Post your bug story.

[JeffM]

No, not VW bugs but that type that hurt, sting, or generally freak you out while riding.

I haven't been stung or had a critter in my helmet, but damn, those large grasshoppers and June bugs hurt when you hit them.

Now a spider dangling down inside my helmet might be something that would cause a bit of excitement going down the freeway.

[kkim]

from an earlier post...
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=11685

[FrugalNinja250]

Going down the freeway at 70+ in heavy mixed traffic, grasshopper (I presume, based on size of smear and color of guts) nailed my visor dead center over the bridge of my nose. Left a hand-sized blob of goo that I couldn't see through so spent the next few miles with my head turned so that I could see out the edge of my helmet.

Another time was on a county highway doing 60+ and another grasshopper nailed me right over my left eye. 2" blob of goo meant no stereo vision for a while.

A few weeks ago noticed a spider building a web from the right top corner of my glasses to the inside of the visor. She got it mostly done by the time I got to where I was going, was able to get her out and relocated unharmed.

[Talonne]

Here's mine

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47487

[ally99]

Yellow jacket flew at me and ended up on the inside of my helmet. It gets worse. I have a phobia of stinging bugs. I was at Deal's Gap on one of the most technical riding mountain roads in the southeast...cornering and having a yellow jacket in my helmet. I tried to stay calm and raised my face shield while trying to shoo him out of there. It could have been a LOT worse! Now it's something to laugh about...well, almost.

[CZroe]

I was on the Scream Machine coaster at Six Flags over Georgia with a friend in the very front car. The radio had advertised that it was still running backwards. It wasn't. I wish it was.

I completed one ride just as the park was about to close and they only had a few more people in line so they told us that we could remain in the front car for another go 'round. Just as we crested the first hill after being dropped, I opened my mouth to say something to my friend and, instead, immediately started hacking and coughing. A June Bug (I think) cracked open on my upper front teeth and sprayed bitter tasting guts all over the back of my mouth! Spitting on a coaster with people behind you is a bad thing, but I simply had to.


As for bug encounters on my bike...
I had ants running up my kickstand and into my tail-light area when the bike was new.
I had Yellowjackets swarming around the bike as soon as it stops anywhere it stops in the Fall in GA (I already thought that they were attracted to blue after their behavior changes late in the year and Allyson's experience seems to confirm it).
I've had bugs in my helmet multiple times, including stinging fire ants (one even got in my ear), but I was more freaked out when I looked up and one of my glasses lenses fell in... I didn't know what was in there with me, but I knew it had mass!

[00NissanNinja]

I posted about the day a cager almost ran me over, well that very same day after I decided to drop all of my errands and go home because of that incident a big butterfly flew straight to my helmet I had pieces of the bug everywhere on my helmet and jacket (very nasty).

I also had a run in with bees and wasps one day they were very attracted to my bike and so one landed on my leg as I was pulling out of my driveway and almost stung me.

@kkim damn that's a lot of bugs I had like 20 little green bugs on my faceshield when I passed by a reservoir near my area. A couple got sucked in and I really hate bugs anywhere around my head.
@CZ that is kinda gross June bugs are a plague

[CZroe]

I forgot to mention a gnat or mosquito or something (not like I saw it first) that flew into my nose and lodged deep into my sinuses while I breathed in as soon as I cracked open my face shield a few weeks ago. At least it didn't buzz around up there!

[Kitdog]

Going through the Isleta Indian reservation on my way to Albuquerque, had my face sheild up and Clear glasses on enjoying the evening air and smell of fresh cut hay. I see a moth or something fHUGE rom across the road in on coming car headlights, it continues to cross road to my side, makes a sudden right turn and heads directly into my face, I swear It was screaming BONZI!!!!!! just before it hit my clears, splattered all over my face. nasty!

:::EDIT::: I guess it was probably saying Geronimo!!!!

[Manimal]

I have had my share of bees within my lid, however, a few weeks ago, my friend and I were travelling through a stretch of road and encountered several huge swarms of bugs.

The first swarm we came across had me worried as I had thought may have been bees. We continued travelling through the twisty road a bit more and came across another swarm. This happened several more times. As we rode through the swarms was like we were being bead blasted, but with bugs....... lol

My friend thought that they were lady bugs, but I had never seen them in swarms like that before. To this day, I still can't vouche of what kind of bugs they were. It was the weirdest experience for me in all my years of riding.

[Guinss]

Gotta be on my 50 cc i had couple of years ago, had just taken off my jacket and was riding in my t-shirt. Then around the next corner i drove right into a swarm of flying ant's. It hurt.

Several times where I've ridden with the visor opened, to cool down. Then i decide to close the visor and not a second later a big bumblebee or something similar, hits me, and its goo all over the helmet. I think i got a sixth sense for this.

I've hit birds 3 times. They don't weigh a lot, but when you hit them going 50 or 60, it's like someone punching you in the shoulder.

On the critter inside helmet experiences, I've been lucky so far, no-one gotten in. A bee or a wasp would be interesting.

[backinthesaddleagain]

This bug on Rte95 in RI can be distracting, and wouldn't want to hit it.

[revstriker]

LOL! I'm getting ads for Terminex with this thread.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by revstriker

LOL! I'm getting ads for Terminex with this thread.

My avatar is from an Orkin commercial.

[revstriker]

Originally Posted by CZroe

My avatar is from an Orkin commercial.

I remember that commercial. Squid Roach.

[backinthesaddleagain]

Terminix here too.

[onetruevibe]

Originally Posted by CZroe

My avatar is from an Orkin commercial.

I've noticed your avatar a few times but never looked closely. I was thinking it was the "King" from those Burger King commercials. Not sure why I thought that....

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by onetruevibe

I've noticed your avatar a few times but never looked closely. I was thinking it was the "King" from those Burger King commercials. Not sure why I thought that....

Well, at first glance, it doesn't make sense that it would be a bug large enough to ride a motorcycle. That's what makes the commercials so... unsettling!

[tiggen]

Worst in terms of sheer numbers was early Sept in SD. 400 miles of bugs. My helmet was also a white Shoei and looked almost exactly like Kkim's at the end of the day.

But no bug can match the pain of straw/hay. I got behind a truck hauling hay in ID once. You catch a piece of that just right it's like a missle. I had one piece stick me through an Aerostich roadcrafter hard enough that I still had a red mark on my upper chest hours later.

[Flow]

In the trails around here, I've found myself riding straight through spider webs. Just a few hours ago there was one on the right eye of my goggles which was still alive.

[Cedilla]

I took a June bug to the neck the other morning riding to work. It hurt like hell. It hit me right in the windpipe. I've had a bunch of little bugs hit my helmet like the picture Kkim posted earlier, I had to stop at the next gas station because I could not see at all.

[TrueFaith]

Originally Posted by tiggen

Worst in terms of sheer numbers was early Sept in SD. 400 miles of bugs. My helmet was also a white Shoei and looked almost exactly like Kkim's at the end of the day.

But no bug can match the pain of straw/hay. I got behind a truck hauling hay in ID once. You catch a piece of that just right it's like a missle. I had one piece stick me through an Aerostich roadcrafter hard enough that I still had a red mark on my upper chest hours later.

Unbelievable. I read this post this morning and found myself behind a hay truck for the first time in my life 2 hours later.
It sucked!! And I've had a bee in my helmet and been stung a couple of times already.

[coolbreeze]

Bee/Wasp (not sure), but off my neck, into shirt and stung me in the center of my chest.

[JBar215]

It figures I was just on this thread a couple days ago and read all of these thinking how luck I was for it not to happen to me. but my story is very similar to coolbreeze's I went for a ride today and on my way home a yellowjacket found its way into my collar without me feeling an original hit and so I felt an itch in the center of chest so though my jacket and 2 shirts I scratched it and felt a really sharp pain, so as soon as I could I pulled over and lifted up my shirt to find a yellowjacket with its stinger in my chest. Not cool...

[shortstuff]

I like it when lightning bugs smoosh on my visor around dusk- they glow for a few seconds! It's pretty cool. I've been stung more than a few times around my neck or jacket, but nothing in the helmet (knock on wood)