Has anybody noticed a huge drop on insect numbers? I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here in Oz back in the 80's and 90's if I went for a long ride out bush you had to stop every couple of hours to clean your visor as you just couldn't see. These days it no longer happens. You will get a few bugs, but nothing like it used to be. Except for the odd occasion, like a trip last year where I was sitting at 160km/h and to the left of me an entire field of locust lifted and flew accross the road in front of me. What a mess that made, I was lucky I was loaded up for a long trip and had water and cleaning cloth on board. They got into everything, my mates in front of me spooked them, and I didn't want to fall behind so I kept the throttle open. I only managed to go 500m, after that I could no longer see and had to stop.
Maybe in Oz, but my visor collected plenty yesterday and this morning here in Ontario. Bit of a late start to bug season with the late spring weather here...
Not here, but we are not all that buggy usually anyway. Not like Florida or Texas where the bugs grow giant size.
Riding through dairy farm territory on warm days is a bitch here. When riding in Manitoba, you need to put metal screens over your visor to save it from the mosquitos. Them buggers are as big as Canada Geese
Did the Australian government deport the insects as overstayers Oz? If so I think they've all moved here. During spring/summer I avoid riding around evening especially in dairy farm areas, as after about 30 minutes my visor is unpleasantly buggy and starting to smell of manure...On my high-screen ST1100, this is not a problem but on my VTR or VFR it really is.
Only if they were boat insects. There are still bugs, and more of them during evening, but nothing like the old days. I remember every fuel stop having to wash my visor and people asking how I could see through that, now not so much.
That's kinda interesting you brought that up. It does seem like there are less bugs out when I ride, especially in the evening. I remember in the eve, I used to call them suicide moths, they would attack your headlight as you roll down the road, and of course kill themselves in the process. You would have to sponge off all the moth guts at the end of the ride. Now anymore, I havent seen a one in the last few seasons...
Interesting, went on a 600km day ride a week ago and hardly any insects on my Helmet Visor and fairing, put it down to the cold Temperatures we currently have....A 4 day Snowy ride I did in March had me cleaning bugs from my Visor as normal.
I have heard there are fewer bees and that it is not a good sign, but I have not heard the same to be said of bugs in general.
I'd probably go along with that Oz VFR. They're definitely not as thick on the visor as they used to be, and it's not because I ate them all either.
