Just wanted to share a riding story - hitting a swarm of yellow jackets!

[Monk/Bob]

In another thread @Knizar mentioned how honey bees can be a problem for our paint jobs on the Spyder. That brought back an old memory that I just have to share.

I was on a cross country trip with a buddy who was riding about a quarter of a mile in front. We were on a two lane highway in wide open country in the state of Oregon, with no one else around for miles. I noticed my buddy’s brake lights came on, the road was clear, no body around, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then suddenly, I found out! We hit a swarm of yellow jackets in the middle of nowhere. There were dead and half dead yellow jackets everywhere. I was much more worried about the half dead ones that were crawling around on the bike, my jacket, helmet, they were everywhere!! We had to travel several miles to find a service station so we could get cleaned up. Luckily, neither of use got stung!

You can prepare for all kinds of things to happen on a trip, but hitting a swarm of yellow jackets was not something I would have ever considered!!

 

[Metalman]

I can't imagine riding through a swam of yellow jackets. However, on a cross country ride years ago, we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument and were soon inundated with some kind of flies. We didn't hang around long, and continued riding West. In a very few miles the windshield on my 1986 Goldwing had become opaque. They were stuck on the sheepskin seat cover, and had accumulated in my crotch (of course I was wearing pants ). What a mess.

 

[baxter]

Years ago while riding through Washington State on a nice summer day, while riding with shorts on, I felt something bite me hard up under the shorts pant leg. It was a honey bee sting, and it left a large welt for quite some time.

 

[canamjhb]

While riding over the years I've ridden through 2 different swarms of locust. Never saw it coming. Both times they were "just there". It sounded like I was in a popcorn popper with all the bugs bouncing off my helmet. Had to stop at the next rest stop to clean myself and bike up. Not the same concern about getting stung but still very messy... I hate bugs!

 

[Gwolf]

Bees and yellow jackets don't hurt real bad. Ride down a country road at 60 MPH and have a covey of quail get up from the ditch and hit two or three of them. Almost could call it a bird strike. I had to stop and get my breath back. The one that hit me in the chest knocked the breath out of me. Had big bruises on my chest and the front of my leg for a week. Good thing it was cold and I was wearing heavy leather jacket. Could have been worse.

 

[Little Blue]

I had a little adventure with the 'seven year' Locust. I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. I was lucky enough to be wearing a full face helmet.
Talk about messy and pain.

Lesson learned from then on I wear 'ATGATT'.

 

[Gwolf]

I had a little adventure with the 'seven year' Locust. I was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. I was lucky enough to be wearing a full face helmet.
Talk about messy and pain.

Lesson learned from then on I wear 'ATGATT'.

Yeah, them swarms of June Bugs along the coast hurt too.
Hard shells and they can fly.

Messy is love bugs. Millions of them, but they don't sting or hurt when they hit. They are just messy.

 

[Kromm]

Quite a few years back, I was riding through one of the Mountain passes (hwy 4, for those of you who know Calif) with my Cousins husband (Ron). We came to a small valley where a ski resort is located (Bear Valley). I reached up and opened the visor on my helmet right as we rode into a swarm of meat bees. One got me inside my helmet on my temple, and yes it hurt. Ron got stung 3 times, mostly under his collar.

 

[Gwolf]

What you are calling meat bees and yellow jackets are the same thing.
Had some run ins with them pushing fence lines and turned over trees that had huge, underground nests of them.
Laid on the couch for two days with Ziplock bags of ice on my face. Couldn't back away fast enough and finally jumped off the tractor and tried to out run them. They are fast and they will chase you a couple hundred yards, maybe more.

 

[Rdrnr]

In another thread @Knizar mentioned how honey bees can be a problem for our paint jobs on the Spyder. That brought back an old memory that I just have to share.

I was on a cross country trip with a buddy who was riding about a quarter of a mile in front. We were on a two lane highway in wide open country in the state of Oregon, with no one else around for miles. I noticed my buddy’s brake lights came on, the road was clear, no body around, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then suddenly, I found out! We hit a swarm of yellow jackets in the middle of nowhere. There were dead and half dead yellow jackets everywhere. I was much more worried about the half dead ones that were crawling around on the bike, my jacket, helmet, they were everywhere!! We had to travel several miles to find a service station so we could get cleaned up. Luckily, neither of use got stung!

You can prepare for all kinds of things to happen on a trip, but hitting a swarm of yellow jackets was not something I would have ever considered!!

Swarm flew down my shirt once. Stung 15 times. Swelled up like a balloon. Not fun.

 

[Gwolf]

I posted something not accurate on this thread. There is a lot of mis-information on the web concerning the meat bees and yellow jackets. Some information on the web is saying the yellow jacket and meat bee are the same insect. A U-Tube video even calls the meat bee a Western yellow jacket.

I was reading further and noticed some conflicting information. Of course, the AI picked up all the mis-information and is spreading it like wildfire. Did some research into the subject and asked specific questions designed to avoid confusion. The true yellow jacket is not a bee at all. They are in the wasp family. Adult Yellow Jackets do not eat meat, but they do collect meat and take it back to the nest to process into honey to feed the young hatching out. That causes a lot of confusion. Yellow Jackets will both bite you with their pincher mouth parts and also sting you with venomous toxins from a stinger in the tail. The website about their life and habits says the yellow jackets sometimes lock on to your skin with the pincher mouth parts and hold on while they hit you with the stinger in the tail. Part of this was what I noticed as conflicting information. I looked up specific information on the meat bees too, because the other website said they were stingless. That was correct, the meat bees do not have stingers or inject toxins. The meat bees are not part of the wasp family either. Yellow Jackets and Meat Bees are two different insects.

The name yellow jackets and the name meat bees are used interchangeably on a lot of websites and videos, but that is wrong. Sorry about helping spread the false information earlier, but hope I corrected it and got the real facts out.


Yellow Jackets

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Vespidae
Genus:	Vespula

Vulture Bees

Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Genus:	Trigona

​

 

[Jackhartjr]

Many years ago I was riding a bicycle really fast, a hornet hit me next to my belly button.
I thought that it got hit by a Mack truck!
Had a small hole there that didn't entirely close up for about 6 months!

 

[Monk/Bob]

Thanks for the contributions, I enjoyed reading those! I’ll post one more experience for y’all to enjoy It certainly wasn’t fun at the time.

I was riding in the Ozarks of Arkansas coming down highway 21 which has sections with lots of curves. Those keep you pretty busy and makes it next to impossible to let go of the handle bars. Riding through one of the real curvy sections, I had a big red wasp hit my glasses. I watched him move his stinger down to the edge of my glasses and tag me on my cheek!! needless to say, that hurt!! The worst part was knowing there was nothing I could do to stop it!

 

[Kromm]

With the discussion about "meat bees", I decided to do a search and found this:

'Uncovering the Truth About Meat Bees: Debunking the Myth.' https://beekeepercorner.com/what-is-a-meat-bee/

With that, all I know is they can be a real pain. They come out in droves during hunting season.