The Horrifying Reason You Should Never, Ever Eat An Icicle

It’s not just the yellow snow you have to watch out for.

While it might be tempting to chomp on an icicle, they can also be extremely gross, which is why one meteorologist is warning against plucking one off your home and taking a bite or a lick.

“Please don’t do that!” Katie Nickolaou of KMEG, the CBS affiliate in Sioux City, said in a TikTok video.

She explained:

“When icicles form, it’s from water that melts off of your roof and runs down the side of a building. Well, here’s the thing: You know what else is on your roof? Bird poop. A lot of it. And that water picks it up and freezes it in the ice. You’re eating poop!”

Ewww!

On Twitter, Nickolaou urged people not to eat snow either, and said there was a video of that coming up next.

“It contains an insect known as ‘snow fleas,’” she told Yahoo Life.

Nickolaou was referring to springtails, which the Farmers’ Almanac said weren’t technically fleas despite the nickname but act like them, in that they’re small and jump.

“While they look a lot like biting, parasitic fleas, snow fleas are not something to fear,” the almanac noted. “They won’t bite and they are actually great for your lawn and gardens because of the work that they do to help decompose organic material.”

You just might not want to eat them.