knats

[mandiam]

Does anyone else encounter an insane amount of knats on their commute? I ride 20 miles to work and along the last 5 miles (side of the river) there are PATCHES AND PATCHES of knats. other than sunglasses, any other helpful tips?! They just love to stick to my sweat. it's so nasty. LOL

[bmccasland]

Make sure your breathe through your nose and not your mouth. :cool::D:eek:

Gnats, mating love bugs, are what make summer riding interesting. ;)

[mandiam]

haha, i just lower my head and push through it!

Meh, i love my bike but i could do without the knats...i DO love the little bunnies that play frogger with me though!

[out_spokin']

Yep, keeping the mouth shut and keeping one's head so the sunglasses are level is pretty much the best advice...though when there's no other people/riders around I do try to make a game of picking my way around the clouds for the least possible impacts!

Bunnies, they are more fun. And smarter than squirrels, who will ALWAYS run the wrong way for safety!

[Eden]

Bunnies, they are more fun. And smarter than squirrels, who will ALWAYS run the wrong way for safety!

Squirrels will always run for the nearest tree - even if that means turning around and crossing back in front of danger...... Once you realize this it makes squirrel behavior relatively easy to predict.

[gnat23]

SORRY!

-- gnat! (honest!) :D

[SueMargaret]

that's what we call them in Maine...

[Tri Girl]

I ride at Lake Hefner in OKC, and they're always bad around the dam. I just avoid that part during dawn and dusk, but I don't suppose you can do that on your commute. hee hee

They sure can be annoying. Grab one of those mosquito nets and put it over your helmet. Might make cars give you an extra-wide berth ("what IS that thing on her head??"). Cars will certainly be more aware of you. ;)





Why is that your screen-name. I've always wondered...

Me, too....

[Melalvai]

Protein...
and if you accidentally swallow a lightning bug on your commute, you get a bonus. Electrolytes! :D

[chatnoire]

Protein...
and if you accidentally swallow a lightning bug on your commute, you get a bonus. Electrolytes! :D

Har har har!!

I miss lightning bugs. We don't have them here. :(

[mandiam]

I ride at Lake Hefner in OKC, and they're always bad around the dam. I just avoid that part during dawn and dusk, but I don't suppose you can do that on your commute. hee hee

They sure can be annoying. Grab one of those mosquito nets and put it over your helmet. Might make cars give you an extra-wide berth ("what IS that thing on her head??"). Cars will certainly be more aware of you. ;)




Me, too....

I can see how they would be terrible around Hefner-- have you been to tulsa? the river is the mating ground or something for those darn things. I am almost wanting to put a box around my head and play some LMFAO really loud during that 4-5 miles stretch. My commute is all trail until i get to the downtown cutoff-- so that's nice. i could MAYBE try and swing over to the ROAD and ride--maybe they aren't as bad over there!!

[OakLeaf]

Squirrels will always run for the nearest tree - even if that means turning around and crossing back in front of danger...... Once you realize this it makes squirrel behavior relatively easy to predict.

Ah, westerners. :rolleyes:

Around here it can take 20 seconds (an eternity when you're coming toward it at speed) and five or six changes of direction for a squirrel to decide exactly which one of the 200 or so trees with 20 feet of it is the nearest...


and if you accidentally swallow a lightning bug on your commute, you get a bonus. Electrolytes! :D

:D :D :D


The gnats we have in Ohio and the noseeums we have in Florida are two different things. Gnats swarm in clouds, pretty innocuous unless you get a mouth or eye full of them. Noseeums fly individually, they're half or less the size of northern gnats, and they bite mercilessly. Fortunately they don't leave the huge welts that mosquito and fly bites leave, you'll just look like you have the measles ...

[Eden]

Ah, westerners. :rolleyes:

Around here it can take 20 seconds (an eternity when you're coming toward it at speed) and five or six changes of direction for a squirrel to decide exactly which one of the 200 or so trees with 20 feet of it is the nearest...


c'mon I'm up in Puget Sound... we've got plenty of trees... (unlike high desert parts of Western WA, which yeah, it's not real hard to figure out which tree is closest) Our squirrels don't always do the quickest mental calculations... but crossing the road it's pretty easy to figure out anyway. Given trees on both sides, if they are less than 1/2 way across they will turn around and run back (in front of you). More than 1/2 way they'll continue... If only one side has trees they'll head for that side without fail, no matter how far across they are when they get startled.

Then again I actually had my first squirrel close call in a while just yesterday on my way to work... In a parking lot... with no particularly near trees... He did run in the direction of the closest ones (doubling back across my path....sigh....), but boy I thought I was going to be picking squirrel out of my fork.

[Tri Girl]

the river is the mating ground or something for those darn things. I am almost wanting to put a box around my head and play some LMFAO really loud during that 4-5 miles stretch. My commute is all trail until i get to the downtown cutoff-- so that's nice. i could MAYBE try and swing over to the ROAD and ride--maybe they aren't as bad over there!!

Ugh... the river trails are lovely there in Tulsa... except during gnat mating season. But how wonderful that it's all trail until you get to downtown. Sweet!! ;) No wonder it's miserable, tho!! I like the box on the head look- just cut some eyes out and enjoy the ride. :D

[gnat23]

Why is that your screen-name. I've always wondered...

Muirenn, it was just a nickname I got in 7th grade that stuck hard. :)



http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/funny-pictures-squirrel-logic.jpg

-- gnat! (Relevant to the squirrel discussion)

[Tri Girl]

^ THAT is funny!!

[Deborajen]

Muirenn, it was just a nickname I got in 7th grade that stuck hard. :)



http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/funny-pictures-squirrel-logic.jpg

-- gnat! (Relevant to the squirrel discussion)

Poor guy - the next picture would be PSD (poor squirrel decision). :D:D

[tzvia]

Worse than gnats, the mosquito swarms.

I was camping on Lake Havasu; thought it was great. Hot out, I went for a quick dip then forgot to reapply the deet. OOPS. Too lazy to pitch the tent, I setup my sleeping bag (to sleep ON, not IN, in the hot weather) in the bed of the truck, which has a Snugtop shell. Well, a swarm of mosquitos got into the back along with me. They were everywhere. I must have smashed 30 against the windows before declaring the back mostly safe. It looked like a crime scene in there, little blood blobs all over the windows. By morning I was covered in itchy read bumps. Everywhere. Never been back to Havasu.

I don't have the pleasure of gnats on my commutes. But I don't have the pleasure of any nature at all on my commute. Just the Los Angeles river in it's concreted glory. However, if I did, I would wear those arm coolers at the very least, and a mosquito net for sure over the helmet. I do wear a light weight material bandana around my mouth when MTBing in the spring and fall and when I vacation where there are lots of bugs. The thought of getting them in my mouth or nose is just too much. I would rather look like a dork in a bug net.

[mandiam]

so on the commute this morning, i put a kitchen towel in my jersey.

When i ran into the gnat fest, pulled out the ole towel and stuck it on my nose and mouth.

DONE.

it rocks.

And my one handed/no hands bike skills have improved.

MAYBE I'LL GET A HOSPITAL MASK TO WEAR!!

[Tri Girl]

so on the commute this morning, i put a kitchen towel in my jersey.

When i ran into the gnat fest, pulled out the ole towel and stuck it on my nose and mouth.

DONE.

it rocks.

And my one handed/no hands bike skills have improved.

MAYBE I'LL GET A HOSPITAL MASK TO WEAR!!



Woo hoo!! Whatever works, right? :)
A hospital mask isn't a bad idea... just pull it up when you get to the gnatty part. Good thinking!

BTW- if you get a second, I just sent you a PM with a question. Thanks!

[malkin]

I miss lightning bugs. We don't have them here. :(

I love them too and we don't have them either. Except that a few turned up about 50 mi south of here earlier this year. We've surely dehydrated them by now.