed there was some poor flea-ridden animal nest close by but it struck me as odd that i had never seen fleas on top of snow before. is this something common i have never noticed before? WEIRD!!

They're called springtails or snow fleas. They are actually quite common, especially on a warm sunny day.

snow fleas

hmmmmm. interesting!!! surprised i never noticed them before!
thanks for the link--- "education for kids"---- ha!

runnynose said:

hmmmmm. interesting!!! surprised i never noticed them before!

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you probably never noticed them before because they just look like specks of dirt (till you look closer and see some of them moving around)...

FYI, they are harmless to humans and animals, so get right down on all fours and check them out. On a spring hike up Moosilauke, I came across a snow pit leading down to a stream bed. The emerging springtails were so thick on the snow, it was completely black.

Ray and I spotted some snowfleas descending Carrigain on Saturday afternoon. He had never seen them before. We see them frequently at my camp in Rangeley, ME. They are VERY COOL.

I noticed quite a batch on Liberty sat and pointed them out to a nice lady who didnt seem to appreciate them as much as I do.

We saw millions of them on Saturday doing the Mendon/Killington/Pico Loop in VT, mostly filling the foot print voids. At one of the small water crossings, we literally saw thousands of them (if not millions, hey they are quite small ) being washed together in the eddyies... Looked like gunpowder floating on the water... Biologically speaking, they are one fascinating species...

Frodo said:

We saw millions of them on Saturday doing the Mendon/Killington/Pico Loop in VT, mostly filling the foot print voids. At one of the small water crossings, we literally saw thousands of them... Looked like gunpowder floating on the water...

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Yeah, it was pretty cool. Check it out. All the dull grey patches on the water are congregations of these little guys.



They also gathered in our bootprints. This collection of peppery black snowfleas (aka springtails) formed after only an hour or so of us dirty hikers socializing with the ski bums atop Killington Mtn.

Frodo said:

Biologically speaking, they are one fascinating species...

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And gastronomicaly speaking, they aren't too bad. They have a somewhat sweet taste... But you have to eat a zillion to get the flavor.

Try it next time you see them.

The first time I saw them, they were in our yard all over the snow. I was a little weirded out. I tried to bury them (I know, why?) and realized that wouldn't work. When I figured out they didn't act like fleas, I just try to ignore them because it is weird to see them all over the white snow. I never knew what they were called....thanks for that info!!!!