Tiny Jumping Bugs

I have received about 3 calls for these in my first fifteen years in this business, then the other day I got two calls in one day. We went to the first job, because the customer had said they had a flea problem. I asked if they had any pets and they told me they had dogs and cats, so a flea problem made sense. We got our flea stuff together and headed out. When we arrived, we were met outside by the customer who took us around to the back of the house and pointed out that they had been seeing them clustered, inside and outside, where a sun room met the house. Clustered? Outside? Immediately, I began to dismiss the possibility of fleas, because they are not normally seen outside and don't cluster together. We went inside, and sure enough there were some crawling on the floor. I got down and looked closer. I touched one, and it jumped about three inches, just like a flea. I immediately knew what we had. They were "Springtails". These are very tiny insects, actually about half the size of a flea. They have a appendage on their "rear end", called a "furcula", that will snap down and allow them to be "thrown" quite a distance.There are about 700 different species of them in North America. One species is the "snow flea'. This is one of the only insects that are active when snow is still on the ground in the spring. They are black and sometimes huge numbers of them can be found on top of the snow. Normally, Springtails live outside in decaying organic matter where they feed on fungi, mold, and bacteria. Occasionally they will come inside. The problem inside is usually high humidity. There is really no need to treat them with pesticides, because they are just a nuisance, and won't get into food and they don't bite or sting. Setting up a dehumidifier will usually solve the problem. When the second customer
called, I was able to explain to her over the phone what her problem was and how to take care of it. Knowing what they were from her description saved me the trip.