Subject: Very Small Mottled Bugs on Front Steps
Geographic location of the bug: New Jersey
Date: 01/04/2020
Time: 04:22 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Hi! I’m hoping you can help ID these bugs for me. There are hundreds of them on my front steps and they seem to jump when you get close to them. I saw something similar in past years on the snow and thought they were snow fleas but these look different under magnification. The temperature now is 52F. The pictures show them without magnification and under a 30x handheld microscope. I’m hoping you can help ID them. Thank you!
How you want your letter signed: Dave W.
Dear Dave,
We suspected, based on your excellent description, your location, the time of year and the temperatures, that you were inquiring about Globular Springtails even before opening your excellent images. They are benign creatures that can be a nuisance if they become too plentiful. For the record, Snow Fleas and Globular Springtails are both members of the same primitive class Collembola. You can find additional information on BugGuide.
