Bees, stinging insects and other weird things in the helmet...

I know it sounds a little strange, but it's something that's sometimes on the back of my mind while I'm out riding. On more than one occasion I've had a bee hit my jacket collar and shoot straight up inside my helmet. Usually they are dazed and confused while trying to make sense of what just happened on the ledge where the visor closes. I don't know if anyone has had a close look at a bee when it has been dazed, but the stinger is usually in full auto mode like a needle on a sewing machine and the last thing I want to do is open the visor so the wind can blow that sucker into my face. None of these occurrences have resulted in me getting stung in the face, but they have created some pretty tense moments in traffic. My helmet does have a chin curtain, but it really only gets used in cooler temps to reduce air flow.

What say you? Does anyone have an interesting bee in the helmet story to share? It surely happens to someone besides myself.

This just happened to me with a hornet. All of a sudden I see it crawl up inside my faceshield. I flipped it open and he blew out but my heart skipped a few beats. I also had a yellow jacket hit my chest and fall into my crotch and sting me through my jeans in my junk. OW! I was riding behind a friend and all of a sudden he started swerving all over the road. He got stopped and a bee had stung him just below his eye. Even with full face helmets it is a concern. Just another joy of the riding experience.

Many years ago, I was riding with the visor open on my full face helmet... Only cruising about 40 mph at the time... Safety glasses on to protect my eyes, visor open for a cool breeze.

A bee hit directly between my cheek bone and helmet padding, slid in, and found its way into my ear. That thing sounded like a WWII P-51 Mustang buzzing around in that tiny space.

I have not since removed a helmet so fast... And in motion!!! SOMEHOW... I managed to get my helmet off without getting stung.

I also had a hornet find its way up my jacket sleeve... again, only cruising slowly. Unfortunately, he wasn't stunned and immediately started stinging and biting. Several slaps squished him enough to stop the stinging, but it was too late at that point.

And such is the life of a biker... :)

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Not an insect with a stinger, but I did ride though a swarm of those massive dragon flies; I was wearing a Leatt brace, which is a literal vacuum into your shirt. I had never thought how insane a dragon fly can be trapped inside your shirt will driving a speed. A bee in the face, tho. Ouch.

I rode through a swarm of yellow butterflies in the Imperial Valley, CA (farm country). I had to stop twice to clean the visor and headlight. Gooey mess!

Twice I've had bees in my bonnet. Both times I was able to stop very quickly from about 55 and pull the helmet before they woke up enough to start stinging. ...one dropped out and awoke enough to fly off before hitting the ground.

Then there are Grasshoppers on the prairie. They jump as you approach and get no higher than your shins. EVERYTHING below that gets plastered with green goo. Legs, feet and bike.

Then there were the seven year locusts along the Blue Ridge. They were in the valley but we could hear them up at turnouts on the Parkway. Down in the valley the pavement was 100% covered with a layer of them. Crunch crunch...


.

On my way to the Catskills of NY from my place in MI I had a honey bee bounce up from my collar and up
through the narrow gap in my slightly opened visor. He managed to somehow get stuck between padding
sections right next to my ear where he angrily buzzed until I could stop, remove my helmet and free him.
Lucky no stings, but boy oh boy was I nervous that he was going to get loose and get revenge.

Had several close calls with birds, the oddest being an experience of riding through a mass of hummingbirds.
They just parted like the the Red Sea did for Moses without missing a beat. Had several other close calls with
birds and other critters, but luckily no strikes. (yet)

I got tagged in the schnozz just a few weeks ago,. Holy hell that will stop you cold. It looked like I added a 3rd nostril for a few hours. Fortunately we were on a side street between "routes" doing 35, so I calmly stopped and then freaked out. 20 min earlier we were in the twisties in the ANF and I was white knuckling, so I'm sure it would have turned out differently. Crazy how those little suckers can fly up into a cracked face shield.

Almost makes me eant to drill out a shield towards the bottom for ventilation.

I took one in the mustache once, on the way to Union Grove. I stopped right away to pull the stinger out, but my face swelled up pretty bad.

About 10 years ago i was riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway & some sort of stinging insect got between my helmet and right temple. I'm unsure what sort of insect it was but it immediately proceeded to sting me. I, like others, pulled over very quickly and took my helmet off in record time. I never saw what stung me but it definitely left a good size welt.

I too was hit in the face one buy a bird the size of a sparrow. Fortunately we both made it out of the situation unscathed.

Maybe I need to change the title of the thread to include some of the other critters that find their way into, or onto, helmets???

Fortunately, I now have a modular helmet and the last time a bee shot up inside on the visor ledge I was able to quickly flip up the chin bar until I got stopped.

I caught a bee while riding Beartooth Pass...

Had visor up for some air, and was wearing safety glasses.

The bee caught me just below me right eye...

Not a good place to have an eye swell shut... luckily he missed giving me a full dose.

NFE

Not in the helmet, but both myself and my roommate have had them wind up in our jackets. Thankfully mine only stung me after I had gotten off the bike.

Roommate was not so lucky, so he was riding down the road punching himself in the gut trying to squish the little bastard. Thought he got him so he continued riding to work. Get's there, starts taking off his gear when the bastard wakes up, stings him again, and flies off.

Bastards.

When my wife first got her motorcycle license, one of the pieces of advice I gave her was to pull over before panicking if anything happened. On one of our first rides out of the neighborhood (after she completed her BRC course) she starts yelling in the intercom "shit...shit...shit!". Just looking at her, I couldn't tell anything was wrong. No swerving, panic braking, or anything. She calmly pulled to the side, lowered the kickstand, then jumped off the bike in a panic! It seems a good size spider had made its home in her helmet, and chose that moment to walk across the face shield.

I was so proud of her.

That guy made it into the visor.

My Arai is REALLY good about letting gnats and shit in so I have to lift the visor to blow them out.

I had a fly make it back into my ear.....that was an unscheduled stop

I clipped a vulture luckily it was just a glancing blow and it still nearly knocked me off of the bike

I had a Japanese hornet (these guys are big AND mean) get into my lid.....it was crawling around back of the visor and nearly gave me a heart attack (didn't drop the bike, but close)...with the visor closed I may add.

Oh and a truck that pulverized a jumping bag of stupid at about 85mph while I was passing him on the PA turnpike.....so I got to ride the next three and a half hours covered in deer guts, which was bad enough....until I stopped and got to smell everything that made it onto the engine and header.

While riding out of my neighborhood one day (with visor up) I caught a glimpse of an insect pass from right to left very close in front of my face. I didn't thing anything of it initially. After about a minute a could feel what ever it was had taken up refuge inside my helmet. I could feel it crawling around on my left cheek and back by my left ear. Definitely very annoying. I was only about a mile from the gas station where I was going to fill up. When I got there and took my helmet off, I couldn't find any trace of the insect.

By the way; I find it helpful to turn my head as far to the side as I can when trying to let bugs out. With the screen open, the wind kind of sucks them out, rather than blowing them further in.

I always assume they have crawled deep into my ear and made it into my brain when this happens.

Few years back riding on HWY29 west of Green Bay, behind the windshield on my BMW R1100RS, wearing a FF helmet with the visor up and the sun visor down. Felt something hit me on my right temple, looked in the mirror and saw a bug so I stuck my head into the windstream. Thought it was gone, but I felt little legs crawling on my brow. Reached up a gloved finger to flick it out and BAM! Stung. Pulled off at an exit ramp. My gal on back could see the stinger and flicked it out with her fingernail.

Fortunately I am not reactive to bee stings in a bad way, but I had a pretty good lump on my brow. Now, side bar, not sure if it was the bee sting. But later in the hotel, well lets just say it seemed to be a "stronger" hotel event than other times, heh, heh.