Article updated and reviewed by Edward B. Feinberg, MD, MPH, Chair, Department of Ophthalmology, Boston University School of Medicine on May 2, 2005.

You may sometimes see small specks moving in your field of vision. These are called floaters. You may often see them when looking at a plain background, such as a blank wall or blue sky. You may at first mistake them for insects or dust floating in the air. They will appear to move as you move your eyes.

Floaters are actually tiny clumps of gel or...