Fleas or springtails?

[szeik]

Hi,

A week ago I noticed some small bugs crawling in our basesment which is partially finished and carpeted.

Well, they are increasing in number and I am sitting here looking at a few of them crawling on a white sheet of paper. At first I thought they were fleas, but they don't seem to jump as far as fleas and these are pretty easy to catch and squash with my finger. My recollection of fleas is that they are not easy to catch, jump pretty far, and are hard to crush with the finger. I think a flea is smaller than these things I am seeing. I'm not sure though. I hope these are not baby termites. These things definitely hop about an inch or two when i disturb them. They are blackish in color with little antennaes in the front. One of them just hopped all on its own without me even touching it.

This sucks! Do these things sound like springtails? They are about

1/8 inch long.

Time to call the exterminator here?

Thanks for any info, Steve

[Avery]

Certainly time to identify the little buggers. Termites don't hop. Whatever they are, why take a chance. Any insect infestation in the house can only be a bad thing.

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) :) This sucks! Do these things sound like springtails? They are about :) 1/8 inch long. :) :) Time to call the exterminator here? :) :) Thanks for any info, :) :) They are springtails...easy to smash. Have been getting a number of calls on them the last few weeks in N Texas. It's more of an environmental thing you have to wait out many times though an exterior treatment can aide somewhat, but is not always a quick cure. Inside, after the exterior treatment, either a interior treatment or a thorough cleaning is needed. You probably will still have signs of them a couple of weeks after anything you do.

[delphiprog]

They do sound like springtails. We had them bad for a while. Read up about them on the Internet before paying for an exterminator. You have to get rid of the cause. Just killing what you have won't do it. Our problem was a badly worn cement mop sink in the basement that also handles water from the washing machine. Water and lint would pool in some of the deeper cracks and crevices. I allowed the sink to dry real well, filled in the holes and cracks and sealed it up. They came back for a while afterwards, but not for long because their food and water source was gone. Haven't seen them in about a year.