Tell me your bug stories, I know you got one

[Lamonster]

Here's my latest one.

On the way back from Ottawa we were about 80 miles from home when I felt something biting or stinging me in my left arm.

It hurt but it wasn't till a minute or so later I started feeling more bites on my left shoulder blade. I was doing 70mph at the time and I could quite reach where I was getting bit so I grabbed my water bottle and started beating myself with it trying to kill what ever was biting me. I must of looked pretty silly and Harvey could hear the whole thing on the headset.

So we stop for fuel and a bite to eat and I saw where the guy got me the first time.



By time I got home this is what it looked like.


Seems I had a bit of reaction to what turned out to be a hornet sting. The only reason I know that is when I took my shirt off his big ole head feel on the floor.

Needless to say I was more than a little concerned that it was going to get worst but I took some benadryl and that seem to stop it from getting any worst.

So tell me your bug story, I'm sure there are some good ones.

[MouthPiece]

I wear shorts when I ride. My story is X rated. I'll let your imagination run with just that said. I WAS one hurtin fool.

Chris

[Bob Denman]

I know that we've all felt as if this has happened to us at least once!

I actually went through a swarm of June Bugs early one season;
my visor looked about like somebody had thrown a pail of pike onto it...
And it sounded like machine-gun fire for about two seconds!

[shroth]

I'd tell you a bee store but if I got stung I wouldn't be here to relay it. Thank God for my Eppy pen.......

[Flanker]

Years ago, my buddy and his girl, and I had been out riding (motorcycles) for a good portion of the day. We'd just got back to his apartment; walked in, when he started yelling like crazy, and simultaneously beating hard on his @$$ while frantically tearing his pants off, as he was hopping violently towards the bathroom. In expressions of deep friendship and understanding sympathy, his girl and I both burst out laughing as my Bud tore his jeans off and slammed the bathroom door closed. We looked at each other and I asked, D@mn! Does he do that often around you? She laughed again and shot right back, "No, how about you?" Anyway..........................throughout the whole process, my Bud (both of us worked for the state prison system) had been yelling quite a few colorful inner city expressions to go with his attempts to beat his backside into submission, and there'd been quite a bit of bumping and banging around in the bathroom too. We yelled out if he needed help, or wanted a Priest or anything. He told us to off, and unfairly alleged we were insensitive ! It became ominously quiet in the bathroom, and after a few minutes my Bud came out with a towel wrapped around his bottom half (went quite well with his leather jacket, I thought).

Of course we asked what the heck the problem had been, and he holds out a wadded up piece of toilet paper with a dead hornet/yellow jacket in it. He said while he was riding; he felt something hit him, up near the base of his throat, a bit off to the left (he had a nice impact welt there). He'd reached up and rubbed at it (couldn't really feel diddly as he was wearing gloves), and rode on. He figured the wind blast (we'd been cruising between 65 to 75 MPH) must have pushed the possibly stunned hornet, up over his clavicle, where it fell down his back, and worked it's way past his pants belt on the left side. My Bud said, just as we walked in; Mr. Hornet must have come to, and decided to let my Bud know he wasn't happy with things (as evidenced by the 8 or 9 welts on the left cheek of his @$$). I'm still thankful he DID NOT show them to us. My Bud, who went about 225 lbs, said, "D@mn! I was hitting that hard enough to kill a small dog, and he just wouldn't DIE!" Beer drinking ensued.

[Lamonster]

Good story. I know I've done more damage trying to kill the bug than the bug did to me at times.

[FaranH]

Aside from the swarm of grasshoppers I ran into on my of my first solo rides as a new rider (took a big one right in the neck at 75 mph ), my other bug story turned out a little unexpectedly.

On my Ambassador trip before riding the Spyder for the first time, I heard Lamont and Fred telling some of their bug stories. And how sometimes you just have to keep on riding through whatever pain you may be experiencing. As a new rider, I'm just soaking in all this important information.

Well, the PR company got Mickey and me miked up for sound and we took off for Topanga Canyon. About halfway through the ride I felt a pretty good sting between my shoulder blades. I slapped at it a couple of times, but it kept coming back for several miles. Recalling their earlier conversation, I wasn't about to signal to Fred or Lamont that I needed to pull over to deal with a bug. I would just tough it out. The stinging moved to my lower back (more slapping to kill the critter) and it finally stopped.

We got back to the hotel and I was telling someone about my bug incident when I felt a crawling down my leg. Only it wasn't crawling. It was the clip from the mic transmitter pack!
blcbp2_m.jpg
It had worked its way off the mic pack, down my shirt, down my jeans and out the bottom of the pants leg. It was the two ends of the clip digging into my shoulder blades and back that I had thought was a bug the whole time! Made for a very interesting first ride!

[NancysToy]

I was going down the road on my Honda 305 Scrambler, with my girlfriend on the back. Saw a huge bug coming at my head, and tried to duck. The big wasp hit me in the back of the neck. He must have been flying backwards, I guess. When I felt the sting I slapped at it like a crazy man, and saw the wasp, or what I thought was the wasp, fall onto my pants and then into the wind. As we proceeded down the road I started to feel the sting a lot more...with pain, burning, itching, and swelling. I asked my girlfriend if it was OK. She said it looked swollen and red. Reaching home about 15 minutes later I was feeling a little woozy and the thing hurt and itched like the dickens. I went into the bathroom and saw the stinger still stuck in my neck with the entire abdomen still attached! That suckerhad emptied its entire load into me!!! I asked my girlfriend why she didn't tell me it was still there, since it was certainly more than merely swollen and red. She said "If I told you about the wasp still being there, you would have told me to take it out...and there was no way I was going to touch it!"

I could relate the story about the June bug that went through a quilted ski jacket and two sweatshirts and drew blood, but that is another tale for another time.

Remember, you can tell a happy motorcyclist by the bugs on his teeth.

[MT Kevin]

I can tell you that getting bit by a brown recluse SPIDER is not any fun. the doc was pretty sure he was in my riding gear. 125 mile ride and took me 10 min to get off bike when I got home. 7 days of wife packing gause in the big hole in my leg, wasn't what I would call a great vacation. Oh yeh, no riding for 2 weeks.

[cuznjohn]

i had a wasp get behind my glasses and by the time i felt it it bit my eye lid. I HATE BUGS

[joet82]

I have no stories involving getting stung...yet. but I have had a few big bugs hit me in unprotected parts of my arm and bounce off, or hit my helmet with an audible thud. but my biggest encounter was on my first night out to SpyderFest 2012. I left Alpine, CA, at about 6pm after having a rep with the IronButt Association sign my paperwork and topping off my tank. I headed down the hill into the desert, where it was still triple digits. and about an hour later, sunset arrived while I was passing through the farms along Interstate 8. and with sunset and the slightly cooler temps come the bugs...THOUSANDS OF THEM! I didn't stop as I was on the clock, and I didn't know when the line of bugs on a suicide mission would end, but by the time I got to my fuel stop, my helmet looked like an overloaded graveyard. I did wipe the visor with my hand a couple times which helped minimize the number of bodies, but the guts still remained. and the cloth I used to clean it off was immediately in need of being thrown in the laundry. haha

oh, and later that morning, it was in the 50s. talk about contrast...and FREEZING! (Thank Gerbings for keeping me alive)

[Oldmanzues]

I was on a very back road, somewhere in the South hills (WV, TN, KY. I was slowing to pull into a little counrty store when I got a Hornet (?) the sized of 747 right at the top of jacket on the neck. I guess, I yelled. I got the kickstand down (before Spyder days/ST1100), and I started feeling bad. It jumped in my mind, now what. A lady had come out of the store. Shehelped in getting the jacket off and saying them things are bad around here. I got the helmet off. I guess she took another look at me and ordered to lay on my side, bite side up, then I knd of heard her tell somebody watch and get ready to call for help. I obeyed. Then I had drink with straw in my mouth, no idea what that was. A compress on my neck. She said, that stuff don't smell or taste good, but it works around here. A while later and a couple compress changes. I felt fine and said so. She "ordered me to sit a spell". I did.
After a couple hours of conversation, I said, I was okay to go. She asked if I positive, because they could put me up for night or get somebody to the bkie on a trailer to the next big town ( do not remember where now). She put some kind of stuff on the bite site and I left.
That night at the motel, the bite site looked like a 3 inch hole and visible to people. But the good thing, I never had problem from that bite, after the first mess. I hope I thanked that lady enought.
I also had not thought about it for years.
Oldmanzues

[spydercatjohn]

Once I lived in a condo and had to keep my motorcycle outdoors with a rain cover. I was riding about 40 mph when a large black spider crawled into my helmet face shield. It must have been living under the rain cover. I lifted the face shield and swatted it out before it could bite.

[Bob Denman]

Aside from the swarm of grasshoppers I ran into on my of my first solo rides as a new rider (took a big one right in the neck at 75 mph ), my other bug story turned out a little unexpectedly.

On my Ambassador trip before riding the Spyder for the first time, I heard Lamont and Fred telling some of their bug stories. And how sometimes you just have to keep on riding through whatever pain you may be experiencing. As a new rider, I'm just soaking in all this important information.

Well, the PR company got Mickey and me miked up for sound and we took off for Topanga Canyon. About halfway through the ride I felt a pretty good sting between my shoulder blades. I slapped at it a couple of times, but it kept coming back for several miles. Recalling their earlier conversation, I wasn't about to signal to Fred or Lamont that I needed to pull over to deal with a bug. I would just tough it out. The stinging moved to my lower back (more slapping to kill the critter) and it finally stopped.

We got back to the hotel and I was telling someone about my bug incident when I felt a crawling down my leg. Only it wasn't crawling. It was the clip from the mic transmitter pack!
blcbp2_m.jpg
It had worked its way off the mic pack, down my shirt, down my jeans and out the bottom of the pants leg. It was the two ends of the clip digging into my shoulder blades and back that I had thought was a bug the whole time! Made for a very interesting first ride!

Glad to hear that you got that clip beaten into submission before it drew any blood!
After all; what if you were allergic to their bites?

[Daisyjoe]

Once I lived in a condo and had to keep my motorcycle outdoors with a rain cover. I was riding about 40 mph when a large black spider crawled into my helmet face shield. It must have been living under the rain cover. I lifted the face shield and swatted it out before it could bite.

I would have pulled my head off trying to get the helmet off!!

[bruiser]

Mine doesn't involve a bike. It involves a Phantom, that is, an F4 Phantom fighter. Southeast Asia, I was prepping for an engine test run. Had to walk the back bone to pull the covers off the tail probes. While backing away from the vertical tail I heard a loud hum coming my way. Just as I turned around I was hit square in the face by a fully loaded rice bug. Sucker knocked me off the back bone. I fell down the side of the fuselage, bounced off the wing and hit the ground. Knocked the wind out of me. My ground man thought I'd been shot.

By the way Lamont, I know that had to hurt.

[OJ UK]

Well after MT Kevin's recluse encounter anything I have to contribute will seem very trivial!
However there is one occurrence that I will always remember. I was on my bike and wearing
a full-face helmet travelling along a winding road that required my full attention.
It was summer and I had left my visor open about an inch to let some air circulate.
Suddenly I felt an impact on my top lip...after years of riding you get to recognise the 'feel'
of any insect impacts and this felt like a wasp (yellow jacket). On the next short straight section
of road I glanced down and a large wasp was crawling along the lip of my of my helmet inside
the visor!

Now I hate wasps with a vengeance having been stung once by a wasp that had obviously been
in an unsavory location (trash cans or animal poo) and the site of the sting became infected and
swelled up enormously. Not good. Had to take penicillin for a month!

So, anyway, I saw this wasp on the lip of the helmet and I grabbed the lip with my left gloved hand
so it wouldn't be able to get in and sting me. Of course then I wasn't able to use the clutch. Luckily
I was able to do some clutch-less downshifts and even more fortunately I managed to find neutral!

I couldn't be sure that my tight grip had killed the wasp so I came to a standstill with some trepidation,
kicked out the side stand and dismounted. Unfastening the 'D' ring was impossible with my gloved right
hand so I pulled my right glove off with my teeth.
When the time came to reveal the beast, I opened my hand to find a very pi$$ed queen wasp which
almost immediately flew off. Lucky escape that!

[Yazz]

We were on a road trip and had my favorite leather jacket on. We were going through some twisties, when all the sudden I felt something crawling around on my back. A bit panicked, I looked for the nearest pull-off. But as I was slowing down, my jacket settled down on my back and the stinging started. Arggg!

Pulled over, jumped off the bike, forgot the kickstand, bike fell over, discovered you have to take your gloves off before the jacket, all this going on while the stinging continued. Hubby stood there wondering what provoked this odd dance and such disregard for my bike.

Finally got the wasp out and was able to tell Hubby what went on.

For some odd reason, that jacket sucks wasps into it. Happened at least once a week on that trip. I got very good at going fast until I quickly could pull over, remember the kickstand and found a way to get the wasp out without taking my gloves off.

For some odd reason, I don't wear the wasp jacket anymore.

**********

If you want some real pain, try going 70 and a pair of mating dragonflies smack you in the armpit. Did I tell you they're little shrapnel bombs?

[Bob Denman]

Mating dragonflies??
Just think how it must feel to them, when you "interrupt" their tryst...

[Yazz]

Mating dragonflies??
Just think how it must feel to them, when you "interrupt" their tryst...

At least they died happy!

[bruiser]

Well after MT Kevin's recluse encounter anything I have to contribute will seem very trivial!
However there is one occurrence that I will always remember. I was on my bike and wearing
a full-face helmet travelling along a winding road that required my full attention.
It was summer and I had left my visor open about an inch to let some air circulate.
Suddenly I felt an impact on my top lip...after years of riding you get to recognise the 'feel'
of any insect impacts and this felt like a wasp (yellow jacket). On the next short straight section
of road I glanced down and a large wasp was crawling along the lip of my of my helmet inside
the visor!

Now I hate wasps with a vengeance having been stung once by a wasp that had obviously been
in an unsavory location (trash cans or animal poo) and the site of the sting became infected and
swelled up enormously. Not good. Had to take penicillin for a month!

So, anyway, I saw this wasp on the lip of the helmet and I grabbed the lip with my left gloved hand
so it wouldn't be able to get in and sting me. Of course then I wasn't able to use the clutch. Luckily
I was able to do some clutch-less downshifts and even more fortunately I managed to find neutral!

I couldn't be sure that my tight grip had killed the wasp so I came to a standstill with some trepidation,
kicked out the side stand and dismounted. Unfastening the 'D' ring was impossible with my gloved right
hand so I pulled my right glove off with my teeth.
When the time came to reveal the beast, I opened my hand to find a very pi$$ed queen wasp which
almost immediately flew off. Lucky escape that!

Lucky for you the queen wasp doesn't normally sting.

[bruiser]

Wasps are parasitic and normally feed on...

Spiders.

Now you know why they're attracted to us.

[Cruzr Joe]

Luckily, my only good bug story was en route to Memphis on I-40 with my face shield down and this nasty bug splatters on my face shield and about one third of the face shield is covered in slime and blood. Pulled over and cleaned the shield and continued on. YUCK

Cruzr Joe

[Bob Denman]

At least they died happy!

And to think; you got to be a part of it!

[bullant12]

Myself and Dentin (Leira) were heading towards Columbus, MS during nightfall. We left work late that afternoon and our final destination was Destin, FL to spend the week, but we were going to spend the night at Columbus AFB and continue in the morning. Anyway, leaving Tupelo after dinner and heading south to Columbus, our helmets started to be hit by hundreds of beetles flying all over the place... it felt like someone was shooting pellets at us. When we got to the AFB's Lodge, our s and helmets were splattered like paint gun pellets. And of course, myself and wife had a nice serving of bug "dessert".