Michigan has no shortage of bugs. I know we hear about the dangers of the insect apocalypse, and those are very real dangers, but you couldn’t tell it from where we live. I’ve heard all the jokes (mosquitoes so big, they’re the State Bird; black flies so thick they blot out the sun; and so on.) We get it.
My standard reprise (especially to Californians) is that we have enough water to support life here. Insects are one healthy barometer of that fact. That usually shuts them up.
But, we comfort ourselves in the knowledge that winter offers a respite from the bugs. (They say that’s why Michiganders like ice-fishing.) Sigh.
Or so I said, until now. It turns out we have winter bugs! They call them snow fleas. Hypogastrura nivicola (Hypogastrurida) They’re about the size of fleas and they jump. Go ahead, look it up. They’re a kind of springtail and they actually manufacture their own internal ‘anti-freeze’ that lets them thrive in winter. They come out when we get warm spells, so that they can slurp the water from the sun-melted snow.
The good news is that they are entirely beneficial. They don’t bite, sting, suck blood, eat your home or annoy. They eat dead plant matter, and so are nature’s little composting assistants. If you have them, it’s an indication of clean soils.
I’d never seen them before. It requires just the right conditions to get them on the snow’s surface. I saw the specs on the snow when I was bringing in firewood. I assumed that it was ash debris–from the chimney–until I saw them jumping, and then I looked closely. Bugs! Bugs in winter! Who knew?
tworockchronicles 
How strange! They have managed to find a little niche to exploite that no-one else wants, so good luck to them. You say they are good for composting and I suppose they are a tasty snack for some of your birds in the winter? Amelia
LikeLiked by 1 person
I assumed that they’d be winter bird feed, but I haven’t seen even one bird feasting.
LikeLike
I miss the lightning bugs of the midwest, but not the skeeters! And we do get the latter here – I find them in my house even in February – but not in the masses I remember as a kid. We are vigilant about standing water as they do breed and carry Nile Virus, which can be pretty serious for some people. These fleas are fascinating to hear about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m guessing – like most insects who suddenly show up en masse and then just as suddenly disappear again – that these little guys ‘n gals are there to gorge on all the detritus that’s been collecting all winter on the snow’s surface and is now concentrating as it melts around the base of trees and other ‘warmish’ places; after which they’ll quite likely cavort in a very Spring-like fashion, reproduce (eggs?) and then die. (Whereupon they will break down and return to the soil from whence they came; )
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good guess. Though, from what I’ve read, not so much detritus (of which there’s plenty down below) as water. They need a lot of water and can’t take so much in when it’s frozen. So in warm spells, they come up for the sunmelt on the surface. Otherwise, spot on. Some may return below–as they appear to active in the soils year round.
LikeLike
Pretty much like the honey bee’s cleansing flight (as in, while they can; )
LikeLiked by 1 person