Bug Splat

Is it just me, or are there a whole heck of a lot more bugs than even just a couple/three years ago?

I've been riding street bikes for over 45 years now, I don't remember EVER having so much bug splat to continually clean off. Serious stuff, wings and guts seemingly akin to epoxy. Like I said, I've been doing this a long time, and it seems as though just the last maybe, two years, worse this year than last, the bike is absolutely plastered with bug debris. (My helmet and jacket too.)

Global warming? Little buggers know something we don't?

I still don't quite understand the physics of bug splat on the front rim, either.

 

that would be splash off the forks.

CN

 

That's funny Fitz, I fly planes for a living and I swear I spend more time cleaning bugs off the windshield than I ever did before these last few summers. Glad it's not just me!

 

We have what is called "love bugs" two small bugs who fly around attached at the a$$. They swarm by the billions and what ever chemical that is in them will take paint right off and pit metal. Only way to get them off a windshield is with a razor blade....and they were real bad this year. Kept me from riding the bike a few times..

 

"Love Bugs" are also attracted to the "haze" of hydrocarbons and CO2 of busy highways. And - - they crawl INTO GAS CANS !!

We recently topped 400 PPM for CO2 levels - the benchmark "point of no return" of the Global Warming "experts" and handwringers.

As a bonus - plant growth rates and crop yields are measureably up, even Poison Ivy is more - *itchy*. Maybe bugs are now on an improved diet??

 

If you weren't so thin I'd say all that beer is making you a larger target. :lol:

 

Haha, love bugs aka box elder bugs I think. My wife calls em anus bugs.

 

It's the "CC" word(s) (Climate change) that most people hate or say its not happening.

 

Now, now. I'm only 2 pants sizes up from high school which was over 40 years ago. And I don't drink beer to excess; it's simply a "food group." Can't drink and ride anyway.

It IS climate change; I know it, you know it and so does anybody who's been paying attention. It's just that this particular "symptom" (sign? omen?) is genuinely noticeable over just the last couple of years. And I'm not buying "ebb and flow" things are seriously screwed up.

What's eye opening is that we are presented first-hand with this unique real-world evidence. Right there, plastered all over the front of my bike.

8O

 

The last few winters were fairly mild. The plains states didn't get a long hard-freeze last year. The weather has been good to the bugs.

 

Right. That's not it, although it certainly contributed. I've been riding on the street here in rural, semi-rural/suburban and urban SE Michigan for 45 years. It's NEVER been this bad. Sure, some years we've had more bugs, some less; some years the Mayflies are horrible, some years not so much--- that's not what I'm talking about. This is a considerable and steady increase over anything I've ever seen. Last year was worse than it had ever been in the time that I've been riding to where I started to think "hmmm... WTF" and then this year, worse yet. Noticeably so, big-time.

 

I agree with you Fitz. Most of my family have been in the timber cutting business for generations. Insect infestations have gotten horrible, and moved further north than they have ever been in living memory. There are large sections of forest that are dead from the increase in borers.

 

Almost sounds like your bike is a some kind of bug magnet. Do you have any kind of attractive (to them) lighting setup or unusual scent/s?

It would be nice if you could just file FOI request to the their managing board

 

I'm still unconvinced on either position on Global Warming. I don't consider 3 years, 5 years, or even 50 years to be significant enough when talking about world wide changes (the world is 4.54 billion years old, so that kind of time is miniscule), but at the same time the rate of changes made to the earth over the past century is greater than any previous centuries.

I'll just keep watching the science and eventually we'll see. Anecdotal isn't evidence, just anecdotal. It *may* be correct, but I'm comfortable saying "I don't know."

 

The trouble isn't with the amount of change...it's the rate of change. Adapting to a 4ºC change in average global temerature is difficult enough (the fossil record is full of species that failed to survive the last big change); surviving that much change in less than 100 years time will be a real trick.

There's plenty more than just anecdotal evidence. The underlying science explaining global warming has been accepted for over 100 years, and there is solid climate data that verifies the original theory of man-made (or accelerated) global warming.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/10/28/_10_failed_climate_change_denial_arguments.html

 

Ill take bugs over bird poop. This summer on the freeway poop hit my tank and then my jacket

 

I was riding the night before the Paris swap meet just as the sun was sitting I thought it was starting to rain. I was wrong it was bugs. Yes the bugs are getting bad.

 

Geological time is almost unfathomable, but there is no denying that something is different.

My wife and I prefer to call it Global Weirding, because there are a lot of weird things happening, weather patterns that I have never seen before, insect 'blooms', people texting while driving, etc..

To stay on topic, the elder bug population around here the last three years has been unprecedented. But meanwhile our honey bees are 'mysteriously' disappearing . . . :?

 

Agreed, tho I'm a bit behind on the science at the moment. My comment was about "there are more bugs, so it's global warming". Until an insect population increase has been confirmed and correlated via peer reviewed research, it's just anecdotal. Until then I default to the same "I don't know".

I like the Vlog Bros, good stuff!

 

it's interesting that some people are experiencing increased bug populations. this summer we had noticeably fewer biting flies and mosquitos here in the PNW. we also had the best summer we have had in over a decade.

CN

 

I think this is more what's happening than necessarily a drastic increase in population.

I'll bet it's more that they're moving in response to the changes; not necessarily increasing in numbers significantly.

That would help explain an unprecedented dropoff in some areas, as those populations also shift location.