Someone pass along a message to Stephen King for us.

If he's looking for a little inspiration on a new subject that'll send shivers down our spine, he needn't look any further than the seldom-seen but quite horrifying pest known as snow fleas. When Martha Joan in Kennebunk spotted something strange by her car tire, she asked Facebook, "what is that?".

The answer is snow fleas or springtails depending on how you want to refer to them. Diminutive in size, they often appear in large numbers as one huddled, moving mass. While they are not often seen, when they do, it's usually at about this time of the year in late winter/early spring.

According to Maine.gov, they are generally considered harmless creatures. They live and thrive in moist environments and may invade places like swimming pools, greenhouses or your basements to survive. They generally go unnoticed because they are brown/dark blue in color the majority of the time.

But that's part of the reason Martha's post raised so many eyebrows. Pink snow fleas are attention getters and add to the creep factor. Believe it or not, snow fleas can come in other attention-getting colors too, like yellow, orange and red.

It's suggested you leave snow fleas alone to do their thing and keep an eye on the masses to ensure they don't migrate to a place that would cause a nuisance.

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