"LauraReeling" wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks for the reply. I'd really like to identify these things - they
don't look like anything I've been able to find a picture for on the
net - they look like poppy seeds, only smaller - just little, tiny,
black balls with no sign of legs, etc. I just looked up thrips and
that's not it. Is there a type of scale perhaps that might look like
this and live in colonies away from the plants?

Hi Laura-
I wonder if what you are seeing are the spores of the artillery fungus,
Sphaerobolus stellatus? This is a tiny fungus that lives on wood such as
mulch. The spore is ejected from the fungus and is commonly seen adhering
to vinyl siding or greenhouse glazing. You can do a google search for
artillery fungus and see pictures of the discharged spores on siding. Once
discharged, however, they are not mobile- in fact, their stickiness can make
them somewhat difficult to remove.
Bill Landers