Snow Fleas

I kind of forgot about the snow flea until we were out fishing the other day.  Bonnie mentioned seeing something moving around on the top of her hole and one of the guys said it was just snow.  She insisted it was a bug and so I started to look more closely at my hole and saw snow fleas in the water and on the snow around it.   I always used to think there wasn’t such a thing as a snow flea, but last year I checked into it and found out they really do exist.  I didn’t realize they could swim, but I guess they can.  They look like small flecks of pepper in the snow and if you watch them carefully then you can see them actually jump around like fleas too.  They live underneath large amounts of snow and can survive through the winter because the snow provides enough insulation for them to survive.  On warm sunny winter days these and other winter bugs find their way to the surface for whatever reason.