What Was Your Worst Bug Day

[DIGGER]

this was mine....somewhere around the year 2000.  Bike was clean when I left the house.   Around a 400 mile day.   Down here in Texas the F___ Bugs in the spring can get really bad.   This was the worst year on record around my area.


   

[old2soon]

73 or 74 as my 73 CB500/4 was still fairly new. I was on my way-night shift-to Desplaines Il. About 30 miles or so from where I lived. Bugs were EVERYWHERE! My wrap around shield was about totally blocked out from dead bugs. And around 2100 hrs the gas stations closed then. Found a wide spot pulled of the wrap around as I was maybe 5 or 6 miles from work. Bout 2 miles sans shield a B29 moth decided to end it's life on the right lens of my eye glasses and the eye LIT UP from the PAIN! Could not Even Begin to flush the remains with my tears. Got to work went in got with the Shift Supervisor -E M S Certified-went to the Nurses office and he picked out the remains flushed out the eye and gave me an eye patch. Saw my Dr. the next day good to go but use these drops til eye clear again. Went to the M/C shop and bought 2 or 3 more wrap around shields! Those shields proved enough to get to work BUT had to be recleaned to be used the next night! Been punched in the throat and above the glasses and below the helmet by more than 1 June bug! RIDE SAGFE.

[cookiedough]

wow,  if I had bugs like that,  I would stay home.     

[Valkorado]

Nasty!    That's a job for the ol' H202 right there. 

[Willow]

Crossing Missouri at dusk and hit a swarm thick enough I had to pull over and clean my goggles in order to see at all.

I reckon the sparrow to the forehead doesn't count.   

[Sorcerer]

The day a bee came around the fairing, over the windshield, missed my eye glasses lens and slide between the eye glasses bow and my head at 80 mph. I had a full face helmet on when it stung me on my temple. Left a 60 foot rear tire mark. Praying it was dead when removing the helmet so as not to get stung again. Got lucky times 2. Didn’t get stung again and the lady working in her yard was a nurse. She made up a past of water and meat tenderizer.

[Serk]

Okay so.... One day I was commuting home from work, on a 2 lane higway 10 miles from home, and a rock hit me HARD square in the chest.....

Winded me, but once I recovered I thought nothing further of it, and continued riding home.

Once home, pulled in the garage, got off the bike, took off my helmet, and as a lifted my arms up to lift my helmet off I heart and FELT a loud BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....

Helmet off, arms back down, it went away...

What the snuggle?!?!?!

Lifted arms up and just as my hands went past the top of my head BUZZZZZZZZZZ.....

ARMS DOWN! ARMS DOWN!!!!!

Looked INSIDE my shirt while lifting my arms up again and Mothra, the kaiju king of the moths was staring up at me and flapping his wings of fury violently once there was slack enough in my shirt from me lighting my arms up.

I'm not ashamed to admit.... I screamed like a 6 year old girl, RIPPED the shirt off my body and released Mothra from his tomb of my hairless chest.....

[DIGGER]

Crossing Missouri at dusk and hit a swarm thick enough I had to pull over and clean my goggles in order to see at all.

I reckon the sparrow to the forehead doesn't count.   

Ive never got a bird to the body but i have bounced a few off the front of the bike.  Bet that hurt.

[Jess from VA]

My worst bug day was cruising through a yellow jacket migration heading over to the Morgantown Inzane.

Never saw it coming, and 70mph and Interstate protection (and short stature) resulted in many dead, but not one sting, and not one in my clothes.  I still pulled off right away, and danced around like an idiot for a while to make sure I didn't have any sleepers on me.   Ran into Shortleg Dave at the turnout.  

Then, there was the one bee that blew right in my half helmet, and when I started trying to poke him out of the helmet, he crawled right into my ear canal to escape.  Emergency pull off, helmet in the air, more dancing, and no sting.  A bee with fuzzy legs crawling into your ear canal buzzing his ass off is creepy as hell (esp at 70mph). 

I have been stung, but not those two times.

The worst mess I ever had was going under an overpass being sprayed with asphalt tar, and getting covered with that crap.

[klb]

My worst bug was a South Carolina June bug to my forehead at 55 mph.
Sounded like a gunshot. Turned into a pretty good bruise.
Worst non bug was a Hawk. Coming back I-40 at 70 mph the Hawk must
have been having roadkill supper on the side of the road and flew out in
front of me. Hit my right hand breaking my little finger broke the mirror
then hit the windshield and finally my helmet. Neck was sore for two weeks.
On the bright side I am glad it was a Hawk not a Deer.

[hubcapsc]

My worst bug was a South Carolina June bug

My best bug day was probably Georgia June Bugs... I was
crossing an agricultural area on some backroad on the way
to Stanley Steamer's house. All of a sudden, there were large
hardshelled bugs in the air, and they all seemed to be flying
in the opposite direction I was traveling in. I tucked in behind
the windshield as I watched them appear at infinity and
zoom in to crash into my bike BANG POW... It was, I
imagined, like being a combat pilot watching the tracers approach.

-Mike

[Jess from VA]

Until I blocked my interstate fairing vents with foam, I ate a variety of bug parts.  Some were better than others, but none were a good substitute for lunch.  Ptooey!

[0leman]

Several summers ago, before Covid, I was on one of my fairly long loops around OR.  Had just left a small town heading home when ran into a hatch of ants, flying ants.  I was fortunate to have a rest area pull off to stop.   My windshield was totally covered, couldn't see thru it.  Face shield was almost as bad.  There was water at the rest area thankfully so could clean off the mess mostly.  Thankfully, none of those little critters were able to nor wanted to sting.

The on coming traffic was just as bad.  Vehicles windshields and fronts were totally covered.  There were a number of them stopping to clean off their windshields. 

[threevalks]

That collection would make Bruce proud.

[RP#62]

En route to the La Crosse rally in 2001, me and Michael P cut across Illinois from Ohio and decided we'd take the great river road up to La Crosse.  Nice ride until we got up into Wisconsin.  Evidently, the mayflies had decided to take the same route. There were huge swarms of them coming off the river.  We had to stop every couple of miles to clean the windshield so we could see the road. 

Runner up was my encounter with a swarm of 17 year locusts in western PA.  Under 40 mph, they make a thud on the windshield and bounce off.  Above 40, they splat and it looks like you hit a tomato.

-RP

[Valkorado]

Not so much a swarm, but a bad experience nonetheless...

Years ago when I lived in Grand Junction, I enjoyed taking sunset rides through the Colorado National Monument.  One evening I was out a bit later than usual, and the evening twilight was fading to dark fast.  I was paying attention to the twists and looking out for desert creatures when I glanced higher into my headlight beam.  Spiraling toward me from about 50 yards away was a sizable flying creature.  No big deal, I'll keep an eye on it for the second or so it takes to get here.  It appeared to be honing to my line of sight, and as I started to duck behind the shield for perceived safety I was greeted by a water balloon style splat right on my hard to miss schnoz from a juicy, fist sized bug.  I thank the good Lord whatever it was had a semi-soft body or it would have probably knocked me cold.

Pulled over as soon as I could, trembling and soaked, dripping a gnarly reddish-green slime from my face.  Nearly barfed.  Had guts on both sides of my glasses lenses.

Still don't know what "it" was, more juice than "parts".   

I've had more painful stings and bites, one wasp stung and/or bit me leaving seven welts on my stomach and chest before I could get pulled over in heavy traffic.  Crunched it right through my shirt, once I got my hand on the evil bastard.

[..]

No bug swarm encounters and my ST1300 windshield didn't look like the OP photo even after a 6,000 mile cross country ride.

I've had an owl flair out in my headlight when riding at night. He missed me and lived to tell his kids of a UFO encounter.

Something up my shirt when I used to ride jacket less. No longer do that no matter how hot.

Many encounters with inanimate objects.

[Jess from VA]

Not a bug, but my weirdest riding hazard experience was a king size mattress floating up off the back of a truck ahead of me on the freeway.  It stayed aloft in the slipstream, and as I swerved left, it swerved left.  Then the same thing swerving right.  Then I faked left and swerved right.  It was a demon possessed mattress.      

People who don't tie down or cover their loads should be horsewhipped.  

[NewValker]

Geez, glad we don’t have bugs that cover a shield like that up here…
Worst single splat was in Red Hook NY. We had gone to an air show out there and the cicadas were out.
On the way home, at like 65, I took one square in the middle of the windshield. As mentioned, it was like someone threw a tomato at me!
I looked thru that mess till we hit Ct. line and stopped to clean it.

Craig

[old2soon]

Not a bug, but my weirdest riding hazard experience was a king size mattress floating up off the back of a truck ahead of me on the freeway.  It stayed aloft in the slipstream, and as I swerved left, it swerved left.  Then the same thing swerving right.  Then I faked left and swerved right.  It was a demon possessed mattress.      

People who don't tie down or cover their loads should be horsewhipped.  

        Jess-there IS a Law for big trucks about loads being tied down. That being said I've seen a Lot of self-unloading at freeway speeds near bout everywhere! More prevalent on open trucks and trailers   
 though. Danged near ran over a speed boat 1 night a bit West of Longview Tx with my 18 wheeler. When I was flat bedding L E Os would pull me over Just to Make SURE my load was Secure. RIDE SAFE.

[Pappy!]

2016 - Inzane in WV. cicadas everywhere. Those hurt!!
On the way home I had a big crow fly into my visor at 80+. Rider behind me said it looked like a bomb went off. Without protective gear I probably would not be here.

[Oss]

It was a VOAi ride led by Jetdriver a turkey vulture, man are those things wide with the wings spread

He or she thought I was maybe after the road kill and took off and flew about next to me before I could even hit the air horn.   The flapping is loud enough to hear if no harleys are on the ride

Been stung by bees and where I stopped there was the sign saying  BEEHIVE LANE

ya cant make these up

[0leman]

Back in the first major gas shortage in the '70's, I was living in Northern MN.  I was riding to work every day. About 45 miles one way.  This was of course during the summer or what passes for summer up there.   I had on a T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweatshirt, and a jacket.   I got hit by a yellow jacket.  It hit my face Shield and landed on my exposed neck.   Where he decided to take his revenge on me.  I saw where he was on my review mirror, flick him off.  This was at about 10 miles into my ride home.  When I stopped for gas in town, thought that sometime was wrong as was getting a little pain between the shoulder blades.   (Folks use to say no brains, no pain) Decided to strip off the upper clothes.  Seems that mister yellow jacket was happily stinging me there.   Had the attendant knock him off my back.  When he landed on the ground, my #14 made him regret his actions.

Up to that time yellow jackets and other member of wasp family had little effect on me.  Just felt like a small needle poking into me.   Since that time, I do react to them.  Just small areas of swelling. 

[Jess from VA]

Believe me, it gets worse with age.  Even if you're not anaphylactic (allergic).

[3fan4life]

Several years ago I met Skinhead and Binkie for a ride down VA SR42.

I parted ways with them near Wytheville, VA and headed home on I-81.

About 10 miles into my ride home a large bee went up the sleeve of my T-Shirt.

Before i could get to the side of the road it managed to sting me twice on the shoulder and once on my chest.

I can only imagine what the drivers around me thought as they watched me slapping at myself while making a "Beeline" for the side of the Interstate.

After stopping I still hadn't managed to squash the bee and had to furiously strip of my shirt to get rid of the it.



Another time I was riding into the beginnings of a bad thunderstorm and my attention was on a large dust devil to my left that looked like a miniature tornado.

A large bee was blown straight into my chest by the wind and immediately began to furiously sting me as if his predicament was all my fault.

I was able to knock him off of my chest but not before he had stung me several times.


Had a stink bug smash into the lens of my sunglasses at 70mph once.

That stings and burns your eyes like crazy and the smell stays in your nostrils forever.

[Willow]

....   Where he decided to take his revenge on me.  I saw where he was on my review mirror, flick him off.  ...

She

[0leman]

....   Where he decided to take his revenge on me.  I saw where he was on my review mirror, flick him off.  ...

She

I really didn't take time to check the sex of that critter.   

[Rams]

Worst "Bug Day" was probably on one of my first trips to Southern Mississippi while trailing Mac McCain, we blew through a flight of the biggest dang bugs I've ever seen.   Several hit my windscreen, headlight and me.   Was not a pleasant experience.   I have no doubt Mac remembers this as well as I do. 

But, years ago, I took a bird to the forehead somewhere around 110 mph.  My guess is the bird was maybe a pound to a pound and a half.   Almost took my head off.   The bird didn't like the end results either.

Rams

[CajunRider]

Bad bug day??? 

DDT to the white courtesy phone.
DDT to the white courtesy phone.