Insect attack on the move!

[Brucey]

This time of year insect populations are at their height, and it is inevitable that you are going to collide with a few of them.

Recently I have had;

- a tiny fly that got into my eye (despite my sunglasses) and then died a horrible death. My eye then watered so much that it wetted out all around my eye and sweat was able to drip down and mingle in my eye with the cocktail of dead insect juice as well. This was incredibly painful; I actually cried out in pain as I went along. I had no clean water to flush my eye and I didn't want to poke my fingers into my eye because they were sweaty and dirty too. Ouch.

- I've had insects get into the vents in my helmet, and I've had to stop and remove my helmet before I get stung in the head. These day I try to use a helmet with a mesh over the vents

- just today I felt something hit my leg and, being hairy these days (no racing shaving for a long while now) I thought I'd better check to see that there wasn't something trapped there. Well there was a huge WASP and I managed to sweep it away before it stung me. I wobbled so violently as I did this that I could have had an accident.

- the day before yesterday I was riding along and at the last second I saw something was going to hit me in the face, and I jerked my head to one side at the last moment. This meant that the creature hit me in the corner of my mouth instead of going into it, but it was trapped there for about one second. I have no idea what it was exactly, except that it was large, buzzy, angry and... it stung me in the corner of my mouth. So I came back home with a fat lip, cursing vehemently... or should I say 'curthin fementfee'...

Now I've been wearing mostly red shirts recently; I wonder if the bugs go for them? Years ago I used to wear a yellow and black outfit sometimes and I could have sworn that I got fewer bugs hitting me when I wore that...

Anyone else have any insect-related observations?

Its all beginning to bug me... (groan... )

cheers

[Heltor Chasca]

In my late teens while living in Afrika, a friend was standing up in the back of a moving pickup style Land Rover and was hit between the eyes by a flying dung beetle. We're talking golf ball sized now. He was knocked out but his younger brother who was sitting further back, caught him before he fell out of the vehicle. Lucky or or he really would have been 'bug' ered.

[Valbrona]

I had a cockchafer go down my pants once. But you've all heard that one before ...

[mercalia]

Strange, u must have them all where u live, as down in London and its environs havnt seen many bugs at all. There was a stretch on the Grand Union canal where there were a lot of tiny things en masse, midges? But that was the exception.

[IanW]

Various insect and other animal-related incidents in my cycling (including motorcycling) life:

1) Bumble bee coming the otherway, over (motorbike) screen, under full-face-helmet chin-guard straight into throat at circa 60 mph - Ouch.

2) Wasp crawling round the *inside* of the vizor of full face helmet - *Very distracting*

3) Another wasp flies inside collar of jacket and thence down front stinging away at my chest - 5 separate stings

4) Starling flying the other way hits my shin - Starling = broken neck, me puncture wound in shin.

5) Pigeon coming the otherway heading straight for my face - I ducked.

6) Squirrel under front wheel - Squished - Rearwheel skid.

I usually "bark" at cats as this seems to get them moving out of the way fastest.

And according to my spouse I have ridden over a snake - Snake bisected (apparently)

[Redvee]

Last autumn I had a bee sting me on the way home from work at 22:00, the sting was still in my head when I got home and easily removed and left me with a reddened area for a few days. More recently I had a wasp sting me, again cause it flew into the vents of my helmet, I had to stop and remove my helmet and saw the wasp was still present in my helmet and trying to sting the pads in my helmet and I could see the body pulsing trying to inject the venom. The wasp sting was more painful but the reaction took 24 1/2 hours to surface. I was in work the following day eating my dinner and when I sat down my eye was OK but by time I left the canteen my eye had swelled up. Cause I've been riding recently with the zip undone on my jersey I've found flies inside the jersey most days.

[Mick F]

The single most annoying thing for me, is insects getting down the vents in my helmet. They buzz about in there and itch and tickle.
Now I'm getting thin on top, the effect is ten times worse and I can feel the damned things on my scalp.
To this end, I'm wearing a cycling cap and stopping using a helmet. Less sweaty, insect proof, and lighter.

I have been bitten on the leg and hit in the eyes ........... these days I wear wrap-arround glasses so that doesn't happen now ........... but I still swallow flies though. EUCH.

[honesty]

Cycled through a cloud of flying ants the other week in Taunton town centre. They just hit me and stuck. I was covered in the bloomin things.

[TrevA]

We get loads of little black harvest mites, that get trapped in your arm and leg hairs. Also, pesky little things which get inside your helmet and then start crawling about. I also got stung on the thigh last week by a wasp. They used to make hlemets with netting in the front vents but I've not seen any recently.

You don't get nearly so many flying insects in towns, but loads out in the countryside.

[gaz]

........... but I still swallow flies though.

[singing]There was an old cyclist who swallowed a fly .... [/singing]

On the commute I encounter a fair few clouds of thunderbugs, midges and the like. Suffered a wasp sting behind my glasses two years ago . Hurt for hours, slept it off to a dull ache by the following morning.

Recall some horrible horsefly bites a few years before that, whilst chopping back some undergrowth rather than simply riding past.

[Brucey]

many UVEX helmets are fitted with a 'bug net' comprising mesh over the front vents which prevents insects from getting into the front of the helmet.

http://www.uvex-sports.de/fileadmin/user_upload/cycling/download/uvex_radsport_katalog_2015_GB_72dpi_1_.pdf

if you search the .pdf for 'bug net' you will find all models so equipped.

cheers

[Graham]

More vicious insect attacks reported here .>>.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39713

[Redvee]

They used to make hlemets with netting in the front vents but I've not seen any recently.

There is a local market and one stall sells material, eachtime I pass I always look in their off cuts basket for a small piece of black mesh to go in my helmet.

You don't get nearly so many flying insects in towns, but loads out in the countryside.

The commute home is along an unlit lane and the moths are attracted to the helmet light and I've had to ride with my mouth shut cause of flying ant swarms, hard at 20mph, to stop having an early supper

[Tangled Metal]

My old man once had a large bumble bee fly up one trouser leg over the top and back down the other leg. We thought it was funny and the best thing is, my Dad did exactly what he always told us to do when a bee or wasp is around, be still and let it fly away. He had a lot of calmness about him as the bee worked its way around. I'd have been stripping off my trousers faster than a chippendale at the end of the performance!!

I seem to get hit by bumble bees a lot in the face cycling. Doesn't bother me apart from the initial sting of the impact and wondering if they got a sting in before leaving my face.

The worst insect encounter I have had was on holiday when I was about 7 or 8. I think it was my first year with glasses and a wasp flew up into the gap between my glasses and my eye. I did as I was always told to do which was to stop and keep still. Mind you it was not nice being short sighted I could see the blighter and it was getting angry buzzing against the inside of my glasses. Worst thing was my parents just shouted at me for not keeping up. It was only when my Mum came back and tried to gab my arm to yank me along the path that she realized my problem, just as it found its way out. Funny thing is I just carried on and it never made me scared of wasps at all. It has nearly happened as an adult but I just took my glasses off and moved away.

[rjb]

One of the older members of the club gives an account of a chain gang training ride years ago. It was a foul evening, drizzle, poor visability sets the scene. They had just passed a farm entrance when Pete catches a stick at the side of the road. It flips up and lands on his shoe. He looks down and sees its caught on his shoe laces. He's riding fixed and is trying to maintain his place in the chain. After a couple of pedal strokes he looks down again and sees that the stick is starting to move. It dawns on him that it's a rat. He can't reach it to swat it off. It's still clinging on for grim death and starts climbing up his leg and reaches his knee before he manages to swat it off, swerving all over the road as he does so. The other riders are becoming aware he is soft pedalling and those behind are watching his antics without a true idea of what is going on until they see the rat being despatched. Then they all have a good laugh about it and an easy ride home. It's become an infamous ride now.

And one of my work colleagues startled a sheep on a high bank which then lost its footing and fell on top of him putting him in hospital for a few days with concussion and broken bones.