Bug in my bonnet

[Tuchango]

I fly, and things that don’t have a checklist happen on occasion. The mantra is: maintain aircraft control, analyze the situation, take the appropriate action, and land as soon as conditions permit.

Had a bandit get stuck and actively trying to sting the helmet. Pulled over and distanced myself from the threat. Now I can’t find it. Maybe it’s making a home between the helmet pads somewhere.

 

[cliffh]

Glad your hornet got stuck there. I had one get inside my helmet just about an inch from the one in your picture that stung me and I ended up in Urgent Care last fall. I never had an allergic reaction before. Guess they don't like us invading what they consider to be their airspace.

Cliff

 

[ARKNT]

Some of those critters can have a temper. Don't make them mad.
Not bike related but several years back one stung me right between the eyes. I missed 2 days of work, the swelling got a lot better but when I returned
my co-workers still stared at me.

Arknt

 

[mikesim]

When I was a pup, I had a bumblebee who locked his trajectory on the area between the helmet and my cheek near my left temple. He commenced to showing his displeasure by stinging me. Luckily I was on a country road with little travel. By the time I got stopped and ripped my helmet off and threw it into the woods he nailed me a couple of more times. By the time I settled down and retrieved my helmet he had disappeared. I very carefully searched thru the lining and pads. When I got home I put an icepack on my left cheek area but I still had enough swelling to swell my left eye almost shut. I took a couple benedryl and after a time the swelling went down. In hindsight I should have went to the ER but at my young age I had never heard of anaphylactic shock.

Mike

 

[Phil Tarman]

In my second church in Minerva, TX, back in '64-'65, there wasps in the attic. In the summer the wasps mostly stayed outside, but they'd be in their nests during colder temps. As the heater would warm the the church, they'd come out and would land on my face, sometimes crawling under my glasses. I just ignored them, but the people in the pews didn't pay anywhere near as much attention to my sermon as they did to the wasps. I never got stung.

A few years later, when I moved to Ogden, UT, I had started riding bicycles and one day I was merging from I-84 onto I-15, a bee flew between my helmet and my glasses and stung me. I barely got home but I haven't been stung by anything since.

 

[JQL]

The Shoei NEOTECH II helmets the top vent has gaps big enough to let bugs in without killing them. Some helmets have more vanes which kill the bugs on the way in. Yes, I got a couple make their way in my Shoei, so I did this:

Doesn't help with them flying in though the front though

 

[Tuchango]

A helmet that funnels insects to your nugget: yikes.

These are hazards not taught in BRC. I’ll be riding visor down from now on, even at low speed where I previously just used the sunshade.

 

[silshooter]

About 20 years ago a blister bug nailed my nose and glasses. Went over the wind screen and the under the face shield, that was partially open for cooling. By the time I got home parts of my face was losing the top skin layer.

 

[cliffh]

About 20 years ago a blister bug nailed my nose and glasses. Went over the wind screen and the under the face shield, that was partially open for cooling. By the time I got home parts of my face was losing the top skin layer.

I live in Ohio and have never heard of a blister bug. I did live in Texas in 1968 for a while going to flight school in Fort Wolters, but never heard of them then either. They sound nasty!

Cliff

 

[mikesim]

I know they are in Missouri, about the size of a firefly. Black with yellow coloration. They are not very common though. We called 'em blister beetles.

Mike

 

[silshooter]

Blister Beetles: What to Know

Learn about blister beetles. Discover how to identify and manage blister beetle problems.

www.webmd.com

Common around hay fields.

 

[coaster]

When I was a pup, I had a bumblebee who locked his trajectory on the area between the helmet and my cheek near my left temple. He commenced to showing his displeasure by stinging me. Luckily I was on a country road with little travel. By the time I got stopped and ripped my helmet off and threw it into the woods he nailed me a couple of more times. By the time I settled down and retrieved my helmet he had disappeared. I very carefully searched thru the lining and pads. When I got home I put an icepack on my left cheek area but I still had enough swelling to swell my left eye almost shut. I took a couple benedryl and after a time the swelling went down. In hindsight I should have went to the ER but at my young age I had never heard of anaphylactic shock.

Mike

I had never heard of anaphylaactic shock until last October when I woke up in ICU and was informed that I had a allergic reaction to the contrast media used in doing a CT scan, I could have died.

 

[mikesim]

I had never heard of anaphylaactic shock until last October when I woke up in ICU and was informed that I had a allergic reaction to the contrast media used in doing a CT scan, I could have died.

My wife is a radiologic technologist and has seen this reaction occur. It is very rare but the imaging departments are prepared for such an occurence and in all but a very few instances, the patient recovers without an issue. The crazy thing about it is that you may have had the very same contrast before with no reaction and you may have the same contrast again with no reaction.... go figure..... glad everything turned out OK for you.

Mike

 

[coaster]

My wife is a radiologic technologist and has seen this reaction occur. It is very rare but the imaging departments are prepared for such an occurence and in all but a very few instances, the patient recovers without an issue. The crazy thing about it is that you may have had the very same contrast before with no reaction and you may have the same contrast again with no reaction.... go figure..... glad everything turned out OK for you.

Mike

Yes indeed I have had the CT scan with contrast a number of times in the past with no issues.

 

[Coyote Chris]

Out west, its yellow jackets, which bite and sting. In the spring, I use traps with pheramones to catch the queens. Then I switch to meat and fruit and fruitjuice. I kill thousands. Late summer, you can't eat a burger on the back deck. You don't want one in your helmet.

 

[Coyote Chris]

I think wind screens, and helmets with face shields, have lessoned my bites. Can you get epi pens OTC?
I would love an electric trap where I could watch yellow jackets fry. Oh, and don't run over an underground bumble bee nest with a lawn mower.

 

[mikesim]

Oh, and don't run over an underground bumble bee nest with a lawn mower.

Been there, done that 'cept it was yellow jackets not bumble bees . I was mowing a field on my garden tractor. I was mowing uphill when I hit the nest and the tractor wasn't fast enough to outrun 'em so I bailed. The safety switch disengaged the blade but the mower kept on going up the hill. After I outdistanced the yellow jackets I ran back and caught up with the tractor before it hit a barbed wire fence. That night, after dark, I returned to the scene of the attack with a gallon can of gasoline and flooded the hole with about a quart and lit the fuse. Problem solved!

Mike

 

[DirtFlier]

I'd always assumed that Bumblebees and Carpenter Bees were the same critter so I looked it up and discovered the truth.

Long ago, I was digging out some weeds in a flower bed and happened to disturb an inground wasp nest. When they came out of that hole they were pissed and one of them stung my left hand which started to swell in a few hours. I had to see my family doctor for that one because it certainly wasn't my normal reaction to a bee sting, which is usually nothing. I fixed that nest later!

 

[junglejim]

On one of my motorcycle trips I was camping in Alabama (I think). Not being familiar with all the plants, animals, insects, and reptiles down there I'm a bit cautious. One morning I was getting dressed and out of my tent. I was about to put on my boots which had been in the vestibule of my tent overnight. Out of caution I typed my boots upside-down and bunch of huge red ants fell out.

Then I had a flashback to an incident in Viet Nam. We were moving through a rubber tree plantation with some armored personnel carriers when I thought it was starting to rain. Turns out that the exhaust from the diesel motors which is vented upward disturbed some huge red ants. It was the ants which were falling on us not rain. Their bite was quite painful and they were everywhere. There was no way to get out of that situation quickly enough. Sort of like stopping a motorcycle and getting a bee that went up your sleeve, down your neck or into your helmet. Right now isn't quick enough.

 

[mikesim]

On one of my motorcycle trips I was camping in Alabama (I think). Not being familiar with all the plants, animals, insects, and reptiles down there I'm a bit cautious. One morning I was getting dressed and out of my tent. I was about to put on my boots which had been in the vestibule of my tent overnight. Out of caution I typed my boots upside-down and bunch of huge red ants fell out.

Then I had a flashback to an incident in Viet Nam. We were moving through a rubber tree plantation with some armored personnel carriers when I thought it was starting to rain. Turns out that the exhaust from the diesel motors which is vented upward disturbed some huge red ants. It was the ants which were falling on us not rain. Their bite was quite painful and they were everywhere. There was no way to get out of that situation quickly enough. Sort of like stopping a motorcycle and getting a bee that went up your sleeve, down your neck or into your helmet. Right now isn't quick enough.

Sounds like you ran into fire ants, or as they are called down south far aints. We don't have 'em in Missouri ...... yet....... but I read that they are on the march north. I ran into them once in Texas where I went to a backyard BBQ. I was wearing shorts and sat on the ground playing with my friends dog when they struck...... yeeouch!! I could could feel 'em crawling up my leg and were headed for the nether regions. I ran into his pool house and stripped down before (thankfully!) they reached ground zero.

Mike