Over two riding seasons, I have shared the inside of my helmet with 6 wasps/bees, all separate occasions. I've been stung 3 times. Once on the right temple, once on the underside of the right forearm, and once on the underside of the left wrist.

The stings on the arms were different wasps/bees than the helmet ones. The wrist one got me in the high plains of the Rockies while I was going over 80mph, not sure how it didn't splat before it got me. Maybe some weird air bubble I was creating. The one on the forearm got in the sleeve while I was waving to some kids on the side of the road after a rally of motorcycles had gone through their little town (I wasn't part of it, but apparently came through shortly after).

All but one of my "emergency stops" (learned from a MSF course) were due to having a wasp freaking out and crawling on my face deciding where to stick its butt needle. It's not cool watching one clinging to the inside of your face shield waving its stinger around at your eyeball either. I have a flip up helmet so once I get stopped it's easy enough to open up and let them out. I learned to stop first after I just flipped up the front of the helmet while riding and the wind really pissed it off and it got me right above & in front of the ear.

Anyone else share my bad luck with these little buggers?

* Last updated by: jason on 2/18/2009 @ 11:31 PM *

I'm stayin the hell away from you. You one unlucky dude. I'm 51...never got a bee.

Good idea, the lady SUV drivers hurl themselves at me a lot too. Just wish they would get out first FWIW only one of the two people I ride with has been stung as well...

I've eaten them, yes, eaten them, as well as took 'em up the sleeve.

Short ride to the local video rental. I'm looking through the stacks, and it feels like my shirt is snagged on a hair. I kept pulling my shirt away from my stomach, but I kept feeling the pinch. Finally pulled up my shirt and the hornet flew out. About 20 stings on my stomach. A bee hit me in the throat at about 80mph. Must've hit me stinger first cause it was DEEP!
I also had a bird get caught in the air pocket of my fairing while riding through the rockies. That thing flapped around for what seemed like minutes while I tried to swat it out and keep the bike straight. No place to turn off, and too much traffic to stop. But that's another topic. :-)

A funny thing happened to me last year. Of all places I was at the cycle shop having some service done and a bee flew around the inside of the service desk. I waved him away and he flew over where my jacket was on my helmet. I couldn't find him and shook out my jacket. Rode home with no problems as I took my jacket a sharp pain and you guessed it he stung me. Somewhat lucky I guess. As far as bees in the helmet my Shoe RF 1000 has a mesh below the chin area that keeps bugs out and wear gloves above your sleeves also keep jacket zipped up including around your neck.

I've eaten them, yes, eaten them

Haha! Revenge...

my Shoe RF 1000 has a mesh below the chin area that keeps bugs out and wear gloves above your sleeves also keep jacket zipped up including around your neck.

Yeah, my brother has mesh there too and hasn't had one in there yet. I love my flip-up helmet but might get a normal full face one with mesh if I get more bugs in there. I haven't had one in the jacket since I got gloves with gauntlets and learned to keep the zipper all the way up.

So that explains it....finally.

Don't ever get bit on your tongue or you'll write like Hub the rest of your life....

(nothin' but luv Brotha)

Back when I was younger and foolish-er, riding in shorts and a tshirt in traffic, I had a wasp go down my tshirt and crawl around. He started heading towards my shorts , so I tried to untuck my shirt but that ticked him off and he stung me in the bellybutton. OUCH

Hub,

You were taken to the hospital??? or u rode to the hospital!? If you were taken, I'm sure that they did a lot! Epinephrine shot for sure, Benadryl and Solumedrol injections probably too. It all depends on the presentation of symptoms.

If you are stable and not suffering from an anaphylactic reaction then they just might given supporting measurements, some pain, anti-inflamatories and anti-histamines (Motrin and Benadryl) by mouth on your own. BUT if you were suffering from an allergic reaction (Anaphylaxis) then the whole approach is taken differently with injections and IV meds until you show definite signs of recovery and then given something for you to continue taking at home, depending on your specific case.

About 2 years ago a bee got stuck stinger first of course on my neck, my friggin' NECK,,, since I was riding my bike, I pulled over, removed my gloves, looked on the side mirror and there it was alive and stinging, hurting like a mofo, removed the stinger miraculously easy enough and then resumed my now bummed ride. Just a few months earlier the leading guy on a group of 3 actually died, he died on the side of the rode when stung very similarly on the chest (No jacket I assume), by the time the ambulance arrived, he was gone. He was allergic to bee stings, I'm not.

If you are allergic to bee stings and medically proven so, ALWAYS carry your Epi-pen, ALWAYS, it will save your life!!! If you dont have one, ask your Dr. write you one and carry that puppy. Also, if you are allergic, every bee sting reaction only becomes WORSE than the previous so watch out.

If you are allergic to bee stings and medically proven so, ALWAYS carry your Epi-pen, ALWAYS, it will save your life!!!

For sure! I wonder if that guy might not have known he was allergic, the sting to the temple while riding was my first one.

Got the same trouble with bees - been stung so many time I lost count, good thing I'm not alergic. The worst ever was in Kansas in the late 70s ridin a Moto Guzzi 850T3 about a hundred degrees out that day and I had left Casper Wyoming at O dark thirty that morning still had my leathers zipped up, stopped at a little gas station got off the bike and the 200 year old geezzer starts comin out of the station twords me - just about then the first bee stings me in the right arm pit! then I get stung in the left arm pit, then multiple stings in the right pit again! - I'm freaken out trying to get my jacket off, zipper jams, I'm thrashen all over the place tryin to get free of the jacket, geezzer runs back into the station, comes running back out with a shotgun and starts yelling at me to get my dope crazed hippy ass out of there! I'm yelling BEES ! BEES! and he is waving the gun around looking scared and nervious. Luckily his wife had come out of the station to see what all the comotion was about and she heard me yellin BEES! - she calms the old geezzer down before he shoots me and says wait right there, I got somethin for ya. Old guy lowers the shotgun, but stays wary - I finally get my jacket off and then my shirt and scoop out about 15 bees from my arm pits (wind must have held them while I was ridin, but they were pissed when I stopped) To my amazment the old lady comes back out of the station, lifts my arm and slapps a stick of butter in my arm pit, slapps another one in the other pit and says "there you go son, you'll be OK now" Well... I gassed the bike up, paid the bill, got dressed, and proceded to my destination on the far side of Kansas (Slyvan Grove if I remember right - Guzzi rally) have to admit, the butter helped the pain, but at over 100 degrees and a few hours of riding with 2 sticks of butter in my arm pits - lets just say that the smell was unbeleiveable! I met my frends that were coming from Wisconsin at a bar and I literaly cleared the place out! I was RANK! everyone made me ride behind them to the campsite and people gave me wide berth. Luckly there was a shower there (best one I ever had!) so yea, stinging bugs suck. been there, done that....

you didn't know the bees were in your jacket? that's a lot of bees not to notice them.

I have found bees in my jacket several times - only when I stop though, been bitten several times in the arms and chest over the years after I have stopped, but let me tell you the arm pits are the worst! I have totaly lost count of the number of times I have been stung while riding, but I do remember something tagging the end of my nose once in Colorado - hurt so bad I could not see from the tears, barely made it to the side of the road, and when I looked in the mirror there was a huge stinger still throbbin in the end of my nose - damn things. My wife is deathly alergic to bee stings and we have been ridin together for 30 years. Not once has she ever been stung while we have been together - she claims I am a bee magnet and she is always safe when I am around, there may be something to that.... go figgure.

Yeah a grasshopper gave me a pretty good welt on a recent ride, looked like the ones left by a paint ball gun.

The wasps in helmet problem seems to have been solved by my new helmet, a Schuberth C3. It has chin and neck "curtains" that are there to keep wind noise out, but they do pretty well at keeping the bugs out. Now they just splat on my jacket where they belong

Funny thread. I like the one about the bird stuck in the air pocket but UCHHHHhhhhh- I hate bees. I'm keeping my chin flap on my lid.

I have not personnally been stun while riding. A guy that I used to ride with had a bee get into his helmet on a ride. he pulled over and got the bee out of his open face helmet. No big deal. A few days later when I went back to work I was told that I had pulled bee`s out of xxx`s ears three different times. I laughed.

I hope that never happens to me. I guess it might be worth a try to turn your head to the side and lift your face shield. Uhg. I just hope it never happens.

Oh, I thought you meant a Wealthy Anglo-Saxon Princess. If you find one of those in your helmet, same procedure: turn head to the side and hope she goes away.

Hee hee hee! Same goes for Women Attempting Skillful Pedal operation.

Uh oh, I think I smell some flames...

Naw, not around here.