We lived in a rural part of south Louisiana, and among the varied grasses, there would be little wads of white foam wedged under the stem of a leaf or along the length of the blade of grass. Our mother would point it out to us and say, 'Snake spit'. We'd 'ahh!' and imagine a little garter snake or a king snake swaying across the yard, leaving signs of its passage.
It wasn't until I was an adult living in central rural Texas (where the phenomenon was also common) that I took the time to learn more. Turns out 'snake spit' has nothing to do with snakes but is a secretion during a life stage of the spittlebug. I'm not sure about the stages of spittlebug existence, and whether its the adult or nymph that excretes the foam, but the following quote from a Wikipedia article sums up what the 'spit' is about:
'The froth serves a number of purposes. It hides the nymph from the view of predators and parasites, it insulates against heat and cold, thus providing thermal control and also moisture control. Without the froth the insect would quickly dry up. The nymphs pierce plants and suck sap causing very little damage, much of the filtered fluids go into the production of the froth, which has an acrid taste, deterring predators.'
Link from Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spittlebug
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