At least, if you are me and danger prone it is. For example this weekend while out on a lovely 18 mile bike ride with Dolly I was eaten bitten by a vampire bat horsefly*. It seriously effed me up!
You see, what had happened was, I was riding along all happy yesterday and feeling particularly tra-la-la-esque when I approached a water stop to await some friends who were behind me. I unclipped and hopped off Dolly to take a breather. Then, all of the sudden, like a lightning bolt, I felt a pain on the lower-outside of calf. When I looked down I saw a fly the size of a blue jay big fly latched onto my leg. As I swatted at it, it hung on tighter and I swear I heard high-pitched laughter.
I flailed around like a no-headed chicken and finally got the little bastard to let go. I looked at my leg for a split second and saw blood! But I had no time to seek first aid since this fly meant business and was not about to give up the most delicious meal it had ever tasted. It came back at me like a damn terminator. I continued with my swatting, slapping dance and am sure any folks who happened to see me while riding up thought I was practicing some sort of dance routine for So You Think You Can Dance. Either that or I was having a grand mal seizure.
Through some sort of miracle, or just because it was appalled by my dance moves, the terminator horsefly finally buzzed off. He or she (I don’t know the difference in gender of gigantic flies) angrily flew around the water coolers set up by the Park’s Department. This biting machine was obviously just re-grouping before another attack.
Finally, a few other riders approached and I warned them of the terminator fly who would, obviously, be back. One of my fellow cyclists decided to go after the monster and prevailed in killing it after an epic battle.
Triathlon training is dangerous.
*I found this on Wikipedia about the horsefly, and since it’s on Wiki, it must be true: “The bite from a large specimen is painful, especially considering the agile nature of the fly. Most short tongued (short proboscid) species of horse flies use their knife-like mandibles to rip and/or slice flesh apart. Flies with longer proboscides bite more like a mosquito, their stylet-like mouthparts piercing the host’s skin like needles.”
I HATE THOSE @#!$@!##$ my worst experience was when I accidently swallowed it when running, it bit the inside of my throat and after 5 min of coughing and hacking I shot it out my nose like a snot rocket… then it came back and bit me again before flying away!
Those FLIPPING things hurt like hell!!!!!!! Nasty awful buggers!
The insect nation likes to avenge their fallen comrades who were swallowed by open-mouthed cyclists. Either way, we get the bad end of the deal.
Ouch! I think I'm going to have to add tra-la-la-esque to my vocabulary, awesome! cautiouslyaudacios
I can handle cockroaches and potato bugs and rats, but flies gross me out SO BAD.
This is why we need cameras everywhere. Next thing you know we'll all be doing the B.o.B!
Bugs are nasty creatures, and no one is going to convince me otherwise. Glad he didn't eat you up!
I HATE horseflies…the bite hurts so freaking bad!
Annnnd you just made my decision to NOT move to Florida that much easier! GROSS!
Bring a tennis racket with you next time!
I'm so sorry! That's awful! But I have to admit, the visual image of a blue jay on your leg was kinda funny. I may or may not have laughed. Wait, are blue jays the birds that dive bomb and really hurt people? Because in that case I'll stop laughing. That ain't funny. Holy sh*t, I'm bad with animals.
Oh man, I hate horse flies. They really do hurt and are big pests. Glad you survived!
I killed 2 of those bastards yesterday with a magazine.
Damn that big blue jay! My worst fear is being stung. Period. By an ant, a bee, a fly, a jellyfish. Ugggggh. And you are so sweet. I can just picture you with that concerned expression on your face, telling all of your fellow athletes around about the big monster fly to warn them. Ha! Gotta love B.o.B.!!!!! Hope the sting is gone!